University of Chicago Medicine announced Wednesday that it plans to open its new emergency department in January and begin offering trauma services long absent from Chicago's South Side in May.

The opening and new services follow years of campaigning by activists for urgent, high-level medical care on the South Side which hasn't had such care since Michael Reese Hospital in Bronzeville closed its trauma center in 1991.

The University of Chicago emergency department is slated to open Jan. 8. Trauma services, which start May 1, will include care for patients with life-threatening injuries from car accidents, burns, serious falls and gunshot wounds. Those dates are pending approval from the Illinois Department of Public Health.

The Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board unanimously approved plans for University of Chicago Medicine's project last year, and construction on the $43 million emergency department project began last fall.

The new emergency department, which is being built from a converted parking garage, will be 76 percent larger than the current one. It will include four trauma bays for treating patients, private patient rooms rather than spaces divided by curtains, and separate entrances for emergency medical service workers and patients who arrive on their own.

University of Chicago Medicine also plans to add a dedicated cancer hospital to its University of Chicago Medical Center campus. The overall project, including the expanded emergency department, is expected to cost $269 million and add 188 beds.

Earlier this year, University of Chicago Medicine hired Dr. Selwyn Rogers, from the University of Texas Medical Branch, as founding director of the trauma center. So far, University of Chicago Medicine has also recruited five of six additional trauma surgeons.

lschencker@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @lschencker

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University of Chicago Medicine's new emergency department to open in January - Chicago Tribune