Downtown Indianapolis saw the opening of its first completely new hospital in over 40 years this weekend. December 7th marked the last day of operations for the more than 150-year-old Wishard Hospital and the inaugural day for Sidney & Lois Eskenazi Hospital, part of the new Eskenazi Health campus and one of the nation’s largest safety net health systems. The 1.2 million-square-foot public hospital includes 315 inpatients beds, 19 operating rooms, four interventional labs, 12 labor and delivery rooms, a 90-bed emergency department with a 20-bed clinical decision unit, more than 200 ambulatory clinical exam rooms, and an adult Level I trauma center (there are only two other Level I trauma centers in Indiana – IU Health Methodist Hospital and Riley Hospital for Children at IU Health). Eskenazi Hospital is adjoined to Eskenazi Health Outpatient Care Center, which opened today and includes approximately 110 exam rooms.

Some “fun facts” about the new Eskenazi campus:

1. Campus construction exceeded its goals for minority-, women and veteran-owned business participation.
2. 90 percent of construction contracts went to Indiana firms, including nearly 400 companies in the Indianapolis/Marion county metropolitan area.
3. The Outpatient Care Center features a sky farm on its rooftop.
4. The campus also features an extensive art collection (60 percent from local Indiana artists).
5. The campus is anticipated to achieve Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Silver certification from the U.S. Green Building Council.