Creighton University Medical Center closes its doors for good

Creighton University Medical Center shuttered its doors for good on Friday morning

The old Creighton University Medical Center (CUMC) formerly known as St. Joseph Hospital, at 601 North 30th Street near the Creighton University campus officially shut its doors for good yesterday on Friday June 9, 2017, at 7 a.m.

Out with the old, in with the new: CHI Bergan Mercy Medical Center will take
over all of CUMC's responsibilities as a Level-1 Trauma Center and academic
medical center for the Creighton University School of Medicine

At the same time, two new medical centers run by CHI Health and the Creighton University School of Medicine will open, ensuring what is hoped to be a smooth transition and seemless continuity of care for CUMC patients.

A smaller, scaled-down CHI Health University Campus at 2412 Cuming Street will serve as a community health center and ER six blocks away from the old CUMC facilities, while a full service Level-1 Trauma center at Bergan Mercy Medical Center nine miles away will serve as the new academic medical center for Creighton University's School of Medicine.

The outdated facilities of the old CUMC buildings first opened its doors back in December 18, 1977, nearly forty years ago, as St. Joseph Hospital on 30th and Cuming Streets and was redubbed as Creighton University Medical Center in 2002 when it officially became the academic medical center for Creighton University's School of Medicine.

Over the years, the aging teaching hospital struggled to maintain its Level-1 Trauma certification as it got in trouble with state health care regulators for deficiencies in its staffing. Back on October 21, 2014, the state's Department of Health & Human Services (DHHS) cited the hospital for major safety deficiencies in four different areas of patient care and denied its application for Level-1 Trauma designation.

Creighton University's new CHI University Campus Medical Center offers only
scaled-down and downgraded medical services compared to the old CUMC

While the hospital eventually did get its Level-1 Trauma certification back, CHI and Creighton Univesity officials, who together ran the hospital and medical school at CUMC, decided to move the academic medical center to the more modern Bergan Mercy Medical Center facilities nine miles away after determining it would cost more to renovate, modernize, and expand the current aging facilities than to move to Bergan Mercy in order to maintain its Level-1 Trauma rating.

Between 2014-2017, Bergan Mercy had undergone a major three-part, $140 million expansion, renovation and consolidation project to eventually take over most (if not all) of the duties and responsibilities from old CUMC facilities.

A scaled-down community health center dubbed as the new CHI Health University Campus will serve as a stop-gap measure for patients in the area who find Bergan Mercy is too far away for their primary health care needs. Health care staff will also be able to stabilize patients with more serious medical conditions in the ER of the down-graded community center before transporting them to Bergan Mercy.

CUMC handled 63 percent of Omaha's trauma case load, for penetrating serious wounds such as gunshots and stab wounds. It's not known how the move will affect trauma patients in the Omaha area.

CUMC is also associated with the city's most darkest crimes, such as the quadruple
murders known as the 'Creighton killings'

The old CUMC was also associated with convicted serial killer, Dr. Anthony Garcia, when he was a pathology resident at Creighton University's pathology residency program back in 2001. Garcia murdered four people closely associated with the pathology department's faculty in what has been called the "Creighton killings" to get back at his former superiors who fired him after he spent only one year at the program.

Dr. Garcia is currently awaiting a sentencing hearing to see if he will get death penalty for the murders.



There been a lot of history at the old CUMC. Now that will all be a fading memory for many residents of Omaha.

NuStyle Development, who have bought the land where the CUMC facilities sits on, plans to convert the site into a 731-unit apartment and shopping complex called the Landing.

References:

• Lexington Herald Leader—Omaha hospital closes doors, opens emergency room nearby (6/8/17)
• Omaha World Herald—Timeline of Creighton University Medical Center (6/7/17)
• WOWT—CHI Creighton Hospital in the final stages of shutting down (6/7/17)
• KETV—Two days until close for Creighton University Medical Center (6/7/17), with video
• WOWT—Creighton University Medical Center focused on new beginning (6/5/17), with video
• Medicine of Omaha—Opening of new CUMC University Campus downgrades trauma services of the old Creighton University hospital after struggling to maintain its trauma rating for years (1/14/17)
• Medicine of Omaha—Jury finds Dr. Anthony Garcia guilty on four counts of first-degree murder (10/26/16)