McCormick Place – Alternative Care Facility for COVID-19 Patients

Level-1 engineered and deployed emergency healthcare technology systems for a 3,000-bed COVID-19 field hospital in under five days.

In spring 2020, as COVID-19 surged across the country, the City of Chicago and State of Illinois mobilized to transform McCormick Place, the largest convention center in North America, into a 3,000-bed field hospital in a matter of days. The goal was urgent and unprecedented: to relieve pressure on regional hospitals by accommodating low-acuity COVID patients in a safe, secure, and fully functional healthcare environment. The entire facility needed to be designed, built, and operational in just one week. 

Level-1 Global Solutions was selected by city and state leaders to design and implement the emergency technology systems powering this critical infrastructure. Our role included engineering the communications backbone, security systems, and care coordination tools necessary to make a pop-up hospital operate like a permanent one, from HIPAA-compliant data systems to resilient connectivity between staff, patients, and hospital command. 

We worked closely with project leads JLL, AECOM, and FH Paschen to bring this urgent healthcare response online within five days. One of our key responsibilities was to assist in the extension of the EPIC electronic medical record (EMR) system from Rush University Medical Center to McCormick Place. EPIC, which stands for “Electronic Patient Information Center”, is one of the most widely used EMR systems in the country and formed the foundation for care coordination and patient tracking at this temporary facility. 

Level-1’s role included assistance in extending EPIC’s secure connectivity into the new care environment, ensuring that front-line healthcare providers had real-time access to patient records, medications, diagnostic history, and care notes. This required complex data integration, secure networking, and rapid provisioning of clinician workstations.

Leveraging over two decades of healthcare IT experience, our team moved quickly to assess the facility’s infrastructure, identify critical gaps, and implement technology solutions that met hospital-grade standards for privacy, interoperability, and performance. What would normally take months in a conventional medical setting was delivered in under five days. 

What We Delivered 

• Rapid assessment and design of low-voltage infrastructure for a 3,000-bed emergency care facility 
• Installation of secure patient intake systems, nurse call integration, and clinician workstations 
• Deployment of HIPAA-compliant networks to protect sensitive patient data 
• Deployment of technology infrastructure and telecommunications for all the nursing stations in the facility 
• Custom network architecture to mirror the reliability and performance of permanent hospitals 
• Unified communications systems to support coordinated care and remote diagnostics 
• Integration and extension of RUSH Medical Center’s EPIC system into the McCormick Place Alternative Care Site, including secure EMR access for all clinician endpoints 
• Collaboration with JLL, AECOM, FH Paschen, the Mayor’s office, city officials, and healthcare leaders under emergency timelines 

Level-1’s contribution to McCormick Place helped build one of the country’s largest temporary healthcare facilities in response to the pandemic. From seamless EMR access to reliable communications and device connectivity, our work made it possible for front-line medical teams to operate under extraordinary circumstances. The project remains a powerful example of technology deployed in the service of public health and what rapid, coordinated action can accomplish during a crisis.