Casino magnate Neil Bluhm and his family’s foundation are donating another $50 million to Northwestern Medicine to further expand and support cardiac care.
The money will go toward a Northwestern cardiovascular institute that already bears Bluhm’s name: the Northwestern Medicine Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute.
With the new gift, Bluhm will have donated $135 million over the last two decades to the institute, which started in 2005 with an initial $10 million gift from Bluhm. The institute provides care across 18 locations in the Chicago area.
“It really is a vote of confidence in what we did for the last 20 years and to help us prepare for the next 20,” said Dr. Patrick McCarthy, executive director of the Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute, of the money.
Specifically, the new dollars will go toward technology, research, recruiting physician leaders and additional fellowships to train physicians.
The money will also be used to increase the size of the Bluhm Heart Hospital, which now occupies four floors of Northwestern Memorial Hospital’s Galter Pavilion downtown. The heart hospital, which is part of the institute, opened in 2022 after a $45 million gift from Bluhm.
Northwestern is hoping to build a new tower with more than 200 beds on the campus of Northwestern Memorial in Streeterville. If beds are moved to that new tower, that could free up more space in the Galter Pavilion to expand the heart hospital, McCarthy said. Northwestern still needs state approval to construct the new tower.
“As much as we try to keep up with the demand for access, we’re aware that people are waiting too long to try to get in and so what we’re trying to do is hire enough people, create enough space, open enough slots, have enough (operating rooms), have all the staff that we need so we can keep up with it,” McCarthy said.
The money will also allow Northwestern to continue to drive discovery, said Dr. Clyde Yancy, chief of cardiology at the institute.
“We still face a scenario where conditions of the heart are going to affect Americans across the board more prominently than any other condition,” Yancy said. “We can’t rest, even though we’ve come a long way with heart disease. We can’t relax because there are still unanswered questions.”
Much has changed in cardiac care over the last 20 years and more changes will undoubtedly follow, McCarthy said, citing the growth of artificial intelligence as an example of how the field is evolving.
Much has also changed at Northwestern over the last 20 years.
In 2005, when the institute began, Northwestern Medicine only had one hospital — its downtown location. Now it has 11 hospitals.
Since 2005, the institute has grown dramatically. In its first year, the institute treated about 1,000 patients. Last year, it treated more than 48,000 patients.
The Bluhm Heart Hospital on Feb. 10, 2026, at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)
“My main goal has always been to ensure that anyone who needs world-class heart care can get it,” Bluhm said in a Northwestern Medicine news release. “We made this possible 20 years ago in downtown Chicago and built on that when we expanded care into the suburbs. It has been one of my greatest honors to watch this program touch so many lives and I’m humbled to continue supporting this mission.”
Bluhm, a native Chicagoan, first met McCarthy when McCarthy was at the Cleveland Clinic, Bluhm said in a video posted on Northwestern’s website last year marking the 20th anniversary of the institute.
Bluhm had been experiencing pain when he exercised, and a friend suggested he call McCarthy. Bluhm recovered after having stents placed. Later, he was part of Northwestern’s effort to recruit McCarthy to Northwestern, he said.
“I felt that it would be important to the city that we have a great heart hospital instead of a situation where the wealthy were going to the Cleveland Clinic and everybody else was not getting as great treatment,” Bluhm said in the video.
Bluhm co-founded JMB Realty and is chairman of Rush Street Gaming and Rush Street Interactive.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/02/10/neil-bluhm-northwestern-heart-care/
