Advocate Children's Hospital, NorthShore to partner on expanding network of pediatric services
Joint operating agreement stipulates shared governance, financials which will be led by Advocate Children's President Mike Farrell.
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Illinois systems Advocate Health Care and NorthShore University HealthSystem will partner on a new integrated network to expand pediatric care in the state.
The partnership between Advocate Children's Hospital and NorthShore will create a comprehensive system of pediatric care in the Chicago area including 600 pediatricians, pediatric subspecialists and maternal fetal medicine physicians, as well as hospital and ambulatory programs and services, the systems said.
The joint operating agreement stipulates shared governance and financials which will be led by Advocate Children's President Mike Farrell and co-chief medical officers and physicians Frank Belmonte of Advocate Children's Hospital and Michael Caplan, a NorthShore physician. This is a financially integrated joint operating agreement. The assets and personnel will remain in the two parent organizations.
"This is a transformative partnership between two highly respected healthcare institutions," said Caplan, chairman of pediatrics and chief scientific officer at NorthShore and advanced neonatal care researcher. "It will enable us to capitalize on shared physician expertise and combine pediatric specialties to generate significant cost efficiencies and advance innovation to elevate quality care."
"We are coming together to collectively deliver clinical services. Patients will flow between the two organizations as needed for their respective care needs. The transition is designed to ensure seamless care delivery across both organizations," Farrell said.
The organizations will take several months to transition and integrate the two systems and establish appropriate processes. The new delivery system will launch in July 2018. Future partnerships with the University of Chicago Medicine could also be on the horizon.
Under the partnership, pediatric and maternal fetal medicine patients will have access to the services of both organizations, Farrell said.
Partnerships are an increasingly popular means of expanding care access in a particular region that are a less complicated and onerous undertaking than a full-scale merger. Adventist Health and St. Joseph Health have announced partnership plans for a new joint operating company that will integrate clinical activities and services across their facilities in Northern California.
The joint operation will include a new president and CEO, and other positions still to be determined. Adventist and St. Joseph facilities would keep their existing hospital names, licenses, capital assets and employees. The new operation will serve municipalities of Humboldt, Mendocino, Sonoma, Lake, Napa and Solano counties.
In the pediatric world, partnerships both domestic and international are expanding access to care for children. Children's Hospital of Philadelphia recently made official a long-standing informal agreement with the United Arab Emirates with the signing of a medical services agreement to provide expert medical care for children in the UAE.
To date, the country only has one one children's hospital, Al Jalila Children's, which just opened last fall. CHOP physicians travel to the UAE to work with physicians there and provide often-complex clinical services and at least one UAE resident comes to train at CHOP through the national residency match program.
Twitter: @BethJSanborn
Email the writer: beth.sanborn@himssmedia.com
