KishHealth System to merge with Northwestern Memorial HealthCare

DeKALB – KishHealth System will become part of Northwestern Memorial HealthCare, the systems announced Tuesday.

The agreement was approved unanimously by the boards of both health systems this week, but the deal requires approval by the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board. The deal, which grew out of talks that started in May, would create a six-hospital system that stretches from Chicago to Sandwich.

KishHealth System’s board voted Wednesday morning, Chairman Tom Matya said.

“We think this is extremely positive,” he said. “To be sought after by Northwestern is a feather in the cap and testament to what our administrators, employees, physicians and community has built here.”

Joining Northwestern Memorial will help fill clinical service gaps in DeKalb County by bringing top specialists to the area, Matya said.

“We are incredibly pleased to have reached this milestone with Northwestern Medicine; our two organizations share many values and a common emphasis on keeping patients at the center of all we do,” KishHealth System President and CEO Kevin Poorten said in a statement. “By joining Northwestern Medicine, we will be able to bring an expansion of resources and opportunities for advanced care to the communities we serve.”

The agreement extends the reach of Northwestern Memorial and provides KishHealth with the resources of the much larger Chicago-based academic health system.

Northwestern Memorial stands to gain market share and a new pipeline for patient referrals to its specialists. KishHealth could get an injection of capital in addition to better access to advanced specialists, experts have said.

The details of how KishHealth System will be folded into Northwestern Memorial still are being discussed, said Theresa Komitas, spokeswoman for KishHealth System. Poorten will remain president of KishHealth System after it becomes part of Northwestern Medicine.

“During our discussions with KishHealth System, we were impressed with their desire to expand clinical innovation and breakthrough research to patients in DeKalb County and northern Illinois,” Northwestern Memorial HealthCare President and CEO Dean Harrison said in a statement.

The two groups will submit an application to the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board in the next several weeks, said Christopher King, spokesman for Northwestern Medicine. That application could provide additional details about terms of the deal.

There likely would be a chance for public comment on the proposal before it is considered by the review board, which could review the deal this fall, King said.

OPTIONAL TRIM

Northwestern Memorial HealthCare is the parent corporation of the Northwestern Memorial Hospital, which is one of the nation’s top academic medical center hospitals and the primary teaching hospital for Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. U.S. News and World Report in 2014 named it among the top 10 hospitals in the country. Northwestern Memorial has more than 60 sites around the Chicago area, including four hospitals with 1,600 inpatient beds. It has 25,000 employees and records about 2.4 million outpatient visits a year.

KishHealth has facilities in DeKalb, Sandwich, Sycamore, Plano, Genoa, Hampshire, Waterman and Rochelle and has been adding to its roster of employee physicians. Earlier this year, KishHealth bought the DeKalb Clinic and multiplied the size of its physician group from about 50 to about 200. It operates the 98-bed Kishwaukee Hospital in DeKalb and Valley West Hospital, a much smaller critical access hospital in Sandwich. KishHealth had 1,466 employees and 228,049 outpatient visits, according to its 2013 annual report.