Northwestern Memorial HealthCare and 136-bed Lake Forest (Ill.) Hospital have signed a letter of intent to negotiate toward an affiliation that would form an integrated delivery system reaching from 787-bed Northwestern Memorial Hospital in downtown Chicago into the city’s northern suburbs.
In a news release announcing the potential partnership, the organizations said they would not disclose any further details “due to the confidential nature of the discussions.”
In January, Lake Forest Hospital made a public overture for a relationship with 215-bed Condell Medical Center in Libertyville, another northern Chicago suburb, but Condell opted to join Advocate Health Care, the region’s largest system, in a deal expected to close at the end of 2008. In May, NorthShore University HealthSystem—a three-campus system based in Evanston, Ill., until recently known as Evanston Northwestern Healthcare—announced plans to acquire 229-bed Rush North Shore Medical Center in Skokie, Ill., further consolidating the market’s hospitals among larger players. Northwestern Memorial is the primary teaching hospital of Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. -- by Gregg Blesch