When Centegra Health System's third hospital opens in Huntley, Ill., in August, the sickest kids will be treated by doctors from Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago.
Centegra, a Crystal Lake, Ill.-based two-hospital network that is in talks to join Lurie affiliate Northwestern Medicine, will consolidate its inpatient pediatric services at Huntley when the new hospital opens, Centegra spokeswoman Michelle Green said.
This is the 16th hospital partnership for Lurie, a prominent specialty facility in Chicago's Streeterville area that has forged agreements with various hospitals to staff their pediatric services. Partners include Northwest Community Hospital in northwest suburban Arlington Heights, Mercy Hospital & Medical Center in Bronzeville on Chicago's Near South Side, and Silver Cross Hospital in southwest suburban New Lenox.
For Centegra, the partnership brings the cache and expertise of Lurie to a community hospital, allowing patients to stay close to home. It also acts as a feeder system for patients to come to Lurie's downtown facility when they need a higher level of care.
Lurie will provide 24-hour pediatric hospitalist coverage at Centegra Huntley. A hospitalist is an expert in hospital-based medicine who monitors patients around the clock. The Lurie doctors will coordinate medical care for patients with their primary care physicians and also help with pediatric emergencies in the Centegra ER.
“Children should have access to the best pediatric care without having to leave their community,” Centegra CEO Michael Eesley said in a statement announcing the agreement.
For nearly a year, Lurie cardiologists have been interpreting tests, such as echocardiograms, for Centegra pediatric patients.
Just last month, Centegra and Northwestern, an academic health system, announced they had signed a letter of intent to affiliate. The deal would be the fourth in roughly two years for rapidly growing Northwestern and create a nine-hospital system (10 when Centegra's Huntley hospital opens) stretching from 70 miles west of the loop north to McHenry near the Wisconsin border.
Lurie Children's is the pediatric training site for Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine.
"Lurie Children's doctors to staff Centegra's new hospital" originally appeared in Crain's Chicago Business.
