Feinberg School of Medicine students and Lake County residents may soon be seeing a lot more of each other once Lake Forest Hospital merges with Northwestern Memorial HealthCare, the parent company of Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
The merger was announced in a press release on Tuesday by representatives from both institutions. The deal will not be finalized for several months, as it first has to be reviewed by the appropriate federal and state entities.
A letter of intent, announced last November, bound both institutions to confidentiality about the potential affiliation until it was solidified, said Kris Lathan, director of media relations at Northwestern Memorial.
Lake Forest Hospital has declined to give details about the merger at this time because it is not yet part of Northwestern Memorial HealthCare.
“It’s too early to discuss because until we are in receipt of the state and federal approvals, we are not in the system,” said Jane Griffin, vice president of philanthropy and marketing at Lake Forest Hospital. “Once that occurs at the end of this year, we’ll be able to go about planning the integrated system.”
The integrated system would most likely include selected training experiences for Feinberg students at Lake Forest Hospital, wrote Feinberg Dean J. Larry Jameson, in an e-mail Friday. Jameson, who is also Feinberg’s vice president for medical affairs, wrote that one example of how the students could potentially become involved at Lake Forest is through family medicine.
“Lake Forest patients will ultimately have greater access to specialty and tertiary care, as well as some services that are not currently available at Lake Forest Hospital,” the Feinberg dean wrote.
The ability to offer better access to care for residents in both Lake and Cook counties is an exciting prospect, Lathan said.
“We offer a lot of specialty surgical procedures (that Lake Forest Hospital) doesn’t right now which is a benefit to the patients,” she said. “We’ll look at how we can replicate our downtown center to Lake Forest.”
First-year Feinberg student Mike Jung said the move will benefit patients in both Cook and Lake counties.
“I think it’s a good move because I was an economics major, and I know that the North Shore area doesn’t have too much competition,” Jung said. “It’ll be good for people in the area to have an additional option for health care.”
Jung added that he was excited to see what opportunities the affiliation would present for him and his peers; as medical students, they are always looking for more residencies and clerkships.
“We’ll get more exposure as medical students because there will be more opportunities with the acquisition,” he said.
The affiliation is not a purchase of Lake Forest Hospital by Northwestern Memorial, Lathan said. Rather, it is an agreement to fully integrate the two institutions. As part of that agreement, Northwestern Memorial has committed to either refurbish or replace the hospital facility currently on the Lake Forest campus.
“Once they become us, they’re part of us,” she said. “The revenue generated goes into the same pot.”
