Northwestern Memorial Hospital plans to continue expanding by opening five new clinical offices in the northern suburban area, including an Evanston location on Maple Avenue that will open in November.
The new offices will bring about 100 primary care physicians and 20 specialists to the North Shore. The doctors will be members of the Northwestern Memorial Physicians Group and the Northwestern Medical Faculty Foundation. They will also be appointed to faculty status at Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine.
The planned clinical offices are part of an effort by the Northwestern Memorial Hospital network to bridge the gap between its main hospital on NU’s Chicago Campus and its affiliate location at Northwestern Lake Forest Hospital, about 30 minutes north of Evanston in Lake Forest, Ill.
According to a March 12 news release,Dean Harrison, president and CEO of Northwestern Memorial HealthCare, said the new offices will better serve Northwestern Memorial’s clients living in the North Shore.
“Many of our patients come from northern communities and, up to now, they have had to travel longer distances for routine care,” Harrison said in the release. “Our expansion brings the Northwestern care they seek closer to where they live or work, making access much more convenient.”
Evanston is the home of NorthShore University HealthSystem, which has four hospitals in the area. A NorthShore spokesman declined to comment on the possiblity of increased competition with Northwestern Memorial due to the new suburban offices.
The expansion may eventually result in additional opportunities for NU’s Feinberg School of Medicine students to gain experience, said Dr. John Thomas, senior associate dean for medical education.
“Students at some point in time, not immediately, might have access to an elective experience at one of these sites, but at this point in time we really don’t know what the availability and the capacity would be for those,” Thomas said Tuesday.
Currently, Feinberg students receive the majority of their faculty-supervised clinical training at teaching hospitals including Northwestern Memorial, Children’s Memorial Hospital and the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago.
In addition to the office in Evanston, Northwestern Memorial plans to open offices in Highland Park, Grayslake, Deerfield and Glenview by early 2013.
– Susan Du
