On Oct. 1, Ingalls Memorial Hospital and University of Chicago Medicine will celebrate the first year of a partnership that has expanded services and medical staff expertise for residents of the South Suburbs.
On Oct. 1, Ingalls Memorial Hospital and University of Chicago Medicine will celebrate the first year of a partnership that has expanded services and medical staff expertise for residents of the South Suburbs.
Ingalls Memorial, founded 94 years ago in Harvey, today has additional facilities in six locations, including Flossmoor. The joint venture has been good for both institutions, said Sharon O’Keefe, incoming president of the University of Chicago Medical Center.
On Sept. 14, O’Keefe joined administrators and staff from the two facilities as a new logo for the joint partnership was unveiled. At the top of the mark is “At the Forefront” as a brand promise. The University of Chicago Medicine will be known as UChicago Medicine, with Ingalls Memorial identified under that name.
UChicago Medicine comprises the University of Chicago Medical Center, Biological Sciences Division and Pritzker School of Medicine.
“Our long-term goal is to be clinically and operationally integrated so that patients can easily move between facilities and doctors to get care at the right place at the right time,” O’Keefe told the crowd of about 50 people gathered for the logo unveiling at Ingalls’ Flossmoor facility at 19550 Governors Highway.
She said between October 2016 and May 2017, UChicago Medicine referred nearly 500 patients to Ingalls for rehabilitation, home care and other services, and Ingalls had referred nearly the same number of patients to UChicago Medicine for more complex care.
Ingalls President and CEO Kurt Johnson said those are examples of how the merger is providing patients at Ingalls, a community-based hospital, with care at a world-class medical center. And locally, patients are able to visit UChicago Medicine physicians who now make regularly scheduled visits at Ingalls’ facilities.
The partnership will allow for additional future partnerships.
Johnson is excited to be able to expand Ingalls care later this year when UChicago Medicine psychiatric resident fellows begin rotations at Ingalls, and he anticipates the start of outpatient services with a congestive heart failure clinic that will be developed with UChicago Medicine staff expertise.