Advocate, NorthShore partner to expand pediatric care in Chicago area

Advocate Children’s Hospital and NorthShore University HealthSystem will partner to expand pediatric care in the Chicago area.

The move comes a year after Downers Grove-based Advocate Health Care, which includes the children’s hospital, and Evanston-based NorthShore walked away from a merger that would have made the combination one of the largest not-for-profit hospital networks in the nation, scrapping the plan after federal officials raised antitrust concerns. Advocate merged with Aurora Health Care in Milwaukee last month.

NorthShore’s four-hospital network isn’t well-known for treating children. Advocate, on the other hand, has a pediatric hospital with two campuses.

The partnership will include more than 600 pediatricians, pediatric subspecialists and maternal fetal medicine doctors from the two systems, as well as hospital and outpatient programs and services in the ninecounty region, said Mike Farrell, president of Advocate Children’s Hospital.

The joint program calls for shared governance and financials with a single leadership team and a board of directors between organizations. Farrell will head the leadership team with co-chief medical officers, Dr. Frank Belmonte of Advocate Children’s and Dr. Michael Caplan of NorthShore.

The health systems will build the program over the next few months and launch the partnership in July.