DuPage Medical Group, Edward Hospital Announce Ground-breaking Joint Venture

NAPERVILLE, Ill., May 10, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Two of Illinois' top health care providers, DuPage Medical Group (DMG) and Edward Hospital, have joined forces to develop a ground-breaking joint venture designed to improve quality of health care in the western and southwestern suburbs of Chicago.

DMG and Edward announced today the creation of a new entity – Illinois Health Partners – to jointly manage the care of nearly 100,000 HMO patients in the western and southwestern suburbs.  The partnership extends beyond HMO patients as the two providers will also work closely to develop clinical initiatives which improve the quality of health care, control costs and improve the patient experience throughout the region.  

The communities served by DMG and Edward include 1.7 million Illinois residents across four counties.  

While DMG and Edward remain independent, the joint venture brings together DMG, one of  the largest and most successful physician-owned multi-specialty groups in the Midwest, and Edward, the eighth largest hospital in the Chicago area and one of the most preferred hospitals in Illinois for high-level services such as heart care.

Mike Kasper, CEO of DuPage Medical Group based in Downers Grove, said, "This relationship will be focused on improving quality, efficiency and access to care for our patients – with physicians driving the process.  We chose Edward as our partner because of its excellent quality, strong reputation and long history of partnering with physicians."

"This partnership with DMG means seamlessly coordinated care for residents in this region, and that leads to better patient outcomes and healthier communities," said Pam Davis, President & CEO of Edward Hospital & Health Services based in Naperville. "The joint venture is a community-based solution to the challenges of continuing to improve the quality of health care in this region. Collaborating with DuPage Medical Group is a natural for us since we know that physicians who practice in our service area are our best partners in this work."

In the coming months, DMG and Edward will finalize details of Illinois Health Partners.  HMO patients currently served by DuPage Medical Group and Edward will hear directly from their respective providers as changes are made.

A partnership to improve the patient experience

This alliance between Edward and DMG calls for working together to establish the best practice in clinical care across all care settings, as well as collaborating to become more efficient in how care is administered.  Progress in these efforts will be measured and tracked using quality and outcomes data.

"We expect this to be a true collaboration where the goal is to deliver the best value in health care," said DMG's Kasper.  "This means high quality, cost effective health care with expanded patient access and better patient outcomes."

Edward's Davis said, "Working together will enable us to achieve higher quality and greater cost-effectiveness than we could accomplish on our own.  For instance, the physicians involved in this collaboration will collect and share specific quality performance measures for each physician – primary care and specialists.  That will result in concrete improvement of that performance leading directly to better, more consistent patient care."

SOURCE Edward Hospital