Gottlieb, LUHS join forces
IN A NEW AND MUTUALLY BENEFICIAL ARRANGEMENT, GOTTLIEB HEALTH Resources in Melrose Park will become part of the Loyola University Health System (LUHS). Pending state approval, Gottlieb Memorial Hospital will remain a full-service community hospital, and LUHS will assume governance of all other Gottlieb entities, including the 250-bed hospital, the Gottlieb Health & Fitness Center, and the Marjorie G. Weinberg Cancer Care Center, all located on the Melrose Park campus.
"This agreement represents the coming together of two respected not-for-profit institutions that complement each other, the sum of which will greatly enhance health care in the area," says Paul K. Whelton, MB, MD, MSc, CEO of LUHS. The agreement helps address critical capacity issues for the 570-licensed-bed Loyola University Hospital and LUHS’s outpatient clinics throughout the western suburbs. The agreement also will allow patients at Gottlieb to participate in clinical trials conducted at Loyola and access the cutting-edge care that is the hallmark of a major teaching hospital.
Loyola will relocate most of its general obstetrics and general gynecology services and its orthopaedic joint program to the Gottlieb campus, which will be known as Loyola University Health System at Gottlieb, once the transaction is finalized. The two hospitals’ medical staffs will remain separate, and there are no plans to eliminate positions at either facility as a result of this transaction. "Together, we can optimize health care and clinical innovations for the thousands of individuals who turn to us for care each year," says John Morgan, president of Gottlieb Memorial Hospital. Whelton hopes that the agreement will receive state approval by early summer.