News
Kewanee Hospital Signs Letter of Intent to Join OSF Healthcare System
November 06, 2012
Kewanee Hospital (KH) has signed aLetter of Intent to affiliate with OSF HealthCare, one of the largest integrated systems in Illinois. The partnership with OSF HealthCare would give Kewanee and the surrounding community access to more high-quality specialty care, close to home. Kewanee Hospital has collaborated with OSF HealthCare for many years, and the two organizations share similar missions of “improving the health and care of those we serve.”
“Kewanee Hospital’s potential affiliation with OSF HealthCare is great news for the communities served by Kewanee Hospital,” said Gary Pheiffer, Chair of the KH Board of Trustees. “It will ensure local access to quality health care for many years to come. This potential partnership also will allow Kewanee Hospital to grow and offer a wider variety of specialty services while improving our ability to recruit new doctors, advance practice nurses, and other medical professionals.”
OSF Healthcare System CEO Kevin Schoeplein confirms this sentiment and explains the rationale behind the possible affiliation. “OSF and Kewanee Hospital share a united mission and vision for the future: to ensure that the tradition of high quality health care is enhanced and expanded in Kewanee and the surrounding communities.”
Kewanee Hospital, like many stand-alone, private not-for-profit hospitals has been evaluating their future for several years. With the onset of Accountable Care Organizations, greater technology demands and the need for close collaboration, the number of stand-alone organizations is dwindling.
Lynn Fulton, CEO of Kewanee Hospital explains; “the board of trustees and the executive team began a strategic planning process in late 2010 to discuss the future of health care in light of reform. Our goal was to identify the path that would best carry the Hospital through the changing landscape and ensure long-term access to care for the community. After careful analysis and deliberation, we concluded that affiliation with a larger partner was the best mechanism to provide long-term viability, collaboration and enhancement of services. As a result, the Hospital looked at potential partnerships with many hospital and specialty groups, both regionally and nationally, with OSF HealthCare topping our list.”
Pheiffer further added, “Kewanee Hospital is financially strong. We just finished FYE 2012 with a positive operating margin, have successfully added orthopedic services, and are looking to a bright 2013. Because of that, it is a great time to partner with OSF, one of the largest integrated systems in Illinois.”
During the next few months, each organization will spend time learning more about each other to validate the benefits to the community. This process is called “due diligence.” A decision on whether to move forward is expected later next year. Once the organizations have completed their due diligence and finalized the definitive agreement, then a detailed timeline for the transition can be developed.
Pictured left to right at a press conference held on Tuesday, November 6, 2012, are Lynn Fulton, CEO, Kewanee Hospital; Gary Pheiffer, Chairman of the Board, Kewanee Hospital; and Kevin Schoepline, CEO, OSF Healthcare System.
Kewanee Hospital employees received the news of the potential affiliation at an Employee Forum early Tuesday morning.
Fact Sheet: Kewanee Hospital
Kewanee Hospital is a small, rural, Critical Access Hospital with a core mission of "Improving the Health Care of Those We Serve." Serving the community since 1919, Kewanee Hospital upholds a vision of setting the standard for local health care with a team of compassionate professionals who are focused on clinical excellence and customer service.
As a 501(c)3 organization, Kewanee Hospital has no owners, and it uses all of its revenues for the provision and expansion of its services to the community. As the largest employer in the area, Kewanee Hospital is an economic engine for the community, employing over 200 people, and positively contributing to the financial base of the community.
For over 93 years, Kewanee Hospital has kept pace with many innovations in health care, including a 24-hour physician-staffed emergency department, critical care/intensive care, in-hospital care for geriatric, adult and pediatric patients, inpatient and outpatient surgical and rehabilitation services, and a wide range of diagnostic and therapeutic services.
Kewanee Hospital operates a Family Health Clinic multi-specialty physician group, and a medical staff including physicians representing a wide variety of medical specialties including: anesthesiology, cardiology, family medicine, general surgery, hospitalists, orthopaedics, ophthalmology, and radiology. Provision of these local services often precludes the need for community members to travel as far as an hour or more away for healthcare.
Kewanee Hospital is governed by a volunteer Board of Trustees, and is supported by aDevelopment Council of 60+ community volunteers including community members, business leaders, and donors.
Fact Sheet: OSF HealthCare
“In the spirit of Christ and the example of Francis of Assisi, the Mission of OSF HealthCare is to serve persons with the greatest care and love in a community that celebrates the gift of life.” We carry out our Mission by providing state-of-the-art, compassionate care to more than 3.7 million people in the communities we serve. OSF HealthCareis a multi-state corporation operating facilities in Illinois and Michigan. Through our affiliated companies, we are nationally recognized as a leading integrated healthcare network of facilities. In 2012, for the 14th consecutive year OSF HealthCare was ranked among the Top 100 Integrated Health Care Networks in the U.S. by IMS coming in 30th. Our parent company, The Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis, is a not-for-profit corporation reinvesting our resources into the communities we serve since 1877.
OSF HealthCare,owned and operated by The Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis, Peoria, Illinois, includes OSF Healthcare System consisting of seven acute care facilities, one long-term care facility and two colleges of nursing. It also has a physician organization, OSF Medical Group. To align more closely our care delivery system with physicians we developed clinical service lines in cardiac services, neurosciences and pediatrics. We employ more than 640 physicians and mid-level providers operating in eight LLC corporations and in more than 90 office sites. OSF HealthCare owns an extensive network of home health services known as OSF Home Care Services and also owns OSF Saint Francis, Inc., comprised of healthcare-related businesses, and OSF Healthcare Foundation, the philanthropic arm for OSF Healthcare System and OSF Home Care Services.
OSF Acute Care Hospitals
- OSF St. Francis Hospital & Medical Group, Escanaba, MI 110 beds
- OSF Saint Anthony Medical Center, Rockford, IL 254 beds
- OSF Saint Elizabeth Medical Center, Ottawa, IL 99 beds
- OSF Saint James – John W. Albrecht Medical Center, Pontiac, IL 47 beds
- OSF St. Joseph Medical Center, Bloomington, IL 154 beds
- OSF Saint Francis Medical Center and Children’s Hospital of Illinois, Peoria, IL 616 beds
- OSF St. Mary Medical Center, Galesburg, IL 99 beds
- OSF Holy Family Medical Center, Monmouth, IL 25 beds
OSF Medical Groupis also a part of OSF HealthCare and is a comprehensive, integrated network of health care facilities, services, physicians and employees in Illinois and Michigan. OSF Medical Group includes a multi-specialty group of more than 650 member physicians and advanced practitioners in over 90 locations throughout Illinois. This group of collegial and collaborative providers uses a team-based approach to create an integrated system of patient-centered care. In 2011, OSF Medical Group recorded more than 692,900 patient visits.
OSF Saint Francis, Inc. is comprised of healthcare-related businesses providing valuable products and services to areas served by OSF HealthCare and others.
OSF Home Care Services is a division of OSF HealthCareand OSF Saint Francis, Inc.and includes these core services: Hospice, Home Health, Home Medical Equipment, Home Infusion Pharmacy, Physician House Calls, Personal Response System and Diabetes Supply Program. HCS has offices in Galesburg, Peoria, Bloomington and Rockford, Illinois and in Escanaba, Michigan. Its service area includes most of Central and Northern Illinois and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Last year, its Home Health services completed more than 168,000 visits and its Hospice services averaged 260 patients per day.
OSF Healthcare Foundationworks to provide resources for community outreach and facility programs - a catalyst uniting volunteers, donors, institutions, and community needs throughout our System and beyond.
