Amita Health, parent of Evanston’s St. Francis Hospital, announced today that its two sponsoring organizations — AdventHealth and Ascension — have decided to unwind their partnership.
With the partnership, Amita had the largest number of hospitals, 19, of any hospital group in the Chicago area.
In a news release, Amita said that leaders of both sponsoring organizations determined that going forward separately would let them “more nimbly meet the changing needs and expectations of consumers in the rapidly evolving healthcare environment.”
Under the plan, Advent Health and Ascension will operated their individual hospitals and care sites, and, the statement said, “there will be no disruption to patient care.”
That means St. Francis will return to using the Ascension branding that it had after after Ascension acquired the 10-hospital Presence Health chain.
Chicago Business reports that Keith Parrott, Amita’s CEO, will lead the Ascension group while Thor Thordarson, currently Amita’s chief operating officer, will lead the AdventHealth hospitals.