Advocate Aurora Health and Atrium Health announce merger

Jim Skogsbergh, left, president and CEO of Advocate Aurora Health and Eugene A. Woods, president and CEO of Atrium Health

Photo: Courtesy Advocate Aurora Health

Advocate Aurora Health and Atrium Health are merging and plan to transition to the new brand, Advocate Health, the organizations have announced.

The new organization will have a combined footprint across Illinois, Wisconsin, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama. It will serve 5.5 million patients, operate more than 1,000 sites of care and 67 hospitals, employ more than 7,600 physicians and have combined revenues of more than $27 billion.

The Advocate Aurora and Atrium Health brands will continue to be used in their respective local markets. Wake Forest University School of Medicine will be the academic core of the combined entity. 

The new organization will be headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, while continuing to maintain a strong organizational presence in Chicago and Milwaukee, including a new institute for health equity located in Milwaukee.
 
Jim Skogsbergh, president and CEO of Advocate Aurora Health and Eugene A. Woods, president and CEO of Atrium Health, will serve as co-CEOs for the first 18 months, at which point Skogsbergh will retire and Woods will become the sole CEO.

No assets will be transferred as part of the combination, the organizations said. Neither Advocate Aurora Health nor Atrium Health have agreed to assume any liability for or otherwise guarantee the other organization’s debt as part of the transaction. 

The Advocate Aurora Health and Atrium Health Boards of Directors unanimously approved the agreement, which is subject to regulatory review.

WHAT’S THE IMPACT

The merger is being touted as combining the clinical expertise of both health systems, includings medical research and population health – as well as advanced capabilities in data analytics and digital consumer infrastructure.

Six key focus areas include clinical pre-eminence and safety, health equity, affordability, next-generation workforce, learning and discovery and environmental sustainability. 

The new organization projects to spend $2 billion to address health inequities across both rural and urban underserved communities. It has made a commitment to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030 and a pledge to create more than 20,000 new jobs across the communities the health systems serve.  
  
“The world of healthcare as we know it is changing at warp speed – and it is rapidly becoming more digital, personalized, scientific and complex,” said Atrium Health CEO and President Eugene A. Woods. “This strategic combination will enable us to deepen our commitments to health equity, create more jobs and opportunities for our teammates and communities, launch new game-changing innovations and so much more.”
 
THE LARGER TREND

In 2020, Advocate Aurora Health explored a merger with Beaumont Health to create a $17 billion nonprofit health system across Michigan, Wisconsin and Illinois. But four months after signing a non-binding letter of intent to merge, the systems called off the deal due to the COVID-19 pandemic and concerns raised by physicians and a former Beaumont Health trustee.

In 2018, Advocate Health Care and Aurora Health Care combined to create Advocate Aurora Health.
 

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