Amita Health officially splits up, with hospitals getting new names

Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune/TNS

Amita Health, one of the largest hospital systems in Illinois, has officially broken into two parts, hospital officials said Friday.

Amita first announced in October that the organizations behind Amita — AdventHealth and Ascension — would unwind their partnership, dividing Amita’s 19 hospitals into two separate systems. The split became official Friday, with 14 of the hospitals now operating under Ascension Illinois and the others part of AdventHealth.

The split at Amita is a rare example of a system breaking into pieces at a time when many other hospital systems are trying to grow through mergers and acquisitions.

Amita said in a news release in October that it was splitting up after leaders of Ascension and AdventHealth “determined that going forward separately is in their collective best interest in order to more nimbly meet the changing needs and expectations of consumers in the rapidly evolving health care environment.”

Ascension is a massive Catholic health system with 142 hospitals in 19 states and the District of Columbia. AdventHealth, affiliated with the Seventh-day Adventist Church, has nearly 50 hospitals and hundreds of care sites in nine states.

The 14 Ascension hospitals in Illinois will now operate under Ascension Illinois, instead of Amita, and their names will change accordingly. For example, AMITA Health Alexian Brothers Medical Center Elk Grove Village will now be known as Ascension Alexian Brothers, and AMITA Health Resurrection Medical Center Chicago will now simply be called Ascension Resurrection.

Other Ascension hospitals include: Ascension Alexian Brothers Behavioral Health Hospital in Hoffman Estates; Ascension Alexian Brothers Rehabilitation Hospital in Elk Grove Village; Ascension Holy Family in Des Plaines; Ascension Mercy in Aurora; Ascension Saint Alexius in Hoffman Estates; Ascension Saint Francis in Evanston; Ascension Saint Joseph - Chicago; Ascension Saint Joseph - Elgin; Ascension Saint Joseph - Joliet; Ascension Saint Mary - Chicago; Ascension Saint Mary - Kankakee; and Ascension Women’s and Children’s in Hoffman Estates.

“Adding the Ascension name to our own reflects the strength of bringing the expertise of our national healthcare ministry to those we are privileged to serve in Illinois,” said Keith Parrott, Ascension Illinois Ministry Market Executive, in a news release.

Amita was a joint operating company formed by Adventist Midwest Health and Ascension’s Alexian Brothers Health System in 2015. In 2018, 10 Presence Health hospitals joined Ascension, becoming part of Amita.

More to come.