Sept. 01--Presence Health said Tuesday that it will expand its urgent-care business by partnering with a Rosemont-based company to jointly operate 10 walk-in clinics.
Chicago-based Presence has formed a joint venture with Physicians Immediate Care, which operates 33 urgent-care centers in the Midwest, including 26 in Illinois.
Financial terms of the partnership were not disclosed.
Urgent-care clinics are an alternative to hospital emergency departments to treat non-life-threatening illnesses and injuries. They have proliferated in recent years because consumers like the convenient locations and extended evening and weekend hours. Studies also have shown that the clinics are not as expensive for patients as emergency room visits.
Hospitals have had little choice but to respond to this increasingly powerful competitor. Presence, which has 11 nonprofit hospitals in Illinois, has opened urgent-care centers in New Lenox, Norridge, Park Ridge and Plainfield.
These four clinics will be part of the joint venture. Presence also is contributing three occupational medicine clinics to the partnership. Physicians Immediate Care is contributing its urgent-care centers in Niles, Elgin, Aurora, New Lenox, Plainfield, Chicago's Bucktown neighborhood and a still-under-construction site in Bradley.
Presence's clinics in Aurora, Elgin, New Lenox and Bourbonnais will be closed, and those operations will be merged into the centers operated by Physicians Immediate Care, said Matt Middendorf, Physicians' chief financial officer. Physicians will take over the day-to-day management of the 10 jointly operated centers. The joint venture will continue to operate two clinics in Plainfield.
Both organizations said they will work to develop more sites.
For the hospital, the partnership is expected to provide patients with shorter wait times and lower out-of-pocket costs than if they went to an emergency room.
"We are pleased that this partnership will enable us to continue to improve access to care and serve the needs of those for whom cost and convenience are a significant consideration," Howard Drenth, president and CEO of Presence Medical Group, which is part of Presence Health, said in a statement.
Physicians Immediate Care was founded more than 25 years ago by a doctor in Rockford. Three years ago, the company received an investment from a private equity firm and Anthem, one of the nation's largest health insurers. Health plans view urgent care as a way to contain costs.
Physicians Immediate Care's centers are usually in strip malls and are open seven days a week. They have six to eight exam rooms and X-ray equipment.
The joint venture with Presence is the company's third hospital partnership, Middendorf said. Such partnerships, he added, are a big part of the company's strategy because it leads to more coordinated care, which is one of the aims of the Affordable Care Act.
asachdev@tribpub.com
