Many big health systems are racing to buy community hospitals in the south suburbs of Chicago, according to an article on the Crain's Chicago Business website.
Independent hospitals provide patient referrals to larger health systems and they offer less expensive, more routine care, freeing up beds at their bigger, more specialized facilities.
Little Company of Mary Hospital, an 87-year-old Catholic hospital in Evergreen Park, Ill., confirms that it's looking to join or affiliate with another health system.
In this region, a turf war is raging, the article said. University of Chicago Medicine, an academic medical center on the South Side, in October finalized its first full merger ever, picking up Ingalls Health System in impoverished south suburban Harvey.
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