After sharing plans in May, Atrium Health and Advocate Aurora Health announced they have closed on their formal combination to create Advocate Health. The combined organization will be headquartered in Charlotte and will focus on best meeting patients’ needs by redefining how, when and where care is delivered.
Advocate Health serves nearly 6 million patients annually and is the fifth-largest nonprofit integrated health system in the nation. With revenues of more than $27 billion, the newly combined organization comprises more than 1,000 sites of care and 67 hospitals with more than 21,000 physicians and nearly 42,000 nurses. The health system delivers nearly $5 billion in annual community benefit.
“Powered by 150,000 teammates – including the best and brightest physicians, nurses, researchers and faculty – we are poised to push past traditional geographic and care delivery boundaries to create a healthier tomorrow for all,” Eugene A. Woods, chief executive officer of Advocate Health, said.
In addition to delivering the best health outcomes and making care more accessible and affordable, Advocate Health is committed to being a force for meaningful social impact. The organization aims to bring medical innovations to patients more quickly, address the root causes of health inequities, advance population health, enable career advancement and achieve carbon neutrality by 2030.
“We couldn’t be more pleased to bring our organizations together to do more, be better and go faster to help more people live well while training the next generation of health care professionals,” said Jim Skogsbergh, who will serve alongside Woods as chief executive officer until his retirement in 18 months.
The Advocate Health Care, Atrium Health, and Aurora Health Care brands will continue to be used in their respective local communities, with Wake Forest University School of Medicine serving as the academic core of the combined entity.
The board of directors comprises an equal number of members from Advocate Aurora and Atrium Health. Thomas C. Nelson, chair of Atrium Health’s board of directors, will chair the new organization’s board until Dec. 31, 2023. Michele Richardson, chair of Advocate Aurora’s board of directors, will assume leadership for the immediately succeeding two-year term.
