OSF HealthCare becomes newest member of Mayo Clinic Care Network

Mayo Clinic today announced that OSF HealthCare passed Mayo's rigorous review process to become the newest member of the Mayo Clinic Care Network. OSF, the fourth-largest health care provider in Illinois, is an integrated health system owned and operated by The Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis. OSF provides state-of-the-art, compassionate care to more than 3.7 million people in the communities it serves throughout Illinois and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

"We are delighted to welcome the 14,000 members of the OSF team to the Mayo Clinic Care Network. Mayo Clinic and OSF share a patient-centered culture that thrives on improving outcomes and increasing value. The Mayo Clinic Care Network helps achieve those results," says David Hayes, M.D., medical director, Mayo Clinic Care Network. "We look forward to continuing our long-standing relationship with this excellent organization and its dedicated staff, working together during the coming years to improve patient care and develop new delivery models."

"Mayo Clinic is one of the most respected health care institutions in the world and, like OSF, possesses extraordinary clinicians," says Kevin Schoeplein, chief executive officer, OSF Healthcare System. "We are extremely excited about the benefits that are possible for our patients by connecting talented clinicians of OSF and Mayo through the evidence, the best practices, the research, the learned experiences and even the intuition of medicine and science."

According to Kathleen Forbes, M.D., chief clinical officer, OSF Healthcare System, "The collaborative relationship between OSF HealthCare and Mayo Clinic is designed to be a long-lasting one. By working together over time, OSF and Mayo Clinic hope to build new and innovative ways to provide the best possible care to patients and their families."
The Mayo Clinic Care Network extends Mayo Clinic's knowledge and expertise to physicians and providers interested in working together in the best interest of their patients. OSF physicians will now be able to connect directly with Mayo Clinic specialists on questions of patient care using an electronic consulting technique called eConsults. OSF physicians also will have access to the latest Mayo-vetted medical information through AskMayoExpert, an online database developed and used by Mayo Clinic physicians. These tools, in addition to health care consulting, will help OSF continue to provide the best care for its patients as well as improve its systems and the health of the community and region.

OSF employs more than 14,000 people and consists of eight medical centers and two colleges of nursing. OSF Medical Group is a comprehensive, integrated network of health care facilities, services, physicians and employees in Illinois and Michigan. OSF Medical Group includes a multispecialty group of more than 600 member physicians and nearly 300 advanced practitioners in more than 90 locations throughout Illinois. To align its care delivery system more closely with physicians, OSF developed clinical service lines in cardiac services, neurosciences and pediatrics. Additionally, OSF HealthCare owns an extensive network of home health and hospice services known as OSF Home Care Services and OSF Saint Francis, Inc., comprised of health care-related businesses, and OSF Healthcare Foundation, the philanthropic arm for OSF Healthcare System and OSF Home Care Services.

By becoming a member of the Mayo Clinic Care Network, OSF builds on a long relationship with Mayo that includes years of collaborative work with Mayo Medical Laboratories.