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BY SUSAN ERLER
serler@nwitimes.com or 219.548.4349 | Sunday, April 20, 2008 | (No comments posted.)
HAMMOND | St. Margaret Mercy Healthcare Centers is teaming with the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago to provide services in Northwest Indiana.
The partnership means the Chicago-based institute will offer direct care and administrative oversight of rehabilitation services delivered by the St. Margaret hospital system, institute President and CEO Joanne Smith said.
The collaboration makes is possible for the institute to enhance access to its services in keeping with its mission, Smith said.
"We feel obligated to come to the community, rather than make the community come to us," she said.
St. Margaret Mercy officials approached the institute more than a year ago about the possibility of collaborating, hospital CEO Thomas Gryzbek said. St. Margaret Mercy is a division of the Sisters of St. Francis Health Services Inc.
"With their great reputation, it was a way to make our program even better," Gryzbek said.
The institute determined the two systems shared similar organizational missions and philosophies, and that a need existed in the market, Smith said.
"We found that we had a great fit," she said.
The institute began providing services April 1 at St. Margaret Mercy hospital campuses in Hammond and Dyer and at the hospital's Omni 41 health club in Schererville.
The partnership will be good for area residents, said Joseph Barrera, 53, of Wheatfield.
Barrera was treated at the institute in Chicago after suffering a heart attack and stroke in September, he said.
Family visits and follow-up appointments meant long trips by car, train or bus, Barrera's wife, Linda, said.
"It will be good news to have that kind of quality here in Northwest Indiana," Joseph added.
The institute operates a 165-bed flagship hospital in downtown Chicago and a network of 30 sites in the city and suburbs.
It also partners with other hospitals in Illinois and Indiana, including St. Joseph Regional Medical Center in South Bend and Mishawaka.
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