DAILY CHRONICLE
KEEPING CALM Kuefler, Knights look to hang tough and compete in sectional final today vs. St. Francis / B1
June 6-7, 2015 • $1.50
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Experts: Merger could improve care KishHealth affiliation, if approved, will boost access to specialists, bring in capital By BRETT ROWLAND browland@shawmedia.com DeKALB – Ongoing talks that could lead to KishHealth System becoming part of Northwestern Memorial HealthCare could bring top specialists to DeKalb County and significant capital improvements to the area’s health-care facilities. KishHealth’s board of directors announced last week that it had entered into exclusive, nonbinding talks with Northwestern Memorial to explore an affiliation. If the talks, expected to last several months, are successful, KishHealth could become part of the much larger Chicago-based academic health system. Industry experts say the potential affiliation would benefit both systems. North-
By the numbers Northwestern Memorial n 2.4 million outpatient visits n 25,000 employees n 1,600 inpatient beds n 4 hospitals n $347 million awarded in research grants
KishHealth System n 228,049 outpatient visits n 1,466 employees n 119 staffed beds n 2 hospitals n $89,200 in total research spending
western Memorial stands to gain market share and a new pipeline for patient referrals to its specialists. KishHealth could get an injection of capital in addition to better access to advanced specialists. Talks between the two systems are a reflection of broader trends across the health care industry, said Casey Nolan, managing director of Washington, D.C.-based Navigant Consulting Inc.
“We’re seeing a second wave of affiliations between academic medical centers and community health systems,” Nolan said. “The academic centers are looking for high-quality community health systems and bigger geographic footprints.” If KishHealth joins Northwestern Memorial, DeKalb County patients would benefit, he said. “If these organizations do it
correctly, it would mean more coordination of care, more efficient care,” Nolan said. “It could be good for everyone.” Northwestern Memorial HealthCare is the parent corporation of the Northwestern Memorial Hospital, which is one of the nation’s top academic medical center hospitals and the primary teaching hospital for Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. U.S. News and World Report in 2014 has named it among the top 10 hospitals in the country. Northwestern Memorial has more than 60 sites around the Chicago area, including four hospitals with 1,600 inpatient beds. It has 25,000 employees and records about 2.4 million outpatient visits a year. KishHealth has facilities in
See KISHHEALTH, page A5
Danielle Guerra – dguerra@shawmedia.com
Kishwaukee Hospital, located at One Kish Hospital Drive, along DeKalb Avenue in DeKalb, is a 98-bed hospital which opened in October of 2007. KishHealth System operates facilities in DeKalb, Sandwich, Sycamore, Plano, Genoa, Hampshire, Waterman and Rochelle. KishHealth’s board of directors voted unanimously on May 28 to sign a letter of intent to enter into exclusive, nonbinding talks with Northwestern Memorial to explore an affiliation.
Woman: My brother was sexually abused by Hastert
THE FUTURE OF DOWNTOWN DeKALB DISCUSSED
By MARY CLARE JALONICK The Associated Press
Photos by Monica Synett – msynett@shawmedia.com
Box office manager Nora Reeves sells tickets May 23 to the Jo Dee Messina concert at the Egyptian Theatre. The city of DeKalb has invested about $2 million in the Egyptian Theatre over the past 20 years, but now officials are contemplating installing air conditioning in the 85-year-old theater, allowing it to remain open for a year-round schedule.
How to renew downtown DeKalb? City talks parking, Egyptian and synergy while weighing uses for TIF funds By BRITTANY KEEPERMAN bkeeperman@shawmedia.com DeKALB – The city’s downtown area has a bit of an identity crisis, and that’s not helping business, says Mike Peddle, chairman of the Financial Advisory Committee. While there are a variety of different stores, bars, restaurants and other businesses in downtown DeKalb, cohesion is lacking and the target audience isn’t clear, Peddle said. “There is a bit of confusion over what we want downtown to be,” he said. “We have some different kinds of businesses, which is good. … But it’s not a Fans wait in line outside of the Egyptian Theatre for the Jo Dee Messina conshopping-orientated downtown. cert on May 23. The proposed air conditioning project would cost an estimat- … Most stores aren’t open for lated $3 to $5 million, but it also would allow the theater – which closes during er-night shopping, when people go
downtown for the Egyptian.” The future viability of the area depends on people living in – or at least regularly visiting – the area to shop, eat and patronize entertainment establishments, city officials have said. There are about five years left before tax-increment financing funds expire, and city officials have proposed a number of uses for the funds that they say will help renew DeKalb’s downtown area. “I would like to see more merchants and professional development that would attract traffic and footsteps downtown,” Mayor John Rey said. “The TIF projects that are transformational in nature will assist in attracting those
the summer months – to have a year-round schedule.
See DeKALB, page A5
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First-time campers need not worry, just have a good time / C1
Olson: Nothing in sports like playoff hockey but it can try your sanity / A2
Investigation into Genoa man’s stabbing death continues / A3
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WASHINGTON – A Montana woman says her brother was sexually abused by former House Speaker Dennis Hastert during the years when the GOP leader was a wrestling coach at a Yorkville high school. Jolene Burdge of Billings, Montana, told The Associated Press on Thursday that the FBI interviewed her last month about Hastert, who was charged last week in a federal indictment alleging that he agreed in 2010 to pay $3.5 million to someone so that person would stay quiet about “prior misconduct.” Fifteen years before Hastert allegedly promised to pay that money, Burdge’s brother died. But years before his death, his sister said, he told her that his first homosexual contact was with Hastert and that it lasted throughout his high school years. Stephen Reinboldt attended Yorkville High School, where Hastert was a history teacher and coach from 1965 to 1981. In an interview aired Friday on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” Burdge said Hastert had been a father figure to her brother but also caused him irreparable harm. “He damaged Steve, I think, more than any of us will ever know,” she told the morning show. The AP could not independently verify her allegations. A friend and former classmate of Reinboldt’s said Reinboldt told him in 1974, during college, that he’d had a sexual relationship with Hastert in high school. That friend spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity so as not to betray a personal confidence.
AP file photo
Former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert speaks to lawmakers on the Illinois House of Representatives floor in 2008 at the state Capitol in Springfield. A federal judge on Tuesday delayed Hastert’s first court appearance until June 9 following his indictment in Chicago.
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