Evanston, Ill.-based Endeavor Health and Chicago-based Rush University System for Health announced plans to merge Oct. 14, creating a 12-hospital system with more than 46,000 employees and clinicians that will serve 2 million patients across northern Illinois and northwest Indiana. The transaction is expected to close in early 2027, at which point the combined system will operate under the Rush brand.
Endeavor will fund a $1 billion investment as part of the combination with $300 million for community impact, $500 million for academics and research and $200 million for quality care and innovation. J.P. Gallagher, Endeavor’s president and CEO, will lead the unified system when the deal closes. Rush University System for Health president and CEO Omar Lateef, MD, will continue in his role through the close of the transaction before moving to CEO emeritus and strategic advisor.
Speaking at Becker’s 14th Annual CEO + CFO Roundtable weeks after the announcement, Mr. Gallagher was precise about the deal.
“No party is acquiring the other,” he said. The planned combination is a merger, a 50/50 governance with equal board representation and leadership drawn from both organizations.
Both systems have deep roots in Chicago. Rush was incorporated before the City of Chicago itself. Endeavor’s hospitals, the oldest founded more than 130 years ago, were built by community members responding to local needs.
“We are all-in on Chicago and all-in on this region. We will always be an Illinois based system,” he said. “We are focused on addressing needs but also standing up a system that can be sustainable for the next 30 years.”
The board will be composed of 20 members, 10 from each organization, with the first chair appointed from the Rush side. Mr. Gallagher said leadership of the combined organization will draw from both systems and that building those relationships is the first priority.
“The team that eventually I bring together will have representation of leaders from both sides,” he said. “One of the things that will be critical is as we build relationships, is listening and understanding what’s working well at our respective organizations.”
Rush University Medical Center has ranked in the top 15 nationally for 10 consecutive years and holds the No. 1 rating among academic medical centers. The academic and university mission Rush brings to the combination is one of the central reasons for its success.
“The ability to have a university and an academic mission that is part of our system combined is essential,” he said. “Rush University is a tremendous health sciences university that I think we can expand that impact and draw from a lot of the expertise that’s there.”
Health equity is where the deepest convergence between the two organizations exists. He described Rush’s work as a national standard for an academic medical center that has embedded community health equity into its institutional identity. Endeavor has pursued its own parallel track. Through its Community Investment Fund, Endeavor has established 59 community partnerships and invested $39 million in organizations addressing homelessness, food insecurity, domestic violence and healthcare workforce pipelines in underserved communities.
“Rush is the national standard for health equity,” Mr. Gallagher said. “And leaning into that in a deep way, I get really excited about what some of these partnerships and relationships will look like more broadly across the region.”
The community investment strategy extends the health system’s role beyond clinical care delivery. Mr. Gallagher sees social determinants as upstream variables they can address more acutely with Rush.
“These are issues that are very real to a patient’s health and well being,” he said. “It’s not just healthcare delivery, but it is kind of taking a more holistic view of what do our communities and members need for their health.”
For vendor and supply chain partners navigating the transition, Mr. Gallagher said leaders would focus on building trust before making decisions. Large relationships will be evaluated first; more specialized partnerships will follow the input of internal teams with direct experience.
“Part of what will make this merger successful is we’ve got to build this together,” he said. “That means input from both sides and what’s working.”
Mr. Gallagher joined what was then Evanston Northwestern Healthcare as an assistant administrator at Glenbrook Hospital in 2002 and stepped into the CEO role of Endeavor’s predecessor in 2017. He described the Rush combination as a continuation of the organization’s long-term arc.
“As we thought about our long term future and wanting to create a system that could thrive and be here long term, we think about what does it mean for our patients,” he said. “The opportunity for two, I think, respected established organizations in the city and the broader region to come together is a reflection of what we both care about, particularly as you think about our history and our mission.”
