Three Chicago-area end of life care organizations plan to merge to become one of the largest nonprofit hospice providers in the Midwest.

Under terms of the new agreement, Chicago-based Horizon Hospice & Palliative Care, Barrington-based JourneyCare and Glenview-based Midwest Palliative & Hospice CareCenter will operate as a single entity. When combined, the organization will employ more than 800 health care professionals and care for thousands of patients annually. It will be the largest nonprofit hospice provider in the state when the deal closes on June 1.

“The idea of our organizations coming together in a more formal way has been discussed going back as far as 2006. At that time, we came together and formed a hospice collective, which began working on group purchasing. Over the years, the relationship deepened and we began working together to share best practices,” said Sarah Bealles, who was selected to become president and CEO of the combined agency, moving from her current role as president and CEO of JourneyCare.

Bealles said she believes the partnership will “only enhance their services” and allow for a wider away of programs and resources for seriously ill patients and their families. She hopes to maintain a strong sense of community and teamwork in the new organization.

“We have been very intentional about communicating with our patients and families on this. Their main concern is going to be their team that takes care of them– they develop very deep bonds with their teams, and the team assignments won’t change. We’ll be very careful as we go through future plans to integrate our teams,” she added. “It’s not like we’re becoming a national chain here, we believe with our current size, that we can still very much maintain a sense of family and culture, although it will be more challenging. The way we do all staff meetings, for example, we’ll probably not be able to get everyone together in the same way that we have before. We’ve talked about rotating sites and video conferences, so some of the mechanics of it will change.”

The combined organization will be led by a newly elected 18-person board, with six members chosen from each provider’s current board, according to a statement. Up to four additional independent voting members may also be chosen from outside of the organizations within a year after closing. Mary Runge, CEO of Horizon, and Jamie O’Malley, CEO of Midwest CareCenter, will remain in active roles throughout the transition.

Collectively, the three organizations have five inpatient hospice centers and six offices in the greater Chicago area. These facilities will remain fully operational, Bealles said, and the new agency’s corporate functions will be dispersed throughout its existing offices. All existing partnerships are expected to remain in place, and all employees will be transitioned into new or similar roles within the new agency. Some administrative employees will be transferred to new offices.

“The majority of our staff, roughly 70 percent, are clinical, so the patient-ratios are where they need to be. Our clinical service delivery will continue to be regional,” Bealles added. “On the administrative side, there is a little more to work through. Some people will be asked to change their office location… It’s very manageable to do this without letting anyone go.”

The new agency’s name is expected to be announced by fall, and a consulting firm has been hired to help with rebranding.

“I think what we’ve created here is really an opportunity. It’s an opportunity for us to deliver something that I’ve never seen, or as comprehensive as what we’ve put together, in terms of providing better care to people with advanced illness,” she added. “We’re positioning ourselves really to be able to innovate as health care changes and continue to live our mission, but understanding that we may need to deliver our services differently as health care evolves.”

The combined companies’ revenues in 2013 were about $81 million, the equivalent of about 15 percent of the $548 million spent on hospice care that year in Illinois, according to research organization Hospice Analytics.

In recent years health care companies have been consolidating as Medicare reimbursements become lower and providers face cuts. With an increasingly aging population, the demand for hospice and palliative care will likely rise.