{"id":216036,"date":"2026-01-02T04:49:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T04:49:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/216036\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T04:49:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T04:49:17","slug":"fhn-officially-becomes-mercyhealth-fhn-on-jan-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/216036\/","title":{"rendered":"FHN officially becomes Mercyhealth FHN on Jan. 1"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-253043\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/hospital-photos_0615_retouch.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1631\" height=\"1200\"  \/>FHN Memorial Hospital is at 1045 W Stephenson St. in Freeport. The health care company announced Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025, that it plans to merge with Mercyhealth. (Photo provided by FHN)<br \/>\nBy Kevin Haas<br \/><a class=\"cursor-init\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rockrivercurrent.com\/connect\/be-an-insider\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Rock River Current<\/a><br \/><a class=\"cursor-init\" style=\"color: #00ccff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rockrivercurrent.com\/download-our-mobile-app\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Get our mobile app<\/a><\/p>\n<p>FREEPORT \u2014 FHN will officially become Mercyhealth FHN on Thursday after the Illinois Attorney General signed off on the affiliation, the health care provider announced on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>The Freeport-based independent health care system <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rockrivercurrent.com\/2025\/09\/fhn-to-join-mercyhealth-in-merger-it-says-sustains-its-long-term-future\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">approved an affiliation agreement<\/a> in fall with Mercyhealth. It said the goal was to preserve and continue FHN\u2019s legacy of providing health care in northwest Illinois for more than 120 years.<\/p>\n<p><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rockrivercurrent.com\/ads\/forest-preserves-of-winnebago-county\/\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"250\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/FPWC_Fall2025-2.jpg\" class=\"no-lazy-load wp-post-image\" alt=\"\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board approved the affiliation in November.\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201c(Mercyhealth) saw a lot of potential to grow their market share, but also to grow FHN\u2019s potential \u2014 our services and our people, and our own market share,\u201d FHN President and CEO Mark Gridley said in a news release. \u201cThey saw the potential to grow FHN and Mercyhealth as a regional medical center, not just keep the doors open, but invest in improving local health care.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>FHN said the affiliation will come with changes in leadership to its executive team. The company thanked Gridley, Chief Human Resource Director Len Carter, CFO Mike Clark, and Executive VP\/CNO\/COO Kathy Martinez for their contributions that \u201chelped position the organization for a strong future as Mercyhealth FHN.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>FHN said the affiliation was a proactive measure to ensure its long-term future. The merger allows it to benefit from greater economies of scale, resulting in cost savings that can be used to expand services, improve patient care and upgrade facilities in FHN\u2019s service area, the company said.<\/p>\n<p><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rockrivercurrent.com\/ads\/boone-county-museum-of-history\/\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"250\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/bcmoh_rrc_july2024-300-x-250-px.png\" class=\"no-lazy-load wp-post-image\" alt=\"\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>This article is by\u00a0<a class=\"cursor-init\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/thekevinhaas\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Kevin Haas<\/a>. Email him at\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rockrivercurrent.com\/2025\/12\/fhn-officially-becomes-mercyhealth-fhn-on-jan-1\/mailto:khaas@rockrivercurrent.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">khaas@rockrivercurrent.com<\/a>\u00a0or follow him on X at\u00a0<a class=\"cursor-init\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/kevinmhaas\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">@KevinMHaas\u00a0<\/a>or Instagram\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/thekevinhaas\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">@thekevinhaas<\/a>\u00a0and Threads\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.threads.net\/@thekevinhaas\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">@thekevinhaas<\/a><\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FHN Memorial Hospital is at 1045 W Stephenson St. in Freeport. The health care company announced Tuesday, Sept.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":216037,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[163,521,85,46],"class_list":{"0":"post-216036","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-healthcare","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-israel"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216036"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216036\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/216037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}