Tenet to sell 3 Chicago-area hospitals to Obama friend’s investment firm

Tenet Healthcare announced Wednesday that it will sell its three remaining acute care hospitals in the Chicago area to Pipeline Health and TWG Partners, a health care investment firm founded by Eric Whitaker.

Tenet, a Dallas-based health care company, announced in a news release that the transaction involving Louis A. Weiss Memorial Hospital, Westlake Hospital and West Suburban Medical Center will likely be completed in the fourth quarter of this year.

CEO Ron Rittenmeyer said in a statement that Tenet is “pleased” to have reached the agreement and is confident the hospitals will have a “bright future.”

“The teams at Pipeline and TWG share our commitment to delivering high-quality care to patients, providing physicians with excellent service, and supporting caregivers and other colleagues in working to do what’s best for patients and the surrounding community,” Rittenmeyer said.

TWG Partners was founded in 2011 by Whitaker, a close friend of former President Barack Obama. Previously, he served as director of Illinois Department of Public Health and executive vice president and associate dean at the University of Chicago Medicine, where he worked closely with Michelle Obama.

Whitaker met Obama while the two were studying as graduate students at Harvard University.

Tenet, which owns 68 hospitals across the country, will maintain outpatient centers in the area. But the latest agreement signals a move away from cities like Chicago, where Tenet maintains a smaller presence, and toward investment in regions where it has a larger market.

Pipeline Health will manage the hospitals upon completion, according to the release.