DuPage Medical Group is changing its name to Duly Health and Care — a move that comes amid a rapid expansion beyond DuPage County and even Illinois.
The health system, which is the largest independent physicians’ group in Illinois, will go by its new name effective immediately. Duly has more than 900 doctors, and more than 150 locations.
“We wanted to go a little bit beyond the DuPage geography name and create a name that we thought would match more accurately our hope to provide broad access to as many people as possible,” said Steve Nelson, CEO and co-chairman of the board, in an interview.
The medical group has been growing quickly in recent years. It recently acquired a medical group in South Bend, Indiana, marking its first foray out of Illinois. It also recently announced a partnership with Quincy Medical Group in Quincy, Illinois.
By the end of 2021, Duly will have added about 400 physicians to the 700 it already had, Nelson said.
Duly leaders expect the organization will continue to grow just as fast or faster in coming years and may expand across the country, Nelson said.
“There are many other independent multispecialty physician groups around the country who are interested in what we’re doing, and we’re having a lot of interesting conversations that could result in expansion into other states,” Nelson said.
Medical group leaders specifically chose the name Duly, in part because its first two letters are the same as the former name, helping to connect the two, he said. Also, they felt the name Duly conveyed the group’s attitude toward the importance of quality health care.
One meaning of the word duly is “in the proper or expected way,” according to Merriam-Webster.
“We felt like it was really fitting to the seriousness and importance of people’s health and how we think about it,” Nelson said.
The expansion follows a $1.45 billion investment in the medical group’s management company from private equity firm Ares Management in 2017. Nelson said that money has been used to improve Duly’s technology and patient care models, as well as to invest in its workers.
DuPage Medical Group was also recently in the news after it said it was notifying 600,000 patients that their personal information may have been compromised during a July cyberattack.
