Thursday, July 14, 2016
Princeton HealthCare System (PHCS) and the University of Pennsylvania Health System (Penn Medicine) announced today that they have signed a Letter of Intent to pursue a partnership.
PHCS announced in June 2015 that it would begin evaluating partnership opportunities to ensure its continued success in the future. Since then, PHCS officials considered 17 potential partners.
“Our Board of Trustees showed remarkable foresight by contemplating a shared future even as we remained clinically and financially strong as an independent system,” said PHCS President and CEO Barry S. Rabner. “We received considerable interest, and Penn Medicine stood out as the best fit. Now, we will focus on crafting an agreement that promotes the best interests of our patients and the community we have served for almost a century as well as our employees and physicians. We are confident this partnership will enable PHCS to continue providing our patients superior access and quality close to home with the support of advanced capabilities of a healthcare system that is widely recognized as one of the country’s best.”
“We are excited to partner with PHCS and examine alternatives to provide the Princeton community and people of central New Jersey better access to our world-class patient care programs,” said Ralph Muller, CEO of the University of Pennsylvania Health System.
Rabner added that, in choosing to pursue a partnership, PHCS considered the organizational capabilities which have enabled Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine consistently to rank among the top five medical schools in National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding and the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP) to be recognized as an Honor Roll Hospital in the US News & World Report Best Hospitals ratings for nearly 20 years. The leadership of PHCS anticipates that these significant capabilities will be brought to bear on PHCS to advance the organization’s development.
In addition, Rabner stated that, “Penn Medicine’s strong financial position and comprehensive scope of services will add to PHCS’ financial security and ability to enhance clinical programs and develop facilities to improve access to care and superior patient quality for the community we serve. Given Penn Medicine’s expertise in information technology, this partnership will strengthen our efforts to install an integrated electronic medical record necessary to support our population health initiatives."
Today’s announcement is a preliminary step. The two organizations will now conduct due diligence and negotiate definitive agreements. This process is expected to take several months, during which the two systems are able to negotiate and finalize definitive agreements. They will then seek regulatory approvals, a process which could take up to a year to complete.
PHCS has worked with its financial adviser, Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, and law firm McDermott Will & Emery, throughout this process.
Source : princetonhcs.org
