Penn Medicine to Finalize Merger With Princeton HealthCare System

Talk of a deal first began in July. PHCS will become Penn Medicine's first New Jersey member.

The University of Pennsylvania Medicine is about to add its first New Jersey member – Princeton HealthCare System. 

The Philadelphia-based health system announced yesterday that the executive committee of Penn’s Board of Trustees has approved the merger, which is contingent upon already-negotiated closing conditions and the final approval of state and federal authorities.

PHCS, located 40 miles northeast of Philadelphia, serves more than 1.3 million people in and out of its 429-bed facility. It includes the University Medical Center of Princeton, which opened in Plainsboro in 2012 and was ranked among the top 20 hospitals in the New York metropolitan region in U.S. News 2016-2017 Best Hospital rankings.

“We are proud of this exciting opportunity to combine Princeton HealthCare’s strong reputation for providing excellent care in the community with Penn Medicine’s strengths as a national leader in complex and specialty care,” Penn Health System CEO Ralph W. Muller said in a statement. “Aligning with PHCS will offer new opportunities for Penn Medicine to expand our services in New Jersey and enable a mutually beneficial relationship for patients by uniting options for close-to-home care with coordinated access to Penn Medicine’s world-class advanced medicine.”

PHCS employs about 3,000 staff members and has an active medical staff of more than a thousand physicians. Penn Medicine, with facilities like the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Penn Presbyterian Medical Center and the Chester County Hospital, boasts more than 30,000 employees, roughly 5,300 physicians and a $5.3 billion annual operating revenue.

Penn Medicine and PHCS first announced that they were exploring a merger in July.

“Affiliating with the University of Pennsylvania Health System represents the best means of assuring that PHCS and its affiliates can continue to fulfill their mission and charitable objectives in the future,” PHCS President and CEO Barry S. Rabner said in a statement. “When this partnership is finalized, members of our community will  receive enhanced high-quality care right here, close to home, and they will enjoy the added benefit of easier access to the latest medical breakthroughs, clinical trials, cutting-edge technologies and specialized clinical expertise here and elsewhere in the Penn Medicine system.”

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