Prime Healthcare Services of Ontario, Calif., plans to acquire Mercy Suburban Hospital from Mercy Health System of Conshohocken, Pa., potentially as early as July. The acquisition is to include the 126-bed East Norriton, Pa., hospital and its affiliated physician practices and ambulatory care facilities. East Norriton is about 20 miles northwest of Philadelphia.
Under a recently announced agreement, Prime would invest at least $30 million in capital improvements over five years; and it would maintain the hospital's charity care benefits at the current level, or better. Mercy Suburban no longer would be a Catholic hospital, and it would get a new name under Prime. According to a press release on the deal, Mercy Health System's assessments led it to conclude that "the sale of the hospital and its assets to Prime Healthcare was in the best interest of Mercy's nonprofit mission, its patients, its colleagues and the community ..."
Additional details about the deal were unavailable from Mercy Health System as Catholic Health World went to press.
The deal is pending regulatory approvals.
The 65-year-old Mercy Suburban is one of four Pennsylvania hospitals that are part of Mercy Health Services. That system is part of Trinity Health of Livonia, Mich. Prime is a for-profit system of 34 hospitals, two of them in Pennsylvania.
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