Hospital Deal Could Be In the Works

PROVIDENCE, RI—Care New England operates Kent Hospital in Warwick; Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island in Providence; the VNA of Care New England, based in Warwick; Butler Hospital in Providence; The Providence Center in several Rhode Island locations; and Memorial Hospital in Pawtucket. The Board of Directors on Wednesday said it plans to sell Memorial to Prime Healthcare Foundation. Prime is based in Canada but now runs Landmark in Woonsocket and the Rehabilitation Hospital of Rhode Island, in North Smithfield. Meanwhile, Care New England will explore joining Partners HealthCare of Massachusetts.

Both deals would be subject to regulatory approval.

Earlier this week, Care New England said its board has signed a Letter of Intent and agreed to negotiate exclusively with Partners for its other hospitals, including Butler and Woman and Infants.

"Care New England has maintained a close working relationship with Partners HealthCare since 2009 through a clinical affiliation with Brigham and Women’s Hospital (one of the founding members of Partners) in cardiology, and vascular, thoracic and colorectal surgery," according to the press release. "In addition, there has been a longstanding collaborative and collegial relationship between McLean Hospital (a Partners hospital) and Care New England’s Butler Hospital to provide high-quality behavioral health care and innovative research locally within the Rhode Island community."

If the deal goes through, Care New England will become part of Partners.

Meanwhile, "both organizations will continue to work together as the process moves into the next phase – developing and signing a definitive agreement. Following this phase, it is expected the organizations would move forward with the needed state and federal regulatory approvals."

"Partners HealthCare is an integrated health system founded by Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital. In addition to its two academic medical centers, the Partners system includes community and specialty hospitals, community health centers, a physician network, a managed care organization, home health and long-term care services, and other health-related entities. Partners is one of the nation’s leading biomedical research organizations and a principal teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School. Partners HealthCare is a non-profit organization."

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