Another merger is creating N.J.'s 4th largest hospital chain - Health Professionals & Allied Employees

Another merger is creating N.J.’s 4th largest hospital chain

August 31, 2017

TRENTON — Cooper University Health announced Thursday it plans to acquire three Catholic hospitals in central and south Jersey, creating the fourth largest healthcare chain in a state in which mergers have become routine business.

Cooper Board Chairman George Norcross said the planned acquisition will create a $2 billion entity stretching from Mercer to Atlantic counties, employing 12,000, not including a network of 875 doctors.

The takeover of Trinity Health hospitals — Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center in Camden, Lourdes Medical Center at Burlington in Willingboro and St. Francis Medical Center in Trenton — cements Cooper’s dominance in the south Jersey health care market, Norcross said. Together with Cooper’s 635-bed flagship hospital in Camden, the chain would operate 1,382 beds.

Cooper’s footprint has been growing in earnest in recent years, with the creation of Cooper Medical School of Rowan University in 2012, and the partnership with renowned cancer hospital MD Anderson in 2013.

“This agreement will bring together health care providers from across south and central New Jersey, allowing us to dramatically expand access to the high quality of care for thousands of new patients,” according to a statement from Norcross, who is also known as one of the most influential political power brokers in the state.

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