Completing a 15-month process, Atlantic Health System and Chilton Hospital today announced the merger with Chilton Hospital in Pompton Plains is complete.
Atlantic Health System owns and operates Morristown Medical Center, Overlook Medical Center in Summit, Newton Medical Center, and now the 260-bed Chilton hospital, which will be referred to as Chilton Medical Center.
Atlantic has pledged to commit $65 million in new technology and capital improvements to Chilton over five years, and absorb $43 million of its debt, Joseph A. Trunfio said, president and CEO of Atlantic Health System. Atlantic Health, in turn, will benefit from the Chilton's highly regarded services for heart and stroke care, and expand its reach deeper into Morris County will expanding into Passaic and Bergen counties.
“After many years of successfully working together, we can now work as one, to not only fulfill the health needs of our region, but build stronger, healthier communities," said Deborah K. Zastocki, Chilton Medical Center's president.
Chilton did not seek a merger to keep itself afloat, Zastocki said. The hospital is operating in the black, and recently finished a $24 million renovation. "When we really began to look at health care reform and the ability to manage population health, and what it would take" to expand information technology, "we would have been hard-pressed to do that on our own," she said.
Chilton reviewed merger bid from four hospital groups, including Atlantic Health, she said.
"They made a proactive decision when they were healthy," Trunfio said. "This was the best time for them to choose who they would like as a partner."
All hospital mergers require the approval of the state Attorney General and the Department of Health. Trunfio acknowledged the approval took longer than it has when Atlantic acquired other hospitals, describing the review process "as somewhat more rigorous, in the sense of the amount of information requested was more than we had experienced in the past."
The state reviewed the three other proposals from competing hospital systems to inquire why Chilton chose Atlantic over them, Zastocki said. "They were able to see we have decisive criteria" the other offers did not meet.
Atlantic Health System employs more than 11,000 people throughout Morris, Union, and Sussex counties, and has 1,310 licensed beds, including those at the Atlantic Rehabilitation in Morristown. Chilton Medical Center employs 1,400 people and serves more than 160,000 patients across 33 communities.
Last summer, Atlantic Health, Hackensack University Health Network and Meridian Health announced it had joined forces with about more than two dozen hospitals in Pennsylvania and New York's Hudson River Valley to share money and talent to form the largest alliance of health systems in the country. AllSpire Health Partners, comprised of seven hospital systems, is worth a combined $10.5 billion.
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