Providence, R.I.-based CharterCare Health Partners announced plans April 12 to purchase and reopen Pawtucket, R.I.-based Memorial Hospital, which closed last year.
CharterCare is part of Los Angeles-based Prospect Medical Holdings, which planned to submit a rival bid with Providence-based Brown University to purchase Memorial Hospital's parent company, Providence-based Care New England, earlier this year. CNE rejected the joint bid and opted to continue negotiations with Boston-based Partners HealthCare.
"Today, we embark on a path to return Memorial Hospital to the people of Blackstone Valley and to restore this critical community asset," CharterCare Health Partners CEO John Holiver said in a statement.
Mr. Holiver said the organization will present an offer to CNE in the coming days, which will include a $10 million capital investment in the hospital. The goal of the acquisition is to reopen the hospital's emergency room and phase in outpatient services, he said.
CNE announced its intent last October to shut down inpatient and emergency room services at Memorial Hospital after an acquisition deal with Ontario, Calif.-based Prime Healthcare fell through. The closure affected approximately 700 employees, according to CharterCare officials.
However, Jim Beardsworth, a spokesperson for CNE, told Becker's Hospital Review April 12 CharterCare's announcement surprised CNE officials, and the proposed deal will prove difficult.
"We made the difficult decision more than six months ago to close Memorial Hospital and begin transitioning the facility into an outpatient center. In the process, we preserved 200 local jobs and positioned community-based healthcare for a solid future. Today's announcement by Prospect Health/CharterCare certainly comes as a surprise as there has been no previous discussion or formal proposal submitted to Care New England," Mr. Beardsworth said.
"Any plan to reopen the closed facility, as suggested today, is simply unfeasible especially since we previously had conversations with CharterCare about buying Memorial and those proved fruitless," he continued. "Today's announcement represents nothing more than an opportunity to muddy the healthcare landscape with an ill-conceived plan with no true thought for serving the community need."