Bethlehem, Pa.-based St. Luke's University Health Network has acquired Easton (Pa.) Hospital from Steward Health Care, a for-profit system based in Dallas.
St. Luke's, a nonprofit system, completed the deal about five months after signing a letter of intent with Steward and a month after announcing it would move forward with the deal.
Steward said Easton Hospital had faced financial challenges for months and was on the brink of closing in March after canceling profitable elective surgeries in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In May, the health system said it would close Easton Hospital if the deal fell through.
"While it is our sincere hope and belief that that the transaction will be concluded, we also want to let you know that, in the unlikely event that the transaction does not occur, we will have no alternative but to close the hospital," Easton Hospital President Linda Grass wrote in a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act notice filed in May, according to The Morning Call.
With the acquisition complete, the hospital has been renamed St. Luke's Hospital Easton Campus. It is the 12th hospital in St. Luke's system.
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