The New Jersey-based health system announced Wednesday that Capital Health signed a definitive agreement to acquire Trinity Health’s St. Francis Medical Center.

Capital Health operates Capital Health Medical Center Hopewell in Pennington and Capital Health Regional Medical Center in Trenton, two miles from St. Francis. Maintaining and enhancing Trenton’s health care services will be a top priority, executives said.

The deal started with Letter of Intent May, now awaiting customary state and federal regulatory approvals.

“As Capital Health has continued to grow and expand its geography over the past few years, one thing that has become very clear to me is our enduring commitment to Trenton,” Capital Health CEO Al Maghazehe said in a news release . “This work demonstrates that Capital Health will make other significant investments to develop programs that focus on the broader needs of our neighbors and bring a holistic approach to their well-being that will complement it.”

St. Francis was Mercer County’s first hospital in 1874 and remains its only provider of comprehensive heart surgery. St. Francis’ cardiac care will complement Capital Health’s lines of neuroscience, trauma, cancer, obstetrics, orthopedics, emergency and behavioral health services, executives said.

Capital Health has a medical team that includes more than 20 primary care practices and dozens of professional practices. In addition to the academic medical center, Capital Health will acquire St. Francis’ team of physicians, its School of Nursing and Radiology, and its in-house medical residency program.

St. Francis operates as a Catholic hospital under Trinity and will be secular under Capital Health.about The Moral and Religious Directive of the Catholic Church Regarding Catholic Healthcare Services always The essential some acquisitions.

“The trustees of St. Francis Medical Center have spent countless hours identifying the best solutions to continue the mission of the Sisters of St. Francis to provide health care in the city of Trenton,” said Joseph Youngblood, Chairman of the Board of Directors of St. Francis Medical Center. ” Our strengths, combined with that of regional healthcare leader Capital Health, will improve services for residents by providing a fully integrated service network in the City of Trenton.”

According to statistics, as of 2019, the hospital market in Trenton, NJ is highly concentrated. data From the Healthcare Cost Institute. While the city’s overall health care prices were 12 percent higher than the national median in 2019, its hospitalization prices were on par with the median, according to HCCI data.

Trinity Health tried to sell St. Francis along with two other hospitals to Cooper University Health Care, but Cooper exited in late 2017.

Trinity Health, report Operating income in 2021 was $657.6 million on $20.16 billion, up from an operating loss of $344.7 million on 2020 revenue of $18.83 billion. The health system received $489.2 million in COVID-19 relief grants last year.

St. Francis, one of about 88 Trinity hospitals, reported operating income of $942,000 in 2021, breaking a multi-year streak of losses.it record Operating loss for 2020 was $20.2 million.

capital health record In 2020, revenue was $789.1 million and an operating loss of $16.9 million, according to the latest annual financial data available. This is lower than 2019’s operating income of $743.8 million and operating income of $743.8 million.

The health system received $67.4 million in COVID-19 relief grants in 2020.