By Brian Pedersen
The Valley’s largest employer is looking to merge with one of the largest employers in the Poconos.
Lehigh Valley Health Network signed a letter of intent to merge with Pocono Health System, Matthew Burns, media relations coordinator for LVHN, said today.
“Unfortunately, the news broke this morning; we just signed a letter of intent,” Burns said. “We had to notify our employees this morning.”
The news got out ahead of any formal announcement.
It could take months to go through the regulatory approvals to complete the merger, Burns said. Pending completion of due diligence and regulatory approvals, the parties expect the proposed merger to take effect in the first half of 2016.
Wednesday, LVHN announced plans to introduce obstetrics and newborn services in Northampton County for the first time in the health care provider’s history by building a $93.6 million four-story pavilion at its Muhlenberg campus in Bethlehem. LVHN has four hospitals in Lehigh, Northampton and Luzerne counties and 12 health centers in four counties. Headquartered in Salisbury Township, LVHN employs 13,552.
Pocono Medical Center and Pocono Health System, headquartered in East Stroudsburg, celebrates its 100th anniversary this year and has 1,850 employees. Pocono Health System includes 20 family care and outpatient locations.
The boards of directors of both organizations authorized the letter of intent, according to a news release.
“We believe that the residents of the Poconos region will greatly benefit from the merger of these two longstanding, high-quality health care systems,” Jeff Snyder, president and CEO of Pocono Health System, said in a statement. “The combination of our two organizations will mean that Poconos residents will have greater access to the highest-quality clinical care in the region, all delivered locally through PMC, while being supported by the resources and scale of Lehigh Valley Health Network.”
Brian Nester, LVHN’s president and CEO, said the two organizations have a long history of productive partnerships in certain clinical areas, such as the affiliation to provide trauma and radiation oncology services to the region. He said together as a single, integrated system, the two organizations will accelerate steps to develop and grow to bring additional, affordable health care services to best serve the community.
“We look forward to developing with PMC a hospital of the future that incorporates the highest level of clinical competence to provide the highest quality care close to home,” Nester said in a statement. “In addition, LVHN looks forward to the opportunity to provide more integrated care to the Poconos region through population health management, which includes sharing a common electronic medical records system.”
The new name of the hospital at PMC has not yet been decided.
