Waterbury Hospital has voted to merge with LHP Hospital Group and Saint Mary's Hospital and create a new $400 million hospital to replace the two hospitals.
“This is an historic day for our organization,” Carl Contadini, chairman of Waterbury Hospital’s board of trustees/directors. “After serving this community for over 120 years, we have taken a significant step toward ensuring that the community’s needs will continue to be met for years to come.”
Officials at Greater Waterbury Health Network said in August that they had signed a letter of intent to merge with the previously announced joint venture between LHP Hospital Group, Inc. and Saint Mary's Health System.
The proposal is for LHP will have an 80 percent ownership stake in the new organization, with Waterbury Hospital and Saint Mary’s Hospital each owning a 10 percent interest.
The Waterbury Hospital membership board voted on Monday and the hospital has submitted a Certificate of Need to the state.
“After thoroughly analyzing the health care needs of the greater Waterbury region, we concluded that coming together with LHP and Saint Mary’s to build a modern, state-of-the-art replacement facility would bring the best in health care to patients for generations to come,” Carl Contadini, Chairman of The Waterbury Hospital Board of Trustees, said in August.
LHP will own an 80 percent interest in the combined joint venture, with GWHN and Saint Mary’s each owning a 10 percent interest. All three will share governance.
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The next step in the regulatory process will be filing a certificate of need for the new hospital. Officials from all three organizations expect to file that CON within the next two months. After that, a fourth and final CON will be filed detailing a separately-run "Ambulatory Surgical Center" for reproductive services.
Then, the state Office of Healthcare Access and the state Attorney General’s Office, as well as federal regulators must approve the entire transaction.
Officials previously said the joint venture will allow Waterbury Hospital to retire all of its existing debt and provide security for its pensioner.
