Waterbury Hospital has found a new buyer. The financially troubled institution could be acquired by a California-based hospital group.
Prospect Medical Holdings is the latest suitor for Waterbury Hospital. Prospect currently operates 13 hospitals and 40 clinics and outpatient centers in California, Texas, and Rhode Island.
This latest partnership has come together after Tenet Healthcare pulled out of a deal to buy Waterbury and four other hospitals in the state, complaining about overly burdensome state regulations.
Prospect’s Tom Reardon said he doesn’t see an issue ahead. "We’re trying to keep this deal very simple," he told WNPR. "The last deal was so complicated, and complexity is the enemy of a deal. Secondly, we’ve spent a lot of time over the last month and a half meeting with the governor’s office, and the legislative leadership, and the AG, and others, and we think Connecticut is open for business."
Waterbury would become a for-profit institution as part of the purchase — that’s been a source of concern for unions and patient advocates in the past.
But CEO of the hospital Darlene Stromstad said those fears are misplaced. “We will have all the services in the future that we have today, and, I would add, then some," she said. "Our goal is to grow this organization. Additionally, Prospect has good, proven relationships with the union, and we will be meeting with them in the very near future.”
Prospect also said it is interested in buying other hospitals in the state, but it hasn’t yet disclosed any other potential deals. The financial terms of its partnership with Waterbury weren’t made public.
