Princeton HealthCare System and the University of Pennsylvania Health System announced that they have signed a Letter of Intent to pursue a partnership.

“We will focus on crafting an agreement that promotes the best interests of our patients and the community we have served for almost a century as well as our employees and physicians,” said PHCS President and CEO Barry Rabner. “We are confident this partnership will enable PHCS to continue providing our patients superior access and quality close to home with the support of advanced capabilities of a healthcare system that is widely recognized as one of the country’s best.”

PHCS announced in June 2015 that it would begin evaluating partnership opportunities and ultimately considered 17 potential partners, hospital officials said. Penn “stood out as the best fit,” said Rabner.

Rabner said the PHCS team considered Penn Medicine’s high quality care, its respected Perelman School of Medicine, its financial position, comprehensive scope of services and expertise in information technology. 

The Letter of Intent will launch a period of due diligence and additional negotiations to reach a definitive agreement. The two systems will then seek regulatory approvals, a process that could take up to a year to complete.