Virtua Health and ChristianaCare have signed a non-binding letter of intent to explore the co-founding of a regional not-for-profit health system. The combined system would provide care across more than 10 contiguous counties in New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania and Maryland, with more than 600 sites of care, nearly 30,000 employees, and academic programs supporting more than 500 residents and fellows.
“This is an exciting first step in a collaborative journey to amplify the strengths of two trusted health systems,” said Dennis W. Pullin, president and chief executive officer of Virtua Health. “We see this as a unique opportunity to shape the future of care in this region with innovation and intention. Together, we aim to create an integrated regional health system built on human connection, clinical excellence and a deep commitment to all people in the communities we serve.”
Both Virtua Health and ChristianaCare are known for their expertise and leadership in unique care models, including their innovative use of hospital-care-at-home and other new platforms of care delivery that are transforming the health care experience.
“The future of quality health care in America will be shaped by those who take action today to invest in, care for, and be a champion for the needs of patients,” said Dr. Janice E. Nevin, president and CEO of ChristianaCare. “At a time of great uncertainty in health care, ChristianaCare and Virtua Health have the foresight and courage to explore what is possible.”
The future entity would be guided by a shared vision to deliver convenient, innovative, high-quality care across the region, and to make health care more personalized and easier to navigate for patients and families. This vision includes a commitment to create more convenient access to urgent, primary, and behavioral health care and to improve the health of moms and babies through a proposed maternal risk program that would support more than 15,000 births per year.
Both parties will engage in due diligence with the intention of negotiating and signing definitive agreements and seeking regulatory approvals. High-quality patient care and day-to-day operations will remain unchanged during this period. Both Virtua Health and ChristianaCare will continue to operate as separate, independent entities while they explore this potential arrangement.
Marlton-based Virtua Health is a not-for-profit, academic health system with 15,000 colleagues, including 3,000 affiliated doctors and clinicians. Its network includes five hospitals (1,492 beds), two freestanding emergency departments, 42 ambulatory surgery centers, 38 primary care locations, 30 physical therapy and rehabilitation practices, and over 400 additional sites.
Virtua is academically affiliated with Rowan University. It also partners with Penn Medicine for cancer and neuroscience, and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia for pediatrics.
ChristianaCare, headquartered in Wilmington, Del., includes a network of primary care and outpatient services, home health care, urgent care centers, three hospitals (1,430 beds), a freestanding emergency department, a Level I trauma center and a Level III neonatal intensive care unit, a comprehensive stroke center and regional centers of excellence in heart and vascular care, cancer care and women’s health.
ChristianaCare is a nonprofit teaching health system, serving as the Delaware Branch Campus of the Sidney Kimmel Medical School of Thomas Jefferson University and the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine.
