LibertyHealth signed a contract Friday to sell Meadowlands Hospital in Secaucus to a Newark-based healthcare investment company that will maintain the 230-bed facility as an acute care hospital, officials said.

January 8, 2010 - The Record

LibertyHealth signed a contract Friday to sell Meadowlands Hospital in Secaucus to a Newark-based health care investment company that will maintain the 230-bed facility as an acute care hospital, officials said.

The sale to MHA LLC, which must be approved by the state, will result in another for-profit hospital in the state.

Meadowlands, which opened 34 years ago, was sold "to ensure its long-term future as an acute-care hospital," said Mark Rabson, director of corporate affairs for LibertyHealth, which also operates Jersey City Medical Center.

"This was not a question of bankruptcy," Rabson said. "Meadowlands was doing better than other hospitals. We thought the new owners would infuse more resources into the facility."

MHA LLC is a newly formed, private investment group headed by William L. Vazquez, a health care executive in Newark with 30 years experience, Bill Maer, a spokesman for the company, said Friday.

The group intends to keep Meadowlands as an acute care hospital, but convert from non-profit to a for-profit facility, Maer said.

"They plan on expanding," he said. "They don't plan on any reduction of services."

It is too early to know if there would be a reduction in staff, he said.

"They're still analyzing this," Maer said. "It's still new, so certainly they'll be spending the next few months analyzing the operation."

The financial terms of the sale are confidential, Maer said. The deal is contingent on regulatory approval by the state health department and the state attorney general, which should occur by Feb. 1, he said.

MHA LLC includes "several" investors, but Maer said he did not know the exact number. "They're generally people involved in health care."

Vasquez, a consultant, is the former vice president of business development at Newark Beth Israel Medical Center and the former chief administrator officer at St. James Hospital in Newark.

The union representing the 450 nurses and other employees at Meadowlands Hospital has reached out to the attorneys representing the buyers and is encouraging them to maintain Meadowlands, which reported 6,414 admissions last year, as an acute care hospital.