By HFT Staff

RWJBarnabas Health (RWJBH) and Saint Peter's Healthcare System announced that New Jersey has approved their transaction to create the state's first premier academic medical center, to be located in New Brunswick. 

Establishing the center would fulfill a long-held goal of New Jersey to transform academic healthcare in the state, increase services and patient access to primary and specialty care, especially for children and vulnerable populations, address historic racial disparities in health outcomes, and offer a higher level of clinical care for residents. 

A Community Healthcare Assets Protection Act review is required under state law for transactions between non-profit, charitable hospitals to determine if they are in the public interest. 

"The applicant has met the requirements necessary and [the transaction between RWJBH and Saint Peter's] will serve in the public interest and the public good resulting in the creation, the hopeful creation and anticipated creation, of the premier New Jersey academic medical center which would benefit the citizens of this state," says Superior Court Judge Lisa Vignuolo.