Prime Healthcare Services would add to its string of acquisitions with a deal to acquire St. Mary's Hospital in Passaic, N.J.

St. Mary's Hospital was poised earlier this year to be acquired by Ascension Health Care Network, a for-profit joint venture between the private equity firm Oak Hill Capital Partners and Ascension Health Alliance. But Ascension Health Care Network called off the deal after talks ended with another hospital in Paterson, N.J.

Prime Healthcare, based in Wildomar, Calif., would “financially stabilize” St. Mary's Hospital with a “significant investment,” according to a jointly issued news release on the proposed transaction. Prime Healthcare spokesman Edward Barrera said in an e-mail at deadline additional information on the investment was not available.

A St. Mary's Hospital spokesman did not respond to requests by deadline. For 2010, the most recent year of publicly available data, St. Mary's Hospital reported income of $5.9 million on revenue of $179 million. The hospital's total liabilities exceeded its total assets by $42.4 million for the year, its tax records show.

The deal for St. Mary's must be approved by the New Jersey attorney general and health department. The deal is another move in Prime Healthcare's push to expand nationally, Barrera said in an e-mail.