A judge approved the sale of beleaguered Landmark Medical Center to Prime Healthcare Services, marking what is expected to be the end of a five-year search to find a buyer for the 133-bed community hospital in Woonsocket, R.I.
Rhode Island Superior Court Judge Michael Silverstein approved the sale last week and set a closing date of Dec. 31. The acquisition was already cleared by the attorney general and the state health department.
Landmark Medical Center entered bankruptcy protection in 2008. Steward Health Care System in Boston pursued an acquisition for years and, in order to make it possible, lobbied successfully for a law that allows for-profit companies to buy more than one hospital in Rhode Island every three years.
The private equity-backed system eventually backed out of the deal in September 2012, and Prime, a for-profit health system based in Ontario, Calif., announced its bid later that month. —Jaimy Lee