Lower Bucks Hospital Up For Sale: Reports

BRISTOL TOWNSHIP, PA —Just days before nurses are expected to go on strike, reports have surfaced that Lower Bucks Hospital is up for sale.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reported on Tuesday that a Los Angeles investment bank circulated a note that three hospitals were for sale. The details from the bank match Prime Healthcare’s three Philadelphia-area hospitals, but it did not name them specifically, Levittown Now reported.

"Prime Healthcare’s mission is to always do what’s best for our communities and patients," said Elizabeth Nikels, Prime Healthcare's vice president of communications and public relations in a statement to Patch Wednesday. "We do not comment on strategic merger and acquisition initiatives."

Prime Healthcare is a for-profit hospital company based in California that operates 45 hospitals and 300 outpatient facilities in 14 states with nearly 50,000 employees.

Those include Lower Bucks Hospital in Bristol Township, Roxborough, and Suburban hospitals.

"We believe it’s incredibly important that Lower Bucks Hospital— as well as the other two Prime Healthcare-owned hospitals in the greater Philadelphia area— remain critical care hospitals for the health and well-being of their patient communities, and it is our great hope that our elected officials will join us in the call for all three facilities to remain open and providing critical care to their communities," said a statement to Patch Wednesday from the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals.

Nurses at Lower Bucks Hospital are expected to strike on Friday.

More than 130 hospital nurses took a strike vote on Dec. 12, approving a potential five-day strike to start Friday and run through the Christmas holiday until Dec. 26.

Lower Bucks Hospital spokeswoman Michelle Aliprantis told Patch earlier this week that the hospital has continued to "bargain in good faith with the PASNAP leadership to reach an agreement in the best interests of our hospital, employees, and, most importantly, those we serve."

She said that proposals were delivered to the union that would increase wages and provide a valuable healthcare plan, maintain important benefits, and be competitive with other hospitals in the market.

The nurses have been working without a contract since their previous three-year contract ended Oct. 12.

In late October, nurses picketed the hospital to protest the staff shortages.

Aliprantis said the hospital has been negotiating with PASNAP since early September for a new collective bargaining agreement.