St. Luke’s University Healthcare System signed an asset purchase agreement with Steward Health Care of Dallas, the owner of Easton Hospital, to transfer to SLUHN effective on July 1.

“Integrating an existing hospital into a health network can be challenging, even during the best of times, let alone during a global pandemic. However, St. Luke’s has always welcomed challenges,” said Richard A. Anderson, president and CEO of St. Luke’s.

“After diligent evaluation and thoughtful discussion, our board of trustees felt that the acquisition of Easton Hospital was the right thing to do for the health and well-being of the Easton community in spite of recent media reports and predictions of Easton Hospital’s demise.”

The announcement comes nearly two decades after St. Luke’s and Easton Hospital first explored the possibility of merging. The two organizations engaged in extended discussions in 2001 before Easton Hospital’s board of trustees decided to sell the hospital to for-profit hospital company Community Health Systems of Franklin, Tennessee. Community Health Systems sold Easton Hospital to Steward in 2017.