Englewood Health CEO Warren Geller loves to rattle off the metrics that quantify the success of the single-entity hospital system based in Bergen County.
“We’re coming off our best year in our 135-year history,” he said. “Our quality numbers are off the charts, and we’re returning another surplus from operations back into the communities that we serve.”
Geller and his group want more.
That’s why, on Monday morning, they announced a definitive agreement to be acquired by RWJBarnabas Health, one of the state’s two large health systems.
Complete coverage on the merger announcement
- RWJBH, Englewood Health sign definitive agreement to merge
- Englewood’s Geller on decision to join RWJBH: ‘This does so much for us’
- RWJBH-Englewood merger: How one call started it all
The agreement, which requires state and federal regulatory agreement, is not likely to be approved until 2027.
Geller said he’s proud of what Englewood has been able to accomplish – but looks forward to the day it can do even more.
“This does so much for us,” he told BINJE.
“It takes the strategy that we believe in, which they believe in, and puts it on steroids. It allows us to touch so many more lives, because that’s what it’s about at the end of the day.”
As part of the agreement, RWJBH will invest $500 million into Englewood Health.
RWJBH CEO Mark Manigan said the system does not have a specific purpose for the investment in mind — saying Englewood has excellence all around — but that RWJBH will help it expand its abilities over time.
Geller, however, said Englewood will see a benefit from Day One.
“You’re talking about gaining access to the Cancer Institute in New Jersey,” he said “Our docs are going to be so proud to put RWJBH and Rutgers on their lab coats, get access to hundreds of additional clinical trials, do things like partnering with them on CAR T-Cell therapy.”
Geller said he’s most proud of what the two systems have in common.
“The synergies are beautiful,” he said. “We both have a huge focus on quality that’s about pushing the care out into the communities, so people have unfettered, affordable access to care.”
That commitment means a lot, Geller said.
“They are the leader in charity care, and we’re in the top one, two or three every single year on our tax return on the community benefit report — how much we’re returning to the
community, how much charity care we’re giving, how much we’re reaching out to the underserved,” he said. “That’s our inherent responsibility.
“We make decisions so that the community says, ‘Wow, we entrusted you with our health system and you treated it like your own,’ and that’s exactly what RWJBarnabas does.”
More than anything, Geller said RWJBH shares Englewood’s Jersey-first mentality.
“When you’re sick and you’re scared, you don’t want to travel far for your care — and you don’t have to,” he said. “Our goal is to keep people in New Jersey. To let people know that it’s a myth that New York has perpetuated for years, that you have to come east of the Hudson. It’s just not true.”
