In an unexpected turn of events, Care New England and Southcoast voted to terminate their previous agreement to affiliate. Chair of the Southcoast Health Board of Trustees Jean MacCormack and Chair of the Care New England Board of Directors Charles R. Repucci announced the decision Monday.

"Care New England and Southcoast share a vision of creating a healthier community through community-based care," said Reppucci in a statement. "We believe both organizations will continue in their unrelenting pursuit of this goal. Yet, for Care New England, we now believe the full extent of our mission as teaching, research and clinical organizations will be better served through today's decision. We wish all of our colleagues at Southcoast continued success in their commitment to excellence and to community."

The potential partnership was announced last November, and the two made another announcement in May of this year that they would be proceeding with closer affiliation. Just last month, the pair announced they had submitted the first of several regulatory filings necessary to move forward with the proposed affiliation. But since then, while preparing the filings and conducting due diligence reviews, Care New England and Southcoast say they realized their “visions for a combined system could no longer be achieved.”

“We have a great deal of respect for our counterparts at Care New England, their staff and their high-quality programs. However, we believe that it is best for both parties to end affiliation discussions,” said MacCormack. “When we entered into this process, we did so with the promise that we would always keep the best interests of our patients, communities, physicians and staff at the forefront of our deliberations. We held true to that promise throughout this process, including with today’s announcement.”

Executive Vice President of SEIU District 1199NE Patrick J. Quinn, the largest union of Care New England workers, reacted soon after the announcement to sever. The union’s members had long been questioning the impact the merger would have made on their services, especially because the new entity would have been located out of state, he said in a release.

“To ensure the best possible outcome for patients and for hospital workers in Rhode Island, we were prepared to evaluate the proposed merger once an application had been filed under the process laid out in the RI Hospital Conversions Act,” he added. "We will remain vigilant to review any future proposed mergers. Hospital workers know that the best way to ensure good jobs, safe staffing, and quality care in a changing health care landscape is to be united with one another in a strong union."

SEIU District 1199NE represents over 2,300 hospital workers in Women & Infants’ and Butler Hospitals – 200 of which joined the union since Care New England and Southcoast first announced their potential partnership.

Care New England is the parent organization of Butler Hospital, Kent Hospital, Memorial Hospital of Rhode Island, Women & Infants’ Hospital of Rhode Island, the VNA of Care New England, The Providence Center, CNE Wellenss Center and Integra. It includes 970 licensed beds and 216 infant bassinets.

Southcoast is a nonprofit, community based health delivery system that services Southeastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island. It has a network of three hospitals and a behavioral health center, and provides advanced clinical services like open heart surgery, angioplasty and heart rhythm services, comprehensive cancer care, weight loss surgery, surgery, advanced, and maternity services.