Saint Michael’s Medical Center.

 Ontario, Calif.-based Prime Healthcare Services has been given final approval to acquire Saint Michael’s Medical Center, in Newark, N.J. The process has taken three years!

Prime will buy Saint Michael’s for $62 million and invest $50 million to modernize the hospital. Prime  also promised to  keep “substantially all” of the hospital’s 1,400 employees.

Saint Michael’s officials said the  transaction’s extended consideration is the main reason that the inner-city hospital had to file for protection under the U.S. Bankruptcy Act last August.