"Our view is that it would be advantageous to take sophisticated medicine to people where they live in the community," Joan Fallon, executive vice president of external relations at Tufts, tells GlobeSt.com. If completed, the hospital would be the first built in the state since 1980 when the Lahey Clinic was constructed in Burlington.

Although no firm plans have yet been developed for the project, Fallon says the hospitals plan to issue a request for proposals later this month. That RFP would reportedly include the construction of a 500,000-sf medical facility with up to 200 beds at a cost estimated of about $300 million.

Fallon says that while both hospitals remain committed to their Boston campuses, each saw the partnership as an ability to expand their reach outside of the city. The partnership began about nine months ago, she says, when New England Baptist chief executive Joseph Dionisio approached Ellen Zane, the executive director of Tufts New England Medical Center. At the time, she says, both hospitals were in the midst of a strategic planning process and decided to join forces in an expansion bid.