Saint Michael’s Medical Center in Newark has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, in a move that it hopes will expedite the long-awaited sale of the facility to Prime Healthcare.

Executives announced the filing Monday, calling it “a prudent and necessary action to preserve the medical center’s financial viability and the jobs of more than 1,400 employees, as well as a continued choice of health care for the greater Newark community.”

In a conference call, David A. Ricci, chief executive officer and president of Saint Michael’s, said, “We decided that, in order to move forward, we would use the federal courts to help us with telling the story in a very public way to get to a conclusion that we hope is the sale to Prime.”

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