A commemoration event was held at Danbury Hospital Thursday to celebrate the merger between Nuvance Health and Northwell Health.

The newly formed system across Connecticut and New York will serve millions of patients at more than 1,000 care locations and 28 hospitals.

In Connecticut, Danbury, Norwalk, New Milford and Sharon hospitals are part of the Northwell system.

Officials say the merger will advance innovation, expand access to care and medical research, plus help recruit talent.

The CEO of Northwell says they are excited to bring their level of care to their new communities.

"We try to provide the holistic picture in a comprehensive way providing all services to all people in the community. And all people by the way no distinction of the circumstances. It's serving everybody, respective of whether or not they have insurance, don't have insurance," says Mike Dowling.

The merger establishes the largest not-for-profit health system in the Northeast.