Steward Well being Care, the bankrupt for-profit hospital chain, plans to shut Carney Hospital in Dorchester and Nashoba Valley Medical Heart in Ayer. The corporate stated Friday that regardless of efforts to promote the amenities, no “certified” affords had emerged.
Steward expects to shut each hospitals “on or about August 31,” in line with an announcement.
“It is a difficult and unlucky state of affairs, and the impact it would have on our sufferers, our staff, and the communities we serve is unlucky,” the corporate’s assertion stated. “We are going to do all the pieces we will to make sure a easy transition for these affected whereas persevering with to offer high quality care to the sufferers we are going to proceed to serve.”
Steward, Massachusetts’ third-largest hospital system, filed for chapter in Might. The corporate operates eight hospitals within the state and dozens extra in seven different states. It’s trying to promote them by means of auctions as it really works to restructure. Steward stated it’s “in lively ultimate negotiations” to promote its different Massachusetts amenities.
Steward doesn’t personal the buildings or land the place its hospitals can be constructed, which has posed a big problem for potential consumers. In Massachusetts, the properties are collectively owned by two actual property corporations. Potential consumers must work out offers with Steward and are available to agreements to lease or purchase the properties.
Gov. Maura Healey, in a written assertion, blamed “greed and mismanagement” for the closures and added, “This isn’t over.” However she stated the state is able to assist sufferers and employees by means of the transition. Healey urged Steward and his house owners to maneuver ahead with gross sales of the opposite hospitals.
“It’s time for Steward and his actual property companions to lastly put the communities they serve above their very own egocentric greed,” Healey stated. “They should get these offers performed which might be of their finest curiosity and in the perfect curiosity of sufferers and employees.”
A gaggle of greater than two dozen elected officers known as on the state to step in and save Carney Hospital, saying it offers essential medical care and addresses disparities in an underserved group. Hospital employees had been nonetheless digesting the information Friday, in line with Karl Odom, 69, a cardiopulmonary technician at Carney for 47 years.
“Everyone seems to be in shock,” Odom stated, describing a hallway the place workers had been gathered in small teams, some crying. “They may have given us extra time, however 30-60 days is a punch within the intestine.”
Rep. Lori Trahan, a Democrat whose district consists of Ayer, stated she plans to name for a federal investigation into the choice to shut Carney and Nashoba Valley.
“Steward executives ought to be ashamed of what they’ve performed to sufferers and suppliers right here in Massachusetts and throughout the nation,” Trahan stated in an announcement. “Their predatory non-public fairness enterprise mannequin targeted on extracting each final penny of earnings whereas ignoring their obligations to their hardworking workers and the households they serve.”
Steward has confirmed that he’s already cooperating with a federal Justice Division investigation into his enterprise practices.
Paperwork filed in court docket earlier this week revealed that Steward didn’t obtain any “certified bids” for his hospitals in Ohio and Pennsylvania. He did obtain one bid for a pair of hospitals in Arkansas and Louisiana. An public sale has not but been held for the Florida hospitals.
In response to Healey, the subsequent step within the means of closing the Carney and Nashoba Valley amenities can be for Steward to hunt choose approval in its chapter case.
Well being and Human Providers Secretary Kate Walsh stated there have been no certified bidders — that’s, affords the chapter court docket would settle for — for Carney and Nashoba Valley, however Steward determined to close them down. Walsh stated the state can’t power Steward to maintain the hospitals open for the same old transition interval, 120 days, reasonably than the 30 to 60 days marketed.
“The state might revoke Steward's license,” he stated, “however they already gave it away.”
Sufferers are additionally voting with their toes, decreasing in a single day stays at Carney and Nashoba Valley to a few dozen sufferers every. The state will attempt to improve entry to pressing care clinics, so sufferers in Nashoba Valley don’t must drive lengthy distances once they have chest ache or indicators of a stroke, Walsh stated.
Steward's different hospitals embrace Morton Hospital in Taunton, Saint Elizabeth Medical Heart in Boston, Good Samaritan Medical Heart in Brockton, Saint Anne Hospital in Fall River and Holy Household Hospital in Methuen and Haverhill. Its Norwood Hospital closed after a flood in 2020 and was not included on the record of hospitals up for public sale.
“We consider we will save 5 hospitals,” Walsh stated of amenities apart from Norwood. Walsh requested Steward, its collectors and the chapter court docket to just accept the certified bids submitted for these hospitals.
“In any other case, there can be nothing left,” Walsh stated.