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Massachusetts public health officials have activated an “emergency operations plan” to ensure continued access to medical care as the Steward Health Care hospital system faces an increasingly worrying financial outlook.
While Steward’s facilities, including eight hospitals mostly in eastern Massachusetts, remain open, the for-profit company is deeply in debt. State officials, medical providers and patients say they worry about the future of their local health care facilities and the potential loss of affordable and accessible medical treatment.
The state’s Executive Office of Health and Human Services said in a statement Friday that the emergency operations plan included a regional “Incident Command System” to coordinate health care access, keep patients safe, and protect providers’ jobs “in the context of Steward Hospitals’ financial challenges.”
The Incident Command System is “a well-established public health tool” run by the Department of Public Health that brings together state agencies, medical providers, labor organizations, and others in a coordinated response to Stewards’ woes, the statement reads.
Steward employs some 16,000 people in Massachusetts, Gov. Maura Healey said earlier this week.
If the company can sell any part of its health care operations, officials said the Incident Command System will also oversee the transition.
“The Incident Command System incorporates the ongoing external monitoring in all Steward hospitals, enables DPH to rapidly respond to any clinical needs or issues that arise, and fosters increased communication with other regional health care organizations, first responders and community leaders,” Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Robert Goldstein explained.
Gov. Maura Healey takes reporters’ questions about the state budget on Feb. 7 at the Statehouse. (SAM DORAN / STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE)State House News Service
State and national officials have accused Steward’s leadership of financial malpractice, bolstered by reports that executives lived lavishly as the healthcare system crumbled.
The company is reportedly tens of millions of dollars in debt due to missed payments to vendors and its de facto landlord, Medical Properties Trust, which bought Steward’s hospital properties eight years ago and leased them back to the health care company.
Tales from across Steward’s hospital system point to persistent staffing and supply issues as the company’s financial troubles mounted.
St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center, a Steward Health Care facility in Boston’ Brighton neighborhood.Will Katcher/MassLive
In February, Healey called on Steward to wind down its operations in Massachusetts after the company failed to fully comply with her office’s request for key financial documents, MassLive previously reported.
The governor said Tuesday that her office was weighing “different scenarios” as a loan forbearance period for Steward ends.
Steward announced in February that it had secured an additional $150 million in bridge financing, on top of a $600 million loan it received in the summer of 2023, according to Business Wire. That loan would allow Steward “to reset its operations and address vendor obligations,” the wire service reported.
Dr. Gregg Meyer, a longtime executive at Mass General Brigham, Massachusetts General Physicians Organization and Dartmouth Health, will lead the state’s Incident Command System, Health and Human Services officials said in their statement.
He is a practicing primary care physician with “extensive experience in hospital operations and crisis management and is nationally recognized for his leadership in hospital quality and safety and population health,” the statement read.
Material from previous MassLive stories was used in this report.
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