Through excursions of two of the troubled Massachusetts hospitals owned by Steward Health Care, U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch and others pointed to the impacts of the system’s monetary misery on sufferers and staff and slammed the shortage of economic transparency.
“They’ve gone to great lengths to avoid transparency,” Lynch stated outdoors of the closed Norwood Hospital facility owned by Steward on Wednesday morning. “I think they’re fearful of what we might find in investigating where money went and other transactions.”
Lynch, together with elected officers and representatives from the Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA) and Service Employees International Union (SEIU), toured Steward’s amenities Norwood Hospital — which has been closed as a consequence of flooding and delayed development since 2020 — and Good Samaritan Medical Center in Brockton.
The Steward firm, which owns 9 hospitals in Massachusetts, has been below the highlight since experiences got here to mild that they have been going through $50 million in unpaid lease and a slew of lawsuits alleging that they had not paid employees and distributors.
Several of the hospitals are going through an unsure future, and the corporate has introduced it’s going to shut New England Sinai Hospital in Stoughton.
The excursions come days after Gov. Maura Healey launched a letter telling Steward to seek out “new operators as soon as possible” for his or her Massachusetts hospitals and demanding full monetary transparency from the hospital by Friday.
In response, Steward officers claimed they’ve cooperated with the state and handed over monetary audits in late 2023 and early 2024.
Lynch stated Steward’s claims concerning their audited financials are “totally fictional.”
Like a number of different elected officers, Lynch criticized Steward management and monetary administration, pointing to experiences the CEO Ralph de la Torre purchased two yachts valued over the hospital system’s $50 million lease debt.
“Steward has two missions as a for-profit,” stated Lynch. “One is to generate revenue for their shareholders or private equity firm. Then, they should also try to provide high-quality health care. In this case, I believe those missions were in conflict. And I think the profit motive won out, as I see people sailing on yachts off of Ecuador, and I see the conditions of our hospitals.”
The for-profit enterprise mannequin itself, Lynch argued, created the issues.
If the well being system doesn’t hand over monetary data by Friday, the consultant stated, he’ll be completely happy to “work as a partner” with the state and there are numerous instructions officers might go to escalate stress.
“We could probably issue subpoenas to get that information or to pull officials from Steward Health Care before Congress,” Lynch stated. “They’re not there yet. I’m hoping that the state can handle this and get the answers we need.”
In the meantime, one consultant from the MNA stated the staffing ranges at Good Samaritan Hospital are “atrocious,” and all types of assets have fallen by the wayside.
“They just stop paying the vendors,” stated Kathy Reardon, a former nurse at Norwood Hospital and MNA consultant, noting nurses have been quick on issues so simple as paper to print prescriptions on. “They pick and choose who they pay, I believe, and what equipment that they’re paying for.”
Reaching out to Steward in regards to the points, Reardon stated, the nurses have heard “crickets.”
More impacted hospitals and well being companies have chimed in because the unsure way forward for Steward hospital’s have impacted sufferers.
“As Steward Health Care faces financial uncertainty, we want to directly reassure our patients receiving care at St. Elizabeth’s and other Steward facilities that Dana-Farber Cancer Institute is committed to ensuring that they will not experience any interruption in their oncology care,” Dana-Farber President and CEO Laurie Glimcher stated in a press release Wednesday. … “As we monitor this situation closely, it’s important that our patients know without a doubt that we are here for them now and always.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com”