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Norwood Hospital and its four clinics are next on the Steward chopping block
The state hopes a new operator will take over the under-construction hospital and its associated facilities.
The bankrupt Steward Health Care has halted construction on Norwood Hospital and will close its four affiliated clinics in November, according to a notice filed in bankruptcy court on Monday.
The hospital has remained closed since flooding damaged it four years ago, and construction on the new facility stopped earlier this year when payments from Steward ended. The unfinished structure has been sitting idle since.
The hospital’s satellite campuses, which offer cancer treatments, radiology, and physical therapy, are still operating, but will close on Nov. 5, the same day its state license is set to expire.
Steward Health Care:
The four campuses are Norwood Performance Therapy, Guild Imaging Center of Norwood Hospital, Norwood Hospital Cancer Care Center in Foxborough, and the hospital’s Foxborough site.
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The notice says that most current outpatients will complete their treatment before the closure date. If necessary, the clinics will provide patients with information for replacement providers.
Patients who need longer-term treatment will be notified and helped to transfer their medical records to another outpatient clinic.
“With this notice of closure, we can now focus on moving forward and meeting the health care needs of the Norwood community without Steward, their lenders or the owners of the real estate dictating the path,” said Secretary of Health and Human Services Kate Walsh in a statement.
Walsh hopes a new, “responsible” operator will step up to take over the hospital. The state is prepared to work with any interested parties.
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Steward also needs to present the state with a closure plan as soon as possible that outlines how they will ensure continued access to care in the community and support the workforce.
The Department of Health is working with Steward to ensure a transfer of care and employment of the hospital workers.
Many Norwood-based physicians have already transferred to Good Samaritan Medical Center in Brockton.
Patients who need to move can find services at Good Samaritan Medical Center in Brockton, Morton Hospital in Taunton, Sturdy Hospital in Attleboro, and the MGB Health Care Center in Foxborough.
The Department of Public Health received an official closure notice from Steward, which triggered a public closure process that will allow community members to voice their concerns, questions, and thoughts.
Because the hospital is no longer open, it wasn’t among the six other hospitals in the state that Steward put up for sale this year.
According to the Boston Globe, the company turned over the property to Medical Properties Trust, an investment firm that bought Steward’s hospital real estate nationwide in 2016.
Tony Mazzucco, the town’s general manager, previously told the Globe that he hopes the hospital will reopen one day, even if it takes years.
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“It’s just a matter of time,” he told the Globe. “I was there the night the hospital was evacuated. I’m going to be there when we open the doors, come hell or high water.”
Steward’s original plans, as outlined on the hospital’s website, include building a new hospital with more than 400,000 square feet of space for 130 acute care beds, emergency services, advanced diagnostic imaging, and outpatient services.
About 50 members of 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East still work at the satellite offices and are now trying to find new jobs.
“Norwood Hospital’s healthcare workers and our patients have already experienced so much disruption over the past four years,” said Tim Foley, the executive vice president of the union, in a statement. “Our communities cannot afford to have yet another obstacle placed in the way of the high-quality healthcare we all deserve.”
Foley emphasized that Medical Properties Trust and its mortgage lender “cannot be allowed to determine the future of care for Norwood.”
Healey’s administration previously announced new operators for five of Steward’s seven hospitals in Massachusetts.
Lawrence General Hospital will become the new operator of both Holy Family campuses in Haverhill and Methuen. Lifespan will assume Morton and Saint Anne’s operations, and Boston Medical Center will take over Good Samaritan.
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Steward Health Care closed Nashoba Valley Medical Center in Ayer and Carney Hospital in Dorchester after failing to obtain satisfactory bids for them.
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