Corrected and updated Friday, Feb. 2, at 9 p.m.
Steward Health Care said Friday it has secured a deal to help stabilize operations and keep its Massachusetts hospitals open for now.
"Despite troubling news reports about our Massachusetts hospitals, I want to inform you that Steward has agreed upon the principal terms for a significant financial transaction to help stabilize our company," Steward's Executive Vice President Michael Callum wrote in a Feb. 2 memo to staff obtained by the Press Tuesday afternoon.
“The funding allows us to continue operations in Massachusetts,” he wrote. “To be clear we have no plans to close any of our hospitals in Massachusetts,” the memo continues, adding, however, that the financing would give Steward time to consider “transferring one or more of our hospitals to other operators.” No hospitals in Steward’s network were named, but Nashoba Valley Medical Center has been rumored to be on the list.
State Sen. Jamie Eldridge, who represents Ayer and Harvard, told the Press in a brief phone call Friday evening that he was relieved Nashoba Valley Medical Center would not be closing in the near future. However, he hoped Gov. Maura Healey and the Legislature “can take a harder look at our health care system and embrace reforms to ensure that these types of close calls never happen again.”
Eldridge said he remained concerned about Nashoba’s future because as a small community hospital it has always, in his view, been overlooked by Steward. Exhibit A, he said, is that despite his communication with Ayer town officials and the governor's office, he had yet to hear from anyone on Nashoba’s senior leadership team. He was given a copy of Callum’s memo by a Steward lobbyist, he said. “It would have been a greater reassurance to hear from somebody who actually works at the hospital.”
Nashoba’s president, Sal Perla, is also president of Norwood Hospital, presently closed due to flooding in 2020. The Press attempted to reach a spokesperson at Nashoba Valley Medical Center for comment, but as of Friday evening there was no response.
This is a developing story and will be updated as more information becomes available.
Updated Feb. 2 at 9 p.m.
