LEOMINSTER — Gov. Maura Healey said during a stop Thursday in Leominster that she doesn't have the power to stop bankrupt Steward Health Care System from closing Nashoba Valley Medical Center and Carney Hospital in Dorchester. Her comments were recorded on a Facebook page called Save Nashoba Save Lives.
Healey also said she's pushing Steward to meet the state's 120-day notification requirement before closing the hospitals. Steward announced in late July that it would close Nashoba and Carney by the end of August.
The governor's statements come one day after a federal bankruptcy judge in Texas ruled Steward can move ahead with its plan to close the hospitals on Aug. 31.
"I feel terrible about what is happening in the communities, and this is Steward's doing," Healey is heard telling nurses in the Facebook recording.
Nashoba nurses are heard telling Healey the hospital is profitable and there are interested buyers. However, the nurses told Healey that Nashoba needs some of the $30 million the state is offering Steward to stay financially afloat so its hospitals can keep going until buyers are locked up.
One issue that concerns Nashoba nurses is the state set a condition that Steward won't get the $30 million until it signs deals to sell its other six hospitals in Massachusetts. If Nashoba was able to get a portion of the money, then nurses believe the hospital would be in a better position to attract a buyer.
The $30 million represents an advance on funds owed to Steward from MassHealth, the state's Medicaid insurance program, according to state officials.
Steward is also spreading false information about Nashoba hospital's viability, according to nurses in the video. They told Healey 37 patients were recently admitted on a particular day, not 11 asserted by Steward. Nurses also said 18 beds can't take patients because they're physically broken and Steward hasn't fixed them.
Meanwhile, nurse Audra Sprague declared in a separate interview that she won't stop working at Nashoba Valley Medical Center until Steward turns the lights out.
That could happen by the end of this month after Wednesday’s court ruling.
“It’s crazy. It’s so detrimental to the whole community of Nashoba Valley,” said Sprague, an emergency department nurse for the past 17 years and co-chair of the hospital’s nurses' union affiliated with the Massachusetts Nurses Association.
Steward has said in court documents it must close Nashoba and Carney Hospital in Dorchester because the facilities are losing money, and no qualified buyers have entered the picture. Nashoba is profitable, said Sprague, but Steward is cutting costs, patient volume is down, and the level of care is not as strong as it could be.
Hoping for emergency declaration
“Not in our mind,” said nurses’ union spokesman David Schildmeier when asked if Wednesday's court ruling means it's a done deal that Nashoba will imminently close. The ruling authorized closure but didn’t mandate it, said Schildmeier, so there is still a chance to keep both Nashoba and Carney open.
It can happen, said Schildmeier, if Healey declares a state of emergency like former Gov. Charlie Baker did in March 2020 at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. A public health emergency is warranted, he said, because the lives of patients who depend on Nashoba and Carney are at stake if those institutions close.
If an emergency is declared, the state can tap into its rainy day fund to keep both hospitals open until Steward inks a deal with a buyer, said Schildmeier, who put the fund's balance at $8 billion.
State Sen. Jamie Eldridge, D-Marlborough, was an organizer of a rally Wednesday at the State House to keep the hospitals open. He called Nashoba “attractive” to potential buyers because it has low overhead and is operating at a profit.
Eldridge suggested the state offer a bridge loan to a qualified buyer or tap the rainy day fund.
In addition, the nurses union believes the bids considered unqualified by Steward could turn legitimate. Wednesday's court ruling nullified onerous land and building leases Steward pays on its Massachusetts hospitals that reportedly total more than $100 million annually. Now that lease payments can possibly be negotiated at lower rates, buyers that were considered unviable by Steward may reenter the picture. Also, new buyers could step forward now that lower lease payments are a possibility.
No direct response
Healey’s office did not respond directly to the nurses association’s assertion that the judge’s ruling didn't mandate Nashoba's closure, or to whether talks are ongoing with Steward, its creditors and other parties to keep Nashoba open.
In addition, the administration had no direct response to the possibility of declaring a public health emergency and tapping into the rainy day fund.
What Healey’s office did supply was a prepared statement from Kate Walsh, secretary of the executive office of health and human services, that said it shared the frustration of the impending closure. It also called on Steward to follow the state’s 120-day process of giving official notice of closure before a hospital shuts down.
Regardless of whether the process is followed, the state has no legal authority to require the owners of a hospital slated for closure to keep it open.
State lawmakers failed to bring bills to a floor vote by the close of this year's legislative session on Wednesday that would give the state Department of Public Health more regulatory oversight over health care systems that want to shut down hospitals.
State Rep. Margaret Scarsdale, D-Pepperell, a community served by Nashoba, said the work continues to keep Nashoba open. “It’s absolutely a vital lifeline for our communities, and we will come together as forcefully as possible to make it clear we’re staying in the fight,” said Scarsdale.
Shaky job prospects
Sprague isn't worried about her job prospects should Nashoba close. With her experience, she's confident of securing another job. But the longtime service workers at Nashoba, like the kitchen and maintenance staff, could find it tough going.
“They will have a hard time, and it’s not fair,” she said.
Telegram reporter Kinga Borondy contributed to this report.
Contact Henry Schwan at henry.schwan@telegram.com . Follow him on X: @henrytelegram .
This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Not a done deal? Fight continues to keep Nashoba Valley Medical Center open
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