Government and Politics
September 27, 2024
From: Massachusetts Governor Maura HealeyBoston - Governor Maura Healey today formally seized St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center in Brighton through eminent domain to keep the hospital open. This action will allow the state to take control of the property and transition operation of the hospital to a new medical services provider, Boston Medical Center (BMC).
“While Apollo continues to put its greed ahead of the health and wellbeing of the people of Massachusetts, we are taking action to make sure St. Elizabeth’s remains open. By transferring operations to Boston Medical Center, we will protect access to care for tens of thousands of patients and save thousands of jobs,” said Governor Maura Healey. “Our administration is committed to ensuring smooth transitions at the five Steward hospitals that we were able to save, and supporting the communities impacted by Steward’s closure of Nashoba Valley Medical Center and Carney Hospital.”
As part of the legal process to take the hospital, Governor Healey declared that if St. Elizabeth’s were to close, it would create a public health emergency due to the large volume of patients currently served by the hospital and the resulting disruption to the delivery of medical services in the region.
Governor Healey’s action come after her administration announced that new operators had been secured for five of Steward’s seven hospitals in Massachusetts. Lawrence General Hospital will become the new operator for both campuses of Holy Family in Haverhill and Methuen, Lifespan will assume operations of Morton and Saint Anne’s, and BMC will take over Good Samaritan. These transfers of ownership are expected to go into effect on October 1.
BMC and Steward previously reached an agreement to transfer the operations of St. Elizabeth’s to BMC, but asset management firm Apollo refused to accept BMC’s bid for the real estate. Governor Healey’s action today will allow the hospital to remain open and serving patients
St. Elizabeth’s is a crucial provider of hospital services to traditionally underserved populations, including MassHealth and Medicare patients. Its closure would put vulnerable patients at risk who would no longer have access to emergency services, maternity care, behavioral health services and inpatient care. Further, inpatient capacity in the Boston area remains at record highs, and the more than 60 patients currently at St. Elizabeth's would not have immediate access to health care.
Earlier this week, Governor Healey announced working groups focused on stabilizing and revitalizing health care in communities impacted by Steward Health Care’s closure of Nashoba Valley Medical Center in Ayer and Carney Hospital in Dorchester.