The owner of Holy Family Hospitals in Haverhill and Methuen said Friday it is seeking to sell its physician group and private jets as part of, what it calls, a “six-point action plan” to save the company.
As WHAV previously reported, Friday was a state deadline for Steward Health Care to meet certain demands, including producing financial records. The company said its lenders agreed to continue to withhold taking collections action against the chain through April 30 “to give the company time to execute this plan.”
“First and foremost, we want to continue to do the right thing for patients, our staff and our communities. That is our commitment going forward. In the future, that will take a different form, but the mission remains the same,” said Dr. Michael Callum, Steward’s executive vice president for physician services and interim president of the northeast region.
Steward said the $150 million loan it received, partially from its landlord, is the first of the six points and provides “financial stability” while the company seeks to sell, what it described as “its highly desired asset physician group Stewardship Health.”
To maintain staffing and levels of care, Steward noted new labor agreements with Massachusetts Nurses Association and Service Employees International Union and up to $40,000 per hire in referral fees to existing employees who help recruit nurses “at its busiest hospitals.”
The company added it seeks to sell its controversial private jets and other “non-essential assets” and hired Alix Partners, a turnaround consultant, to advise on restructuring the company. As WHAV reported first in January, this includes “new leadership within the northeast region.”
In its six-point plan, Steward also pledged “cooperation and transparency in Massachusetts,” explaining it provided “a significant amount of detailed and relevant financial documentation to various state agencies and regulatory bodies and moving forward it commits to do even better.” The company acknowledged it has “supplied draft statements with footnotes” for those years where its audited financial statements are “incomplete.”
Finally, the company pledged, senior Steward representatives “intend to meet with public officials in the Commonwealth to discuss the go forward plan for ensuring continued first-class care to its patient population.”