The bankruptcy of the former owner of Holy Family Hospitals in Methuen and Haverhill and Lawrence General Hospital’s successful acquisition of the campuses is among the most significant local news stories of 2024.
The writing seemed on the wall last January when WHAV broke the news that Craig A. Jesiolowski, president of Holy Family Hospital since 2016, was leaving to become president of two hospitals in Illinois. The departure built on WHAV’s reports of hospital parent Steward Health Care being unable to pay for such bills as dialysis services and rent to its landlord, Medical Properties Trust.
Steward went on to report in February that it had secured bridge financing to stay open, only to file for bankruptcy protection three months later.
Also last January, WHAV reported “state regulators took no action as steward health care’s collapse took shape over many years,” noting it had inquired of the state attorney general’s office as early as July of 2022 about Steward’s viability. WHAV asked if the state’s “Non-Profit Hospital and HMO Community Benefits” reporting system gave any kind of early warning system and whether filings confirmed compliance with conditions placed on mergers. Deputy Press Secretary Thomas F. Dalton responded by email, saying, “Enforcement of conditions on hospital mergers varies based on the entity that imposed the conditions (often the Department of Public Health through the Determination of Need program).”
As early as May, Massachusetts Nurses Association Statewide Director Dana Simon appeared before Haverhill city councilors and expressed concern over the future of the Haverhill campus.
“Within the highest level of the administration, there is a resignation, that maybe it’s just not so important to worry about Haverhill surviving,” he said after private conversations with officials.
One of the biggest hurdles threatening potential Holy Family buyers was the real estate under the hospitals was sold for $1.25 billion to Medical Properties Trust in 2016. Despite the challenge, a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge approved a plan to reunite individual hospitals with their real estate deeds. In July, WHAV was the first news outlet to report qualified bids had been received for Holy Family Hospital campuses in Haverhill and Methuen and, in August, the first to name Lawrence General Hospital as the winning buyer at $28 million.
On Oct. 1, in ceremonies in both Methuen and Lawrence, Lawrence General Hospital President and CEO Abha Agrawal celebrated closing on the deal.
“Today is the day when we step out of the fog of uncertainty onto a path of progress forward, creating a healing system of care for our patients and our team. Just a few months ago, we were on the brink of losing Holy Family Hospital, its facilities—beautiful, the care it provides, the jobs it sustains and the economic benefit it creates.”
Sen. Barry R. Finegold praised Agrawal’s success, saying, “To their credit, they pulled it off,” he said, “but the hard part is still in front of us.”