Haverhill

Petitioners Plan Rally at Haverhill Holy Family Hospital Campus Before Delivery of Demands to Healey

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While the deadline for bidding on, and auctioning off, some Steward Heath Care-owned properties extended to mid-July, activists return to Haverhill today to tell state leaders to save Holy Family Hospital’s Haverhill campus and Nashoba Valley Medical Center in Ayer. The deadline to bid on the hospitals has been extended to July 15 with auctions set for July 18. As WHAV reported last month, Massachusetts Nurse Association Statewide Director Dana Simon told Haverhill city councilors he learned from private conversations with officials that Haverhill’s campus is a great risk of closing absent state intervention. “Within the highest level of the administration, there is a resignation, that maybe it’s just not so important to worry about Haverhill surviving,” Simon said. The public, advocates, caregivers and former patients were to gather at 10 this morning at Zin’s Park, across the street from the Haverhill campus of Holy Family Hospital, before sending a delegation to delivering petitions signed by residents of Haverhill and Ayer to the Gov. Maura T. Healy’s office.

Haverhill

Judge Approves Hospitals July Sale Plan; Councilors Implore Healey to Save Haverhill Campus

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A federal bankruptcy court judge on Monday blessed the process that bankrupt Steward Health Care plans to use to sell or auction its 31 nationwide hospitals and physicians network in the coming weeks, including Holy Family Hospital campuses in Haverhill and Methuen. “Today we’re just outlining procedures and process, and that is what this motion is really about. We’re not picking a winner today, we’re picking a process that will allow parties’ rights and provide transparency to the process, and that’s what today is really about, and that’s what this motion is requesting,” Judge Christopher Lopez said after hearing about half an hour of arguments, almost entirely in support of the timeline Steward proposed. The timeline that Lopez approved Monday sets a deadline for bids on Steward’s Massachusetts hospitals and hospitals in other states aside from Florida of June 24 and schedules sale hearings to be held before the judge on July 11. Steward is proposing to sell its physician services network, Stewardship Health, along the same timeline.

Haverhill

Campaign to Save Haverhill Campus of Holy Family Hospital to Target Top State Officials

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Editor’s note: An analysis of stories WHAV has reported over the last 10 years suggest what was once the separately licensed Haverhill hospital was set up to be abandoned in just such a situation as the one now unfolding. Evidence suggests the Haverhill and Methuen Holy Family Hospitals were combined under a single license a decade ago specifically to more easily allow the jettisoning of the former Hale Hospital, later Merrimack Valley Hospital. Over the last few weeks, state officials have declined to address questions posed by WHAV about risks of the now-shared license. A local movement to save Holy Family Hospital’s Haverhill campus is brewing. As Steward Health Care faces bankruptcy proceedings, advocates warned at a recent City Council meeting the state may give up on the city’s only hospital, as WHAV previously reported.

Haverhill

Nurse’s Union Leader Reports Lack of State Resolve to Keep Holy Family Hospital’s Haverhill Campus

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The state may give up on Holy Family Hospital’s Haverhill campus amid Steward Health Care’s financial turmoil, a leader in the state nurse’s union told city councilors last night. “Within the highest level of the administration, there is a resignation, that maybe it’s just not so important to worry about Haverhill surviving,” Massachusetts Nurses Association Statewide Director Dana Simon said he learned from private conversations with officials. He said he recently noticed a subtle shift in the state’s initial promise to keep all Steward hospitals open. “If you parse some of their public statements, they’re starting to soften on that. They’re saying, ‘it’s our core concern to ensure as many of the hospitals as possible survive.’”

In his view, closing some hospitals over others is a political calculation.

Haverhill

Update on Steward Health Crisis at Tonight’s Haverhill City Council Meeting; Trustee Names Monitor

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Speaking on how to continue care at Holy Family Hospitals in Haverhill and Methuen, a representative of a Lawrence-based nonprofit is expected to pose possible next steps during the ongoing Steward Health Care crisis at tonight’s City Council meeting. Council President Thomas J. Sullivan invited Merrimack Valley Project Community Organizer Julio Mejia to discuss the subject. Steward, which owns Holy Family, declared bankruptcy May 6. Though the healthcare giant said its facilities will remain open, the Lawrence General Hospital medical affairs chief reports the quality of care is decreasing. State Public Health Commissioner Robbie Goldstein disputed the sentiment, saying “we don’t want people with chest pain driving past the Holy Family campus to go someplace else.

Haverhill

Lawrence General Hospital Medical Affairs Chief: Holy Family’s ‘Care is Clearly Declining’

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As state officials continue to encourage people to seek care at Steward Health Care’s eight hospitals in Massachusetts despite the company’s bankruptcy, a doctor from a neighboring hospital said the messaging doesn’t tell the whole story of what is actually happening on the ground. Since Steward filed for bankruptcy in Texas last week, Gov. Maura T. Healey and others have sought to make clear that the legal proceeding does not necessarily mean that anything has changed for patients, urging people to keep their appointments at Steward facilities and encouraging residents to seek emergency care at Steward hospitals without reservation. Public Health Commissioner Robbie Goldstein told the Public Health Council on Wednesday that the state’s “consistent message to patients in the community has been and continues to be that all Steward hospitals in Massachusetts remain open, patients should keep up with their health care needs, maintain their appointments, screenings and tests.”

But the chief of medical affairs at Lawrence General Hospital, which is near to Steward’s Holy Family Hospital in Methuen and Haverhill, told the council that underneath the state’s rhetoric “is a reality, which is that in spite of these hospitals remaining open, their level of intensity of care is clearly declining.”

“And that’s a message that is not really advertised, but it is real. For the ones that are next door to them, we can see that vital support services—not just having emergency room physicians and nurses, but you need to have orthopedics, neurosurgery, you need to have all of these other things to be able to care for these patients. So, what we are finding is that they get in, they get evaluated, but then they get transferred out.

Guest Column

Rep. and Mrs. Vargas: Our Experience ‘in the Hands of Family’ at Holy Family Hospital

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Recently, my wife Rikelma and I welcomed our second son into the world at Holy Family Hospital. It is the second time in a little over two years that we have been awed by the care, enthusiasm and commitment of the nurses, doctors and staff at our community hospital. Much has been written and covered regarding the fiasco caused by Steward Health’s corporate mismanagement (to put it kindly). Not enough has been said or written about the people who show up to work every day at these facilities and the high standards they maintain for their vocation. When we arrived at the hospital, the first thing we noticed were several familiar faces from a few years prior.

Haverhill

Gov. Healey, AG, Health Officials Say Bankruptcy of Holy Family Parent Brings Order to Company Chaos

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Gov. Maura T. Healey, the attorney general and health officials yesterday said Monday’s bankruptcy filing by the owner of Holy Family Hospitals in Haverhill and Methuen is a positive step that will bring order to the company’s disruptive chaos. The governor, accompanied by Health and Human Services Secretary Kate Walsh, Attorney General Andrea Campbell, Public Health Commissioner Robbie Goldstein, labor leaders and others, emphasized all Steward Health Care hospitals remain open and patients should keep their appointments. Healey also noted state public health officials remain on-site at each hospital to “ensure the highest standard of care.” Healey’s press conference was carried live by WHAV. “The purpose of a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing is to provide an orderly way to deal with debts and liabilities and to potentially transfer ownership while continuing to operate and serve patients. Ultimately, this is a step towards our goal of getting Steward out of Massachusetts,” she said.