Haverhill

Another Part of Haverhill History Goes Away with Mass General Brigham Downtown Rebranding

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(Additional photographic and historic development plan below.)

New outdoor signs replacing the storied Pentucket Medical name in downtown Haverhill do not reflect any new change in medical care, but rather rebranding after a series of mergers dating back to 1999. Mass General Brigham spokesperson Alexandra Virginia Pantano told WHAV that new “Mass General Brigham Healthcare Center” signs facing Main Street and other locations in Andover, Lawrence and Newburyport represent only a name change and, “There are no changes for patients at this time.”

“While internal signage, website information and the patient portal has showcased the Mass General Brigham brand for several years, the exterior signage was recently updated,” she said. The removal of the “Pentucket Medical” name severs a connection to more than a half century of Haverhill history. During the same time, local ownership of most other hospitals and health care providers also gave way to out-of-town corporate consolidation. For many years, Pentucket Medical operated at 116 Summer St., before the company partnered with then-Columbia, Maryland developer Frederick Glassberg of Crysen Haverhill Limited Partnership.

Haverhill

2024 in Review: Lawrence General’s Longshot Bid Saves Holy Family Hospital in Methuen, Haverhill

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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.

Haverhill

Hospital Oversight Bill Adds Penalties for Missing Filings, Limits Sales/Leaseback Deals, More

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Lawmakers rushed a hospital oversight bill to Gov. Maura Healey on Monday, agreeing on policy responses to the Steward Health Care crisis that aim to better regulate private equity firms and stiffen penalties for entities that fail to submit required information. The health care market reform bill would give state health regulators and Attorney General Andrea Campbell more regulatory oversight and enforcement authority over transactions involving private equity investors, health care real estate investment trusts and management services organizations. Officials have blamed Steward’s private equity-funded purchases of such hospitals as Holy Family Hospital in Methuen and Haverhill and its later sale and leaseback of the hospitals’ buildings at inflated prices as factors behind the company’s bankruptcy. The late-session breakthrough leaves little time for any back and forth with Healey on potential changes to the bill and essentially gives the governor a take-it-or-leave-it dynamic where she can sign the bill into law or let it die by pocket veto since the legislature that drafted the sweeping bill is about to dissolve. The bill increases penalties for hospitals that fail to comply with data reporting requirements, mandates that lessors notify the state 60 days before repossessing medical equipment, overhauls how regulators manage care costs and assess resources, and blocks the Department of Public Health from issuing a license to establish or maintain acute care hospitals whose main campuses are leased from a real estate investment trust.

Beacon Hill News

Legislature Set to Pass Bills Partly Responding to Collapse of Steward Health Care

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By Colin A. Young

Democrats, who have been negotiating separate health care industry oversight and pharmaceutical drug reform bills for months, said Friday night they resolved their differences and plan to put the bills up for votes this week in the final days of the two-year term. One bill promises to strength state oversight to guard against the kind of failure at Steward Health Care that threatened Holy Family Hospital campuses in Haverhill and Methuen, among other properties. Senate President Karen E. Spilka suggested the so-called Steward response bill will not be the legislature’s last word on the subject. “Additionally, the entry of private equity into the health care space has had profound and lasting effects on providers’ ability to deliver care, and we are still trying to understand its full impact. While it is vital that we continue to study those effects and take action in the future to further mitigate them, the market oversight bill begins to address the damaging role of private equity and put important initial guardrails in place to attempt to prevent another crisis like the one faced by Steward,” Spilka said.

Business Bulletin

Lawrence General Hospital Earns Sustainable Healthcare Certification

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Lawrence General Hospital, which recently took ownership of Holy Family Hospitals in Methuen and Haverhill, last week earned The Joint Commission’s Sustainable Healthcare Certification by making environmental sustainability through decarbonization efforts a priority. The certification demonstrates Lawrence General’s achievement in establishing structure, rigor and accountability to accelerate these efforts. They are the first in the state, first in New England, and one of only 11 hospitals in the country to earn the recognition. Lawrence General underwent a rigorous virtual review Dec. 12.

Health

Methuen Says AMC Movie Theater ‘Cooperating Fully’ to Address Rodent Problem

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Methuen says the AMC movie theater at The Loop will remain closed while it is undergoing deep cleaning and other measures to resolve “a rodent issue.”

Mayor David P. “D.J” Beauregard’s office said in a statement Wednesday, the city’s Department of Health, Human Services and Inspections has been on-site and found the issue is isolated to the movie theater and not surrounding businesses, adding, the theater is “cooperating fully.”

“Inspectors are also working with management at The Loop to proactively identify and address any opportunities for improvement in pest exclusion measures. Other businesses at The Loop undergo routine pest control and are fully compliant,” the statement added.

Haverhill

Haverhill High Grad and Cancer Survivor Lemieux to Run in Boston Marathon to Raise Research Money

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A Haverhill High School graduate aims to raise $10,000 for cancer research ahead of next year’s Boston Marathon. Jillian Lemieux, a lifelong runner and cancer survivor turned Dana-Farber Cancer Institute employee, has raised more than $2,500 of her $10,000 goal for Dana-Farber Cancer Institute for research and development on new treatments for the disease. During high school, Lemieux was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, a rare cancer that affects the lymphatic and immune systems.

“I received six months of treatment at Dana-Farber,” she told WHAV. “That led me back to why I started working there too because I received such amazing care there and the doctors and everyone were genuinely so nice. It’s just a special place so it all came full circle, so this feels like the right time to try to take on the marathon.”

Paired with her experience, Lemieux said her late mother’s experience in the 1980s with the same type of cancer and later breast cancer inspired her involvement in helping cancer patients.

Business Bulletin

Healey’s and Agrawal’s Roles in Saving Holy Family Hospital Take Center Stage at Chamber Dinner

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(Additional photograph below.)

Monday’s annual meeting of the Merrimack Valley Chamber of Commerce brought together the two women most responsible for saving Holy Family Hospital in Methuen and Haverhill. Gov. Maura T. Healey thanked Lawrence General Hospital President and CEO Abha Agrawal as she was honored with the Ralph B. Wilkinson Award, the Chamber’s highest honor. The governor put in place the state’s response to the bankruptcy of Steward Health Care, while Agrawal made the bold bid to buy the hospital with campuses in two neighboring cities. Healey praised Agrawal as “the right leader at the right time.”

“What a mess when we got the word that Steward was going out of business,” she said. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad they’re out of the state.