BOSTON (SHNS) – The splintering of Steward Health Care’s former hospital system in Massachusetts became complete Tuesday as hospitals in Boston, Brockton, Fall River, Haverhill, Methuen and Taunton officially were handed over to new owners in a realignment that tilts the state’s health care world towards greater regionalization.
Steward’s exit from Massachusetts about 14 years after it shook up the industry when it took over the faith-based Caritas system will see existing nearby hospital groups expand their footprints in (and in one case into) Massachusetts, but the significant shuffling all takes place among the tier of operators just below the two big juggernauts of Mass General Brigham and Beth Israel Lahey Health, which have dominated the Boston-area landscape under various names for years.
For state government, the day marked “a new chapter for health care in Massachusetts” as the bankrupt Steward’s exit from the state was completed nearly a year after its financial problems first forced a crisis. Steward already closed Carney Hospital in Dorchester and Nashoba Valley Medical Center in Ayer, but the governor’s office said access to care was preserved for hundreds of thousands of patients and more than 13,000 jobs were maintained at the hospitals that changed hands this week.