Steward reaches deal to take over Quincy Medical Center
GREG DERR/ THE PATRIOT LEDGER
Quincy Medical Center
By Jack Encarnacao
QUINCY — A for-profit investment group that recently purchased eight hospitals in Massachusetts has reached a deal to take over the struggling Quincy Medical Center.
Steward Health Care System, a Boston-based company established last year by private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management, will buy the nonprofit hospital in a deal approved Monday by the hospital’s board of trustees.
The deal was announced to Quincy Medical Center employees on Tuesday afternoon.
Hospital officials would not comment on the dollar value of the deal, citing negotiations that still need to take place with bondholders.
Steward bought six hospitals in the former Caritas Christi system last year in a deal valued at $830 million.
Those hospitals include Norwood Hospital, Carney Hospital in Dorchester and Brockton’s Good Samaritan Medical Center.
The company subsequently bought Merrimack Valley Hospital in Haverhill and the Nashoba Valley Medical Center in Ayer. Steward also recently reached a deal to buy Morton Hospital in Taunton.
It will take at least a few months for the Quincy Medical Center deal to become finalized because the aspects of the deal must be negotiated with bond holders. The deal also needs state regulatory approval.
The hospital, which has a $6 million operating deficit tied mostly to declining patient volumes, is carrying $56 million in debt.
The hospital just skipped a monthly payment on those bonds as it sought a partner to help stabilize its finances.
For more on the deal, read Wednesday’s Patriot Ledger.
Jack Encarnacao may be reached at jencarnacao@ledger.com.
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Hospital employees breathe a sigh of relief at the news of medical center takeover
By Chris Burrell
QUINCY — Glee was the chief reaction of many Quincy Medical Center employees late Tuesday afternoon when they got the news that a for-profit investment group had just struck a deal to take over their 196-bed hospital.
“I’m pumped,” said dietary supervisor Kristin Miller, minutes after reading an email from the medical center’s interim CEO, John N. Kastanis. “I’ve been here a long time, and I don’t want to see this hospital close.”
Hospital workers from telephone operators to intensive-care nurses had been worried about the future of Quincy Medical Center and seemed to breathe a collective sigh of relief.
“We’ve been teetering for the past year knowing that we need to be bought,” said Paula Ryan, head of the local nurses’ union at the hospital. “We’re very happy, and this is a good thing for us.”
Ryan, a registered nurse who has worked at the hospital for 43 years, has high hopes for the medical center’s new owner, Steward Health Care System.
“The building needs some work. It’s been ignored for years,” she said, “and we have to get out in the community, marketing to attract people. Attract more surgery.”
Employees were most relieved to read this pledge from Kastanis to roughly 1,100 employees: “But you should know that pay, benefits and staff levels will remain as they are today.”
Vera Salibashi, a nurse technician from Quincy, said, “As long we’re not unemployed, that’s all that matters.”
As Chris Kirschner walked into work for his evening shift as an MRI tech aide, he expressed relief and optimism.
“There’s been talk up and down of layoffs,” he said. “I hope (Steward) brings a lot of potential for the hospital.”
Vanesha Moore of Brockton, who just started working in the billing office, said she has confidence in Steward because she goes to one of its hospitals for all her medical care: Good Samaritan Medical Center, one of six hospitals in the former Caritas Christi system that Steward took over last year.
Margaret Wayshville of Weymouth, a hospital telephone operator for nine years, summed up what many employees expressed: “I’m psyched. Quincy needs a community hospital.”
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