Four years after severe flooding shut down Norwood Hospital, the bankruptcy of Steward Health Care has led to a closure notice.
Massachusetts' Norwood Hospital has been closed since it was damaged in a major flood about four years ago, and rebuilding was halted by the bankruptcy of owner Steward Health Care.
Four outpatient clinics associated with the hospital, which offer cancer care, radiology and physical therapy, have continued to operate. But on Monday, notice was filed in bankruptcy court that Norwood Hospital will officially close by Nov. 5, and the clinics will wind down as well.
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The affected facilities are Norwood Performance Therapy and Guild Imaging Center of Norwood Hospital in Norwood and Foxboro CT and Norwood Hospital Cancer Care Center at Foxboro in Foxborough. The notice specifies that Steward "will adjust the date for cessation of clinical operations at each Satellite as necessary to ensure safe patient care."
Steward's bankruptcy has roiled health care in Massachusetts, which intervened to keep several hospitals open. Shuttered Norwood Hospital was not included in the sale process, however.
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Asked about the new filing Monday, Massachusetts Secretary of Health and Human Services Kate Walsh said that Steward will have to file a plan outlining continuity of care for the community and employment, and that the Healey administration is ready to work with any potential new owner who may come forward.
"With this notice of closure, we can now focus on moving forward and meeting the health care needs of the Norwood community without Steward, their lenders or the owners of the real estate dictating the path," Walsh said in a statement. "We are hopeful that a new, responsible operator will step up, and we're prepared to work with any interested parties. Steward must also present us with a closure plan as soon as possible that outlines how they will ensure continued access to care in the community and support the workforce."
More on the Steward Health Care crisis
The clinics will have to close because the hospital's license, which they've been operating under, expires Nov. 5, according to the department, which is continuing to monitor patient care at the clinics.
Patients can expect to be informed ahead of time to make sure they'll continue getting care, officials said, and they can reach out to their provider directly with questions about the best place to keep getting treatment — other options in the area include Good Samaritan Medical Center in Brockton, where many of Norwood's physicians have alreday transitioned, as well as facilities in Taunton, Attleborough and Foxborough.
The community will also be able to speak out about the closure of Norwood clinics through an established public closure process.
The town's general manager, Tony Mazzucco, emphasized that the hospital was already out of service, and that the impact of Monday's "quite sudden" notice is on several dozen people who "got next to no notice that are suddenly out of a job."
As for the hospital, Mazzucco said he is "confident that the hospital is going to reopen with a new operator," given that it serves a quarter of a million people and was profitable before the flood.
Gov. Maura Healey was asked about Norwood Hospital at her Aug. 16 news conference announcing the deal to keep several operating Steward hospitals open under new management, including, in one case, through eminent domain. Healey said at the time Norwood was "not in the mix right now," describing it as "under bubble wrap."
"We'll see what happens with Norwood at some point in the future," Healey said.
Most Steward-owned hospitals still operating in Massachusetts have transitioned to new owners through Healey's intervention, but Carney Hospital in Dorchester and Nashoba Valley Medical Center in Ayer shut down.
Union official Tim Foley, of 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, said it's important that workers receive support from the state in Norwood and Foxborough.
"Norwood Hospital’s healthcare workers and our patients have already experienced so much disruption over the past four years. Our communities cannot afford to have yet another obstacle placed in the way of the high-quality healthcare we all deserve," Foley said in a statement Monday.
