After 34 years as a nurse at St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Brighton, Susan Church is worried about losing the job she loves and the community she cares for, as uncertainty swirls around Steward Health Care's eight operating Massachusetts hospitals.
"A lot of us have been here for 30 or 40 years. We all stayed because we do the best job we can for our patients. We care about this community," she said.
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Church, other health care providers and community members from Allston and Brighton rallied in front of the hospital on Monday -- the day before a deal a deadline central to efforts to keep the for-profit Steward hospital network afloat.
The system has eight hospitals operating in Massachusetts, but as financial woes have come to light and politicians have accused Steward operators of failing to disclose financial information to state regulators, the company is looking to sell its physician network. Gov. Maura Healey and other elected officials have called for Steward operators, who they have said are "greedy," to pull out of the state.
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Steward announced in late February that it had secured a "robust financing agreement that will provide a $150 million cash infusion to provide additional liquidity as the company marches towards the sale of its highly desired asset physician group Stewardship Health."
"This allows Steward to reset its operations and address vendor obligations, which it is working diligently to resolve in service to getting to a sustainable operating model," a release put out by the company on Feb. 23 says.
Lenders agreed to the loan through April 30 to give the company time to execute the plan. With that deadline on Tuesday, Steward hospital workers say they have received little information about what's going to happen to the hospitals and their jobs.
"Our members are really concerned that the hospitals will close," Cari Medina, vice president for Local 1199 of the Service Employees International Union, told the News Service. "They're super concerned about Steward declaring bankruptcy, they want to know what happens to their jobs. But more importantly, they care about each other and their community, because this will affect patients too."
Health and Human Services Secretary Kate Walsh told lawmakers last week that there was the potential for a bankruptcy filing and acknowledged that state receivership of hospitals had been discussed. She said "there's much about this situation that we don't control" but also emphasized that the state is "prepared to respond."
"Every day at 7:30, we have a stand-up call with leaders across government, external counsel, people across the health care system, other colleagues in other parts of government, to discuss what we know, what we've learned and how we're going to proceed," she said.
Still, workers are nervous about the future.
"(Health care workers) want to know that they're not going to show up tomorrow and have there be locks on the doors," Medina said.
The Healey administration has held private meetings on preparations for various transition scenarios, but Medina said 1199 SEIU -- which represents 5,200 workers in Steward hospitals -- has not been invited to those conversations. They have, however, received communications from the Department of Public Health, she said.
Rep. Kevin Honan of Brighton, as well as Boston City Councilors Liz Breadon, Erin Murphy and Ed Flynn came to the rally to show their support for keeping the hospital open.
Honan said he had been born at St. Elizabeth's, as had all of his family.
"This institution is more than an institution, it's such a strong part of this community that is so important to us," Honan said.
