Steward Health Fiasco Could Have Been Prevented
The tough economics of health care have battered hospital finances. Something like a hospital stabilization trust fund might help these critical facilities from having to close down.
Private equity and health care is a toxic mix for one hospital chain.
Photographer: Spencer Platt/Getty Images
As if being treated in bat-infested hospitals weren’t bad enough, now those that rely on Steward Health Care Systems LLC’s facilities for urgent medical care may have nowhere nearby to go in an emergency. That’s because Steward, one of the largest private for-profit hospital operators in the US, has filed for bankruptcy protection and just announced that two locations in Massachusetts — where most of its 30 facilities are located — will have to close. The fate of its other hospitals across the country are up in the air.
The private equity-owned chain — which, yes, owned a Florida location teeming with 3,000 live bats — has been a slow-motion public health disaster for years. This sad saga raises questions not only about managerial malpractice but also a lack of regulatory and political oversight in a critical industry. Could it have been stopped? Or, better yet, can we stop the next Steward from happening? Better management certainly ought to be possible in a country where each person spends an average of $13,500 a year on health care but where life expectancy has fallen.