Nashoba Valley Medical Center workers rally to keep the facility open amid Steward Health crisis

AYER, Mass. — It has fewer than a hundred beds, but Nashoba Valley Medical Center is one of few hospitals in north central Massachusetts -- and that’s why employees and public safety personnel want to keep it open.

“There’s no justification for the loss of any bed or any service in Massachusetts at this time,” said Katie Murphy, president of the Massachusetts Nurses Association. Murphy’s remarks came at a press conference in downtown Ayer to petition Governor Maura Healey to do whatever it takes to keep Nashoba Valley open.

At the very least it is fated to change owners. Steward Healthcare took over Nashoba Valley in 2011 and now the company is bankrupt. Steward is looking to sell all of its hospital properties nationwide, including eight in Massachusetts. Even as the news conference was going on in Ayer, Steward lawyers were in a bankruptcy hearing in Houston, Texas, to determine how its hospital properties would be sold. Steward, created by a capital investment firm after its purchase of the former Caritas hospital chain, is heavily in debt -- mostly because of back rent payments.

Asked how it is to work for Steward, Nashoba Valley Emergency Department Nurse Audra Sprague, who’s been at the hospital for 16 years, said, “Terrible, to be perfectly honest with you.”

Sprague said the hospital is in a financial pattern of ‘borrowing from Peter to pay Paul’ -- even to the extent that hospital grounds recently went unattended. Sprague said a hospital employee and her husband finally cut the grass.

“Nothing they’ve ever done is for the benefit of the hospital or the community,” said Sprague. It’s always been a matter of what makes them money -- and what is the best for them.”

Steward would not comment on the bankruptcy proceedings or the concerns at Nashoba Valley. For now, the company is keeping its hospitals open using money, in part, from a loan provided by Medical Properties Trust, which actually owns the real estate Steward’s Massachusetts hospitals sit on.

Losing any hospital would be a blow to the Massachusetts health care system -- which is already dealing with overcapacity issues. Still, uncertainty about the future is creating anxiety among Nashoba Valley workers.

“You know everybody’s worried and nervous,” said Sprague. “There hasn’t really been much transparency from anybody. as to what’s going on.”

Also concerned about Nashoba Valley’s future: paramedics.

“Delay in care is a problem when you close a hospital like this,” said David Greenwood, president of the International Association of Firefighters Local 2544 at the Ayer Fire Department. “We’re not the city of Boston fortunate enough to have a hospital on every street corner.”

The three closest hospitals to Ayer are Emerson, Leominster, and Southern New Hampshire Medical Center. They are 12-18 miles away and non-rush-hour travel times run from 20-35 minutes.

But in rush-hour traffic... all bets are off.

“And if the call’s at 3:30 in the afternoon going to Emerson Hospital you’re looking for an hour plus ride back with the traffic,” said Greenwood. “Roughly about 80 percent of our patients are transported to Nashoba. Several thousand patients a year from Ayer alone go to Nashoba.”

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

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