Norwood town leaders hopeful to find new operator to reopen hospital

Norwood General Manager Tony Mazzucco will never forget the day Norwood Hospital filled with floodwater in 2020.

That flooding forced the hospital to close and it hasn’t reopened ever since.

“We need our emergency room back and we need the hospital back,” said Mazzucco. “We would have preferred somebody to operate the hospital a couple years ago, we certainly would have preferred it never shut down.”

Now four years later, Mazzucco says this area is still suffering from its loss.

“Now we have to go to Needham, we have to go to North Attleboro, we have to go to Boston, as everyone knows Norwood may be 10 miles as the crow flies to Boston, but that could be 25 minutes or two and a half hours depending on traffic, and those drive times are just unacceptable for emergency services,” said Mazzucco.

Now that Steward Healthcare is out of the picture after filing for bankruptcy, Medical Properties Trust has been rebuilding the hospital.

The real estate company has already invested more than 175 million dollars into the reconstruction.

“We are eager to complete the rebuild of Norwood Hospital and restore the critical general acute care services it provided to the community for many years prior to the tragic storm,” an MPT spokesperson said in a statement.

“It’s putting a strain on our EMS services and our police services, not just in Norwood, but it’s important to know even though we refer to it as our hospital here in Norwood, it’s a regional hospital, the catchment area of the hospital is more than a dozen towns and 250,000 people,” said Mazzucco.

Mazzucco says this hospital needs to be reopened as soon as possible.

He believes construction will take another two years, but the next big step is finding an operator to run it.

“We think the time is getting close that we’re going to know who’s going to be operating the hospital,” said Mazzucco.

Mazzucco says he believes they’ll know by the first of the year who may take over Norwood Hospital to finally get it reopened.

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

Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts.

Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW

©2024 Cox Media Group