Critics pack hearing, air concerns about Quincy hospital closure

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Specializes in Critical care, tele, Medical-Surgical.

About 300 people filled the Quincy High School auditorium for a hearing Tuesday on the planned closure of Quincy Medical Center.

Dec 3, 2014 at 6:37 AM

QUINCY, MASSACHUSETTS - City residents had a message for Attorney General Martha Coakley and the state's Department of Public Health: Save Quincy Medical Center and hold Steward Health Care System accountable.

Critics of Steward's plan to close the 124-year-old hospital at 114 Whitwell St. by Dec. 31 gave impassioned testimony Tuesday during a public hearing at Quincy High School. Some fear that the absence of a hospital in a city approaching 100,000 residents will result in tragedy for those in need of quick care.

"I am begging you to please not close Quincy hospital or the emergency room, because people are going to die," Christine Smith, a nurse in Quincy Medical's emergency room, said...

... On Nov. 6, Steward, a for-profit company, announced it would close Quincy Medical after years of patient decline. The closure, which Steward says will happen by Dec. 31 despite state law requiring a 90-day notice, will eliminate 545 jobs.

Several residents criticized Coakley for not attending the hearing. Her office is investigating the legality of Steward's plan to close the hospital. When Steward bought the hospital in Bankruptcy Court in 2011, the company agreed to keep the hospital open at least seven years.

In a statement released Tuesday, Coakley, whose tenure as attorney general will end next month, said her office is listening to Steward's claims that the 2011 contract is not in the best interests of the community. She said no decision on the contract has been made...

http://fall-river.wickedlocal.com/article/20141203/NEWS/141209064

Specializes in Geriatrics, Home Health.

First North Adams Regional, now Quincy. I'm not exactly surprised; both hospitals had big financial problems, long before ACA. Considering the nursing glut in Massachusetts, this can't be good for the job market.

At least Quincy is right next to Boston. When NARH closed, taking a VNA and OB practice with it, not only did it eliminate the biggest employer in the area, the closest hospitals are now Bennington and Pittsfield, 45 minutes away, on mountain roads.

Specializes in NICU, PICU, Transport, L&D, Hospice.

All for the purpose of ensuring profits for share holders...

Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.

This is going to be a huge burden to the city services when they have to leave to transport with the ambulance and a burden to the surrounding emergency departments which are already at max capacity.

I thought they had to leave the ED open.

Steward said they would leave the ED open at an alternate location, the state needs to approve the plan. The nurses at Quincy are wonderful and deserve better treatment than this. Shame on the state not holding the hospital's feet to the fire and make them stay open for 10 years.

Specializes in Pedi.

I thought they were opening an urgent care center. Steward is the devil incarnate in my opinion. I wonder if one of the big hospitals will buy the facility and turn it into a satellite much like Children's did with the former Waltham Deaconess Hospital.

Specializes in Geriatrics, Home Health.

This could also be a very bad sign for Carney and St. Elizabeth's, 2 more Steward hospitals.

Specializes in NICU, PICU, Transport, L&D, Hospice.
This could also be a very bad sign for Carney and St. Elizabeth's, 2 more Steward hospitals.

Is Steward like the Bain Capital of healthcare...taking the monetary value out of their holdings and then dismantling them bit by bit to create further cash flow for the stock holders and investors leaving nothing of value for the communities?

Specializes in Pedi.
This could also be a very bad sign for Carney and St. Elizabeth's, 2 more Steward hospitals.

Carney has been failing for years. I think Steward will close several other hospitals before it goes after St. E's though. Drunk BC kids keep their ER running on the weekends.

Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.

They have Haverhill and Nashoba....Nashoba is very small only about 39 inpatient beds. But they have an ER and huge surgical day.

Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.
Steward said they would leave the ED open at an alternate location the state needs to approve the plan. The nurses at Quincy are wonderful and deserve better treatment than this. Shame on the state not holding the hospital's feet to the fire and make them stay open for 10 years.[/quote']

They have submitted no plan.

Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.
I thought they were opening an urgent care center. Steward is the devil incarnate in my opinion. I wonder if one of the big hospitals will buy the facility and turn it into a satellite much like Children's did with the former Waltham Deaconess Hospital.

But that won't solve the issue of ambulances and acute patients that will be turfed elsewhere.

When Wally world closed it was a major burden on the surrounding ER's

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