The situation at the Steward Health Care hospitals in Massachusetts is unacceptable. First Parish Stoughton’s Social & Climate Action Committee recently sent this letter to their CEO:
March 3, 2024
Dr. Ralph de la Torre, CEO Steward Health Care System Corporate Headquarters 1900 N. Pearl Street, Suite 2400 Dallas, TX 75201
Dear Dr. de la Torre:
As Unitarian Universalists, it is the collective duty of the First Parish of Stoughton, Massachusetts to demand you take immediate action to address the crisis facing Steward-owned hospitals in Massachusetts.
Many in our community live close to Steward-owned Good Samaritan Medical Center in Brockton, Massachusetts, which is where we and our loved ones are transported in emergencies. Many of our family, friends, and neighbors either work or have sought routine care at Good Samaritan. Recently, we have heard troubling stories from Good Samaritan – stories of special ICU beds being repossessed because of unpaid bills, leading to more pressure ulcers in patients in critical condition. Stories of canceled surgeries because of missing supplies. Even a story from nearby Steward-owned St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center, where a patient died after surgery because, as reported in the Boston Globe, “the hospital’s inventory of…devices had been repossessed…[because] Steward Health Care, the parent company for St. Elizabeth’s, hadn’t paid the bill.”
Unitarian Universalists hold the inherent worth and dignity of all people as a central tenet of our faith. Access to healthcare is a key part of respecting each person’s worth and dignity so the current state of Steward-owned hospitals is an affront to this tenet. No healthcare worker should face the trauma of having to care for patients in these dire conditions. No patient should be exposed to these conditions, and yet many of Steward’s patients seek care there because they do not have the resources to seek care elsewhere. No amount of corporate debt can excuse these conditions.
Standing alongside rank-and-file healthcare workers, the Massachusetts State Delegation, and Governor Healey, we decry your organization’s current handling of this situation. First Parish Stoughton calls upon you to take immediate steps to address the ongoing crisis of dignity in Steward-owned hospitals in Massachusetts.
Sincerely,
Greg Shea
on behalf of the Social & Climate Action Committee of First Parish Stoughton
