The sale of Caritas Christi Health Care to a private equity firm finally closed on Nov. 6, after a long and very public review that ended with a stamp of approval from the state Supreme Judicial Court. But the real action is only beginning.
Ask Caritas executives what happens next, and they point to an ambitious list of improvements at many of its six Massachusetts hospitals. All of those projects — from a cardiac catheterization lab at Norwood Hospital to a new cancer treatment center at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Boston to a new operating rooms at St. Anne’s Hospital in Fall River — are on track to be completed next year.
But all those laudable projects are surely only half the story. The other half: Caritas expansion plans that will almost certainly involve trying to buy other hospitals and physician groups or entering business affiliations with other practices.