Mission Hospital CEO Chad Patrick is leaving the company and will be replaced by President of HCA Healthcare's North Carolina Division Greg Lowe, the company announced Monday. The move, first reported by the Asheville Watchdog, comes as HCA faces legal action, a potential nurses strike and continued staffing issues. State Attorney General and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Josh Stein filed suit against the health care giant in late 2023, alleging non-compliance with the terms of the sale of Mission to HCA. In June, HCA took remedial action to remove the hospital from "immediate jeopardy" status with CMS.
Insight Health Systems began assessing Trumbull Regional Medical Center and Hillside Hospital in Warren on Thursday. Insight has fully taken over as temporary manager-operators of the facilities. Assessing the poor conditions left by former operators, Steward Healthcare, could take several weeks.
The newly renovated Williamson Memorial Hospital has now received a license from the West Virginia Office of Health Facility Licensure & Certification, which will allow the facility to operate a 76-bed general hospital. Officials say the new certification will also let Williamson Memorial provide 24-hour in-patient medical and nursing care. Williamson Health & Wellness Center acquired Williamson Memorial after it closed in April 2020.
The CEO of one of South Florida's largest healthcare networks has resigned following a negative review from the hospital's board. Scott Wester, who was hired in 2022 under a three-year contract to run Memorial Healthcare System, resigned Wednesday, and the board voted unanimously to terminate his contract a day later. The board was not in agreement with the strategic plan Wester had presented for the future of the healthcare system. David Smith, Memorial's chief administrative office, will take on the role of interim CEO.
Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) asked what the witnesses would have done with the $800 million dividend Cerberus siphoned out of the hospital in 2016, or the $40 million de la Torre spent on the larger of his two yachts. Ellen MacInnis, a 26-year veteran of St. Elizabeth's hospital in Brighton, suggested she might start by paying off the elevator mechanic. "I work on the 10th floor and there are supposed to be six elevators and one is working, and even that one [only] works most of the time," said MacInnis. Steward administrators devised a bizarre if creative solution: "They gave us these sleds, to drag patients who can't walk in an emergency, or if there's a fire in the building," she said. "I'm 65 years old. Do you think for one minute I can haul a patient down a flight of stairs in a sled? This is lunacy!"
Lawmakers will vote to hold Steward Health Care CEO Ralph de la Torre in contempt of Congress next week after he declined to appear at a hearing Thursday on Capitol Hill where he was subpoenaed to testify. The company, which had owned more than three dozen hospitals across eight states, declared bankruptcy earlier this year and has been struggling to find buyers for its facilities. Last week, de la Torre's attorney wrote to the committee, saying his client would "not participate" in the hearing, asserting the testimony needed to be postponed until after Steward's bankruptcy proceedings were resolved. The committee's chairman, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, refused to postpone the hearing, where lawmakers also heard from health care workers and local officials in communities impacted by Steward's bankruptcy.