Steward to close an ‘essential’ Stoughton hospital in April

A Steward Health Care hospital in Stoughton will be closing amid the troubled hospital operator’s financial struggles and its standoff with Gov. Maura Healey.

New England Sinai Hospital has 39 rehabilitation service beds, 119 chronic care service beds, and outpatient services. Steward let the state know back in December that the hospital would be closing April 2.

Steward blamed “skyrocketing” costs, a negative 1,600% decrease in their financial performance, and a lack of reimbursement from federal health care plans in their notice to the Department of Public Health in January. This echoes Steward’s overall financial troubles first announced earlier this year.

Steward also wrote that New England Sinai Hospital is underperforming, with an average of more than 100 unoccupied beds daily since 2022. Their notice listed other hospitals in the Stoughton area to serve patients, including facilities in New Bedford, Braintree, and Boston.

DPH: ‘Services provided by the Hospital are in fact necessary’

In February, DPH found that New England Sinai Hospital is essential to their service area. Steward was then required to submit a plan to show how the hospital’s services could be maintained in the region. DPH accepted their proposal earlier this month, but Steward would not release details of the plan.

“As previously announced on March 13, 2024, New England Sinai Hospital will close on April 2 and all patients have been discharged in accordance with our plan filed with, and accepted by, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts,” Steward said in a statement.

Steward also plans to close Saint Anne’s Hospital’s geriatric psychiatric satellite unit located at New England Sinai on April 2, according to state documents.

Steward Health Care’s other medical centers include Morton Hospital in Taunton, Nashoba Valley Medical Center in Ayer, Carney Hospital in Dorchester, Good Samaritan Medical Center in Brockton, Holy Family Hospitals in Haverhill and Methuen, Norwood Hospital, and St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center in Brighton.