Saint Vincent parent company seeks to raise $1.4B to cover expenses

Photo | Grant Welker Saint Vincent Hospital nurses picketing outside the Worcester hospital in the early days of the 300-day strike, which ended in January 2022.

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By Brad Kane

Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare Corp., the parent company of the Worcester facility Saint Vincent Hospital where nurses are engaged in a long-running strike to lower patient staffing ratios, announced on Tuesday it is raising $1.4 billion from investors.

The move, which is fairly routine for large public companies, will be used to pay off the expenses and redeem all of its outstanding 5.125% lien notes that are coming during in 2025. The offering of the $1.4 billion in new lien notes at 4.25% is expected to happen on June 2.

Members of the Massachusetts Nurses Association union have been striking at Saint Vincent Hospital for 74 days, with a variety of demands but mainly over the nurse-to-patient ratios, which the MNA has been trying to lower at hospitals throughout Massachusetts for the past four years. In the latest measure, Saint Vincent announced on Tuesday it would permanently hire up to 102 non-union nurses to replace the striking nurses.

Saint Vincent has argued its nurse-to-patient ratios are in line with other Massachusetts hospitals, although the MNA says the hospital's ratios should be lowered for patient safety. The union has argued the for-profit Saint Vincent and Tenet can afford to hire more nurses, as Saint Vincent has a $74-million net surplus in its most recent fiscal year while the entire Tenet network had $414 million in profit in the fourth quarter.