Health Care

With the state's commitment to the life sciences sector still tied up in an inter-branch dispute among Democrats, industry leaders acknowledged challenges on Tuesday including a record vacancy rate for lab space in Massachusetts, slower job growth, and a decrease in venture capital funding.

The independent watchdog keeping an eye on care at Steward Health Care hospitals urged the state, the company, and its lenders and creditors to take action to lessen the devastation that the looming closure of Nashoba Valley Medical Center in Ayer is having, and will continue have on people who live in the Central Massachusetts region.

A Steward Health Care lawyer tells a judge the bankrupt company is close on deals to sell five of its Massachusetts hospitals and hopes to present formal proposals soon, then no details of the deals come to light and the company again delays the hearing at which it is expected to seek court approval of the transfers.

UMass Memorial CEO Dr. Eric Dickson said he hopes to work with the state to provide some healthcare facility for the Nashoba Valley region, although no formal discussions have taken place.

None of the deals to transfer six Massachusetts hospitals from bankrupt Steward Health Care to other operators have been consummated and they remain under mediation, a Steward lawyer confirmed Thursday during a hearing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court.

Gov. Maura Healey's plan to rescue five bankrupt Steward Health Care hospitals could cost Massachusetts taxpayers $700 million by 2027, the Boston Globe reported Saturday, citing "people with direct knowledge of the bailout plan."

Three Worcester nonprofits have been named among the first recipient cohort of Massachusetts’ new grantmaking program Mosaic Opioid Recovery Partnership, an initiative providing funding to grassroots organizations working to reduce harm caused by the ongoing opioid epidemic within communities disproportionately affected and historically underserved. 

SALMON Health and Retirement has named Susan Dooley as the Milford senior care provider’s new chief marketing officer.

Slamming an "impotent charade of oversight," the state's largest nurses union renewed its call for the Healey administration to prevent the closure of Carney Hospital and Nashoba Valley Medical Center after regulators said both facilities provide "essential service."

Carney Hospital and Nashoba Valley Medical Center each provide an "essential service necessary for preserving access and health status" in their areas, public health regulators concluded this week.