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Steward Health Care has announced its selling Glenwood Regional Medical Center in West Monroe. Steward has filed for bankruptcy and is looking to sell several of its 31 hospitals in eight states. The Glenwood hospital has been struggling with staffing and supply issues and State Representative Mike Echols says it’s time for Glenwood to have a new owner.
“I talked to those employees daily that are up there trying to keep the wheels on it. It’s horribly sad to watch so many people either lose their jobs or patients lose access because of the corporate greed of Steward Health Group,” Echols said.
The company says they intend to sell by the end of June. But complicating the issue is that the building and land are owned by Medical Properties Trust. Echols says once the leaders at Steward are investigated…
“I think you’ll start to see the connections to Medical Properties Trust, and that can create a larger antitrust or some other potential fraud issue. It’s ripe for an American greed story from my perspective,” Echols said.
As for a prospective buyer, Echols says he’s been told the medical community has reached out to Ochsner, Willis-Knighton, and other regional medical facilities.
“The best case scenario would be one of the existing hospitals, that’s within a few miles of it, can lease it and operate it still so we have some continuity in care and can keep the emergency rooms open and keep the specialists in the markets serving our patients,” Echols said.
Glenwood has been cited repeatedly by the Louisiana Department of Health for putting patients in immediate jeopardy of harm. A statement from Steward Health Care said they do not expect interruptions in daily operations due to filing for bankruptcy.
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