Norwood Hospital

History

20th century

Norwood Hospital's roots lie in a medical practice created around the turn of the 20th century. In the 1900s, the small town and surrounding communities were first served by a small practice housed in the home of local physician Eben C. Norton. Sometime in that same decade, local German immigrant Anna Groote began taking patients into her family's home in the town's Germantown neighborhood. Anna was eventually joined by Dr. Thomas O'Toole, who oversaw what came to be known as the Wilson Street Hospital as it grew into the 1910s. Groote's hospital eventually expanded to include patient rooms, a nursery, and an operating room.

In 1913, Dr. Norton's practice was purchased by prominent Norwood citizen George Willett, known for contributing financially and intellectually to Norwood's development. Willett combined Norton's practice with the "Old Corner House," a two-family residence which Willett had purchased earlier as part of a civic project. Together, the new health center consisted of 23 patient beds, an operating theater, and dental and eye clinics.

The 1918 Spanish flu pandemic hit the local immigrant population hard, and Groote's Wilson Street Hospital was forced to close. Around this time, demand for care at Willett's hospital surged, necessitating the use of the town's civic association building to hold overflow patients. Seeing the need for an expansion of the facility, a group of citizens formed to create the Norwood Hospital Corporation, which took over Willett's facility in 1919 and began plans for growth.

The newly formed Norwood Hospital remained housed across the Corner House and Dr. Norton's former residence until 1926. The previous year, a fundraiser was held with a $200,000 goal to fund the construction of a new hospital complex, which exceeded its goal by more than $50,000. The new hospital was built behind the old facility, could hold 75 patients, and housed an emergency room, an isolation room, a pharmacy, an operating room, and a maternity ward, as well as several general inpatient beds split into men's and women's wards.

In 1982, Norwood Hospital formed the Neponset Valley Health System, a regional health care system which would come to include a multitude of facilities of varying specialties, including the Southwood Community Hospital in Norfolk, the Foxboro Area Health Center, the NORCAP Center for Alcoholism, and Norfolk-Bristol Home Health Services, among others.

21st century

In 2016, the hospital's property was sold by Steward to Medical Properties Trust, along with the vast majority of the hospital system's real estate nationwide. The sale was part of a sale-leaseback deal which would see a large influx in cash for the hospital system to pay for national expansion and investor dividends, in exchange entering the hospitals into triple-net leases.

On June 28, 2020, a significant rain storm struck the region, dropping four inches of rain within 90 minutes. Norwood hospital itself saw extensive damage, suffering a power outage and the destruction of its backup generators. The hospital was forced to fully evacuate, with over 100 patients being transported to other hospitals. Footage from security cameras later circulated showing flood waters breaching a door and surging through a first floor hallway. Due to the extent of the damage, Steward Health Care announced that the hospital would have to be rebuilt. The hospital was demolished in 2022, and construction on the new hospital began, expected to cost about $375 million.

However, the start of 2024 was marked by financial turmoil for Norwood Hospital's parent organization Steward Health Care, which faced mounting reports of unpaid bills to vendors across the country, in addition to $50 million in unpaid rent on its hospitals to Medical Properties Trust. Inability to pay contractors led to a halt of construction on Norwood Hospital,

On May 5, 2024, The Wall Street Journal reported that Steward Health Care was expected to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection within the coming days, blaming rising costs, insufficient revenue and cash crunches as part of the decision. Steward's bankruptcy is set to be one of the largest hospital bankruptcies in U.S. history, and the largest one in decades. The next day, Steward announced that it had indeed filed voluntarily for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The company stressed that its hospitals and medical offices would remain open during the proceedings. In its press release, Steward stated it was finalizing terms of a $75 million in new debtor-in-possession financing from MPT, with the possibility for $225 million more if it meets certain unspecified conditions set by MPT. The company's filing papers list that more than 30 of its creditors owe about $500 million, and the U.S. government is owed $32 million to the federal government in "reimbursements for insurance overpayments".

On February 1, 2025, the Town of Norwood announced that it was forming a "health care working group" in order to reopen the hospital. The group was said to include health care professionals, local public health officials, labor leaders, local elected officials, among others.

References

References

1. "FY2022 Massachusetts Hospital Profiles". Massachusetts Center for Health Information and Analysis.
2. Edelman, Larry. (April 12, 2024). "Norwood lawmaker presses Governor Healey to facilitate a deal to reopen local Steward hospital". The Boston Globe.
3. (February 21, 2024). "Norwood hospital construction on pause as vendors await payments from Steward". The Boston Globe.
4. Fanning, Patricia J.. (2002). "Norwood: A History". Arcadia Publishing.
5. Gambon, Mary Ellen. (April 5, 2022). "Norwood Historical Society Chooses April "Wonderful Women Of Norwood"".
6. Kearney, Laurie. "Germantown Points of Interest".
7. "This Day in Norwood History - August 31, 1926 - Norwood Hospital To Be Opened For Inspection".
8. "This Day in Norwood History - September 2, 1926 - More Than 2500 Attend Norwood Hospital Opening".
9. McGrory, Brian. (February 2, 2024). "As Steward hospitals teeter, CEO's $40 million yacht is docked in the Galapagos Islands".
10. (2021). "Hospital Ownership and Financial Stability: A Matched Case Comparison of a Non-Profit and Private Equity Owned Health System". Emerald Publishing.
11. (June 28, 2022). "Two years after catastrophic flood, Norwood Hospital is being demolished to make way for new building".
12. Fitzsimons, Tim. (September 3, 2020). "Video shows floodwaters surging through Massachusetts hospital that now remains closed".
13. (January 28, 2022). "Two years after catastrophic flood, Norwood Hospital is being demolished to make way for new building". WCVB 5.
14. (2 February 2024). "Steward announces 'significant' funding to stabilize health care company, keep hospitals open".
15. (May 5, 2024). "Steward Health Care to File for Bankruptcy as Soon as Sunday".
16. (May 6, 2024). "Steward files for bankruptcy, leaving its eight Massachusetts hospitals in limbo". The Boston Globe.
17. (May 6, 2024). "Steward Health Care files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy".
18. (May 6, 2024). "Steward Norwood Hospital, Inc. Files For Bankruptcy".
19. (1 February 2025). "Town of Norwood, Massachusetts creates working group with goal of reopening Norwood Hospital". Hearst Television Inc..