A local surgeon is offering some insight on the Boston-based company that is in the process of purchasing four area hospitals.

Dr. John Ambrosino has spent the past five years as Sharon Regional Assistant Chief of Surgery. Before practicing in the Valley, he spent 27 years in the Boston-area working for a hospital that competed against those owned by Steward Health Care -- the company purchasing eight Community Health System Hospital's including Sharon Regional, Trumbull Memorial, Northside Medical Center and Hillside Rehabilitation.

"They're a physician driven group. They don't have a lot of administrators. They have mostly physicians in administrative positions," explained Ambrosino. "So they understand health care and they understand patient needs."

Ambrosino says that although he moved away from the Boston-area before Steward Health Care really started to grow, he's kept in touch with doctors that still work in the Boston-area and has heard only positive feedback.

"I think that they understand that physician-patient relationship is very important to keeping patients coming to the same institution and they recognize we have short comings in the number of physicians in the area, particularly with our aging population," said Ambrosino.

Ambrosino says Steward has already said they plan to invest in more physicians, including primary care doctors as well as specialists the Valley has struggled to attract.

"I think the idea is to bring the physicians that have the good talents, which will bring the patients which will make it so we don't have to cut other health care professionals but, we can actually add," said Ambrosino.

He believes Steward Health Care should readily be able to recruit doctors to the Valley, as they finish up their residency from a number of hospitals the company already owns in Boston. If all goes as planned, Steward will take ownership in the second quarter of this year.