The U.S. Senate's Health Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee held a follow-up hearing on the bankruptcy of Steward Health, the company who owned multiple hospitals in the Mahoning and Shenango Valleys Thursday morning.

This hearing titled "Examining the Bankruptcy of Steward Health Care: How Management Decisions Have Impacted Patient Care" followed a hearing held in July of 2024 where the HELP committee subpoenaed Steward CEO Dr. Ralph de la Torre to testify.

However, Dr. de la Torre responded to that subpoena refusing to show up to the hearing stating that his attorneys told him he was prohibited from discussing the bankruptcy issue.

During that hearing, HELP Committee Chair Bernie Sanders said the committee overruled this objection and said Dr. de la Torre was still expected to appear, but he was still not present at the hearing.

Testimony came from nurses and former nurses at Steward-owned hospitals in Massachusetts, as well as state and local officials in Louisiana testified about the impact Steward's bankruptcy and mismanagement has had on their communities.

A common theme in these testimonies included a lack of adequate staffing and equipment, vendors not being paid, neighboring hospitals being overwhelmed by an influx of patients and patients dying due to not getting the care they need in a timely manner. 

Ellen MacInnis, a nurse at St. Elizabeth's Medical Center, a Steward-owned hospital in Boston referenced a Boston Globe article describing several deaths at Steward-owned hospitals attributed to understaffing.

"All of these [deaths] were preventable," MacInnis said.

Audra Sprague, a former nurse at another Steward-owned hospital in Massachusetts testified about using poor quality equipment due to Steward not paying equipment vendors and broken beds not being repaired and patients needing to be deferred to other hospitals as a result.

Sprague told one story about an instance when a patient needed an IO, a mechanical drill that is used when IVs are not immediately available, but the drill's battery had died.

"The vendor hadn't been paid, we couldn't get [a replacement] from that vendor so they had to source it from another place. We ended up getting this sub-par [drill], it was almost like a Fisher Price toy it felt like. ... Technically it worked, but it was ridiculously poor quality," Sprague said.

She also brought up the issue of patient transportation stating that after Nashoba Valley Medical Center in Ayer, Massachusetts closed, Steward was asked what the transportation options would be for patients to get back and forth to their appointments, they mentioned a company called Here to There Transport providing 24/7 transportation.

In reality, this is a service run by one woman.

"[Here to There] used to provide [Nashoba Valley] with vouchers for patients that would need a cab ride home or some sort of transportation home, but she mainly does airport transfers so she needs to sleep, she's not 24/7. She's one person. And she even stopped doing that because Steward wouldn't pay them," Sprague said.

Continuing on the subject of vendors not being paid, West Monroe, Louisiana Mayor Staci Mitchell testified that this is one of the issues that people call her and write to her about the most.

"In November, I was contacted by a local landscaper asking if there was anything I can do to assist [him] in getting paid. ... When I got the invoice I was surprised. It was for $72,000. And for a small business [owner] with a family and dependents and employees, that's a lot of money and could put him out of business," Mayor Mitchell said.

The last testimony came from Louisiana Representative Michael Echols. Echols testified about a hearing held in Baton Rouge in April regarding nurses not being able to provide the quality of care they are expected to.

"In that hearing we heard impact from other regional hospitals on how they had to pick up the load when Steward and Glenwood [Regional Medical Center] were unable to keep up with the patient volume. ... They testified to the fact that it was tens of millions of dollars in additional costs that they were not able to recoup," Echols said.

Echols went on to testify about something that Steward's Interim President and CEO Jon Turton said on record during the hearing.

"[Turton] on the record noted that because of [Steward's] mismanagement, they killed and maimed patients. When the interim leader, the Steward-hired executive admits that on the record, we have a substantial problem. ... It is glowingly clear to me that the executives of Steward Healthcare Group are healthcare terrorists," Echols continued.

Senator Sanders ended the hearing with a direct message to Dr. de la Torre saying the Committee will still be pursuing him.

"This is not the last discussion of this, and if Dr. de la Torre thinks that he is comfortable by not being here today, Dr. de la Torre if you're watching, you're wrong. This will be pursued," Sanders said.