An underfunded, overloaded state health system breathed a sigh of relief in March when a buyer saved Our Lady of Fatima Hospital and Roger Williams Medical Center from closure.
But the celebratory mood across the state that marked the Centurion Foundation’s purchase of the struggling hospitals after their previous owner filed for bankruptcy is giving way to a sobering reality: their long-term survival is still uncertain.
“We’ve got a long way to go” to get the hospitals on sound financial footing, “if we can get there at all,” Attorney General Peter F. Neronha told PBN in this week’s cover story. He spoke after recently meeting with Centurion’s consultants to discuss progress.
“Candidly, they weren’t as far along as I would have liked,” he said.
After working through years of financial mismanagement and limited investment in the medical facilities, hospital employees for now are giving the new owners the benefit of the doubt. They have little choice – the nonprofit was the only serious bidder.
Centurion’s broad plan revolves around expected savings from running the hospitals as nonprofits.
But the hospitals have been money losers and Centurion has taken on a $101 million debt it must pay off, with interest, meaning it must do more than curb costs.
So far, however, the new owner has said little publicly about how it plans to boost revenue or where it plans to target investments.
And the survival clock is ticking again, says Neronha.
“We don’t have a year to make that [strategic plan] happen, or even six months,” he said. “That needs to happen in a matter of weeks.”