FALL RIVER – Dueling lawsuits between Southcoast Health and Steward Health Care System have been dropped, opening the door for the latter’s St. Anne’s Hospital to join area hospitals in offering diagnostic cardiac catheterization for heart conditions.
“Since we originally filed our lawsuit against Steward and [the Mass. Department of Public Health], there have been a number of changes in the state’s Hospital Licensure regulations that made it no longer advantageous to move forward with the litigation,” said Peter Cohenno, Southcoast Health spokesperson.
Cohenno said Steward had also dropped its counter-suit seeking damages and demanding they drop their lawsuit against Massachusetts to prevent Steward from providing the catheterization test.
Wendy Bauer, spokesperson for Saint Anne’s Hospital, said the staff there are glad they won’t be prevented from providing the much-in-demand tests to patients.
“Our region has a high prevalence of cardiac disease and mortality, so for our hospital the focus has always been on giving patients broader access to the services they need and doing so in an affordable way that is consistent with our mission of providing world class, coordinated care in the community. The fact that the Saint Anne’s cardiac catheterization lab will continue to provide care and diagnoses as planned to hundreds of area residents and families is an important win for patients in this area,” she said.
“As we feared in our initial complaint to DPH, volume has been negatively impacted across the system due to in-system referrals from our competitor,” Cohenno said.
Southcoast’s efforts to prevent Saint Anne’s Hospital, part of Steward Health Care System, from opening its diagnostic cardiac catheterization lab began in October 2015, when Southcoast sued Steward and the DPH in Suffolk Superior Court.
The suit alleged that the new lab would unnecessarily duplicate services readily available in the community and would harm Southcoast, and sought to bar the opening of the cardiac catheterization laboratory at St. Anne’s Hospital. In late December 2015, a state judge, siding with Steward, denied a preliminary injunction to halt the lab’s opening.
Shortly before the Christmas holidays, Steward filed a countersuit – seeking damages and ordering Southcoast to withdraw its state lawsuit – in federal court.
“We believe that over time, however, when given a choice, patients will select Southcoast Health, our region’s only comprehensive cardiac program. Our cardiac program consists of talented cardiac surgeons, physicians, nurses and technicians who work in unison as one collaborative team for the benefit of the patient. We utilize the latest treatments and technologies to provide life-saving and life-changing clinical care to patients that cannot be replicated anywhere else in our region. We remain focused on the future and continuing to achieve national recognition for our exceptional cardiac care,” Cohenno said.
The news comes shortly after Southcoast announced in mid-October that 189 employees had accepted voluntary early buyouts offered over the summer as the medical group struggled with rising costs and falling reimbursement rates resulting in an operating loss of $29 million for the first three quarters of the fiscal year.
Rob Borkowski is a PBN staff writer. Email him at Borkowski@PBN.com.
