Gov. Maura Healey announced Wednesday that the state is launching two new working groups to address pressing health care concerns in Ayer and Dorchester — two communities where Steward Health Care closed hospitals last month.
The announcement came as advocates and community health leaders warned there are indications that Dorchester residents are already getting sicker since Carney Hospital closed on Aug. 31.
Healey’s announcement said the two working groups will focus on “stabilizing and revitalizing” health care in the communities, with an emphasis on getting input from providers, community leaders, nearby health care facilities and the public.
“We’re going to bring together community and industry leaders to develop a game plan to not only protect but improve health care in the regions most impacted by Steward’s greed and mismanagement,” Healey said.
The Dorchester working group will be co-chaired by Dr. Bisola Ojikutu, Boston’s commissioner of public health, and Michael Curry, president and CEO of the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers. The Nashoba Valley working group will be co-chaired by Joanne Marqusee, assistant secretary in the Executive Office of Health and Human Services, and Robert Pontbriand, town manager of Ayer.
In 2022, Nashoba Valley reported about 16,000 emergency room visits and 40,000 outpatient visits, while Carney Hospital reported 31,000 emergency room visits and 63,000 outpatient visits. Experts told GBH News that Carney also served about 20,000 urgent care patients a year.
Since Carney’s closure, the nearby Codman Square Health Center has seen a rise in patients coming to its urgent care practice. Codman CEO Dr. Guy Fish told GBH News there were previously around 70-75 patients coming to the center on a normal weekday; now that number is closer to 100. He noted, however, that it is still a small sample size given the recency of Carney’s closure.
More troubling, Fish said, is that patients appear to be sicker. He said that could be an indication patients who would have gone to Carney for urgent care instead waited until they were sicker before seeking out Codman.
“I just got notification today from one of our urgent care managers that indeed there’s a view that the level of sickness — or what we call acuity — is elevating in our urgent care practice,” he said.
Fish cautioned that this is a preliminary finding, but “my nurses and nurse managers who are very seasoned, and my physicians and nurse practitioners who are very seasoned, are saying that that is their impression so far.”
And he said that the sicker a patient is when they arrive, the worse their chances of full recovery.
City Councilor John FitzGerald, who represents the part of Dorchester where Carney is located, said Codman is not the only Community Health Center seeing patient loads increase.
“Codman Square Health Center, Dot House, you know, Neponset Health Center, those are the closest three health centers,” FitzGerald said. “Not all of them accept urgent care, but the ones that do have seen a rapid increase … and they’re not able to keep up with it.”
These community health centers have not received any additional resources to handle a heavier patient load.
“They don’t turn anyone away because that’s sort of their motto, which we appreciate greatly … but they lose money on every patient that walks in the door,” he said. “Money’s going to have to come in to support them.”
Carney also had an in-patient psychiatric facility that served about 850 patients in the year prior to its closure. The hospital’s closure plan notes that “There are 3 hospitals within driving distance of Carney Hospital that can supply emergency stabilization for psychiatric patients,” but “driving distances range from 2.9 miles to 12 miles.”
That distance can be a huge barrier to care, said Malaka Mims, a licensed social worker and president of the Greater Boston Association of Black Social Workers.
“If a person is in need of psychiatric services and doesn’t have access right to Carney, which is close to them or in proximity to their home, now they’re forced to kind of deal with crisis in a different way,” she said, and that can have dangerous consequences. “Now their families or their friends or their loved ones may end up calling the police for support or services. And that can be problematic in so many ways.”
Short of that, just having to wait longer for care can have “a trickle down effect,” she said. “If someone’s having a crisis, and if there’s access issues, there’s longer wait, and then that crisis impacts the home or it can impact the community.”
Mims added that vulnerable populations, especially those without access to proper healthcare, may be at greater risk, making it essential to take proactive steps to prevent negative outcomes.
Mims pointed out that the medical system has long mistreated and marginalized people of color, who made up the majority of Carney’s patients, contributing to persistent health disparities. The hospital’s closure — especially without a clear and comprehensive plan for continuing services — reflects a lack of consideration and respect for the community. Mims believes this will likely lead to a breakdown of trust between the community and the healthcare system.
“This is going to create a problem for the people’s relationship with their health and the hospital,” she said, no matter what replaces it.
