Political Quotes

“Madam President, for months the HELP Committee, on a bipartisan basis, has investigated the financial mismanagement of Steward Health Care and the impact on the delivery of care at its hospitals. Steward's mismanagement has nationwide implications, affecting patient care in more than 30 hospitals across 8 States, including one in my home State, Glenwood Regional Medical Center in West Monroe, LA. Because of Steward's management decisions resulting in limited resources at Glenwood, the State had to force the hospital to operate at one-third capacity. One patient reportedly died waiting for transfer to another hospital because Glenwood did not have the necessary resources to treat. According to a report from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, a doctor at Glenwood told a Louisiana State inspector that the hospital was performing ``third-world medicine.'' Now, the problems at Glenwood are not unique. The HELP Committee heard testimony that because of understaffing at a Steward-owned St. Elizabeth's Medical Center in Boston, patients at the hospital waited in the emergency room for hours and sometimes days. We have also heard testimony that Steward neglected to pay the vendors for essential hospital services. At St. Elizabeth's, there is a report that when newborn babies died, nurses had to put their bodies into cardboard shipping boxes because Steward did not pay for proper bereavement boxes.…”