Nurses rally for change to hospital closure laws, say DPH is ‘toothless’ to prevent

Katie Murphy, ICU nurse and MNA president, as seen at the State House in 2021. Murphy and her organization will ask the Legislature to change the rules around hospital closings. (Nancy Lane/Boston Herald)

Following dozens of hospital closures and while the state’s medical facilities continue to face challenges in keeping nurses at bedsides, advocates and medical practitioners will tell lawmakers that public health is placed at risk when corporations put profit over patients.

The Joint Committee on Health Care Financing, on Tuesday, will hold hearings on “An Act Relative to The Closing of Hospital Essential Services,” or S.736/H.1175, and “An Act Relative to Hospital Profit Transparency and Fairness,” or S.790/H.1179, two bills that advocates say are necessary to promote and protect public health in the Bay State.

“The hearing comes amid a healthcare crisis in Massachusetts created by hospital corporations prioritizing financial gain over patient safety and care access for years before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Understaffing is causing nurses to flee the bedside and entire communities such as Leominster and Taunton are threatened by maternity and addiction treatment closures,” the Massachusetts Nursing Association wrote in a release ahead of the hearing.

According to the nursing association, since 2009 communities in Massachusetts have seen more than 40 hospitals and treatment units close despite the fact the state’s Department of Public Health had determined that the services they provided were “necessary for preserving access and health status in a particular service area.”

The decision to close those facilities was made in pursuit of profit, not public interest, according to MNA President and Intensive Care Unit nurse Katie Murphy.

“Current Massachusetts law is failing to meet this moment of crisis for patients and their caregivers. Access to essential services has declined across the Commonwealth because our healthcare system follows a corporate, profit-driven Wall Street model and our state has limited powers to ensure patients can receive necessary care. We need to re-center patients as the most important part of our healthcare system rather than profits,” she said.

Changing the law is necessary, Murphy said, because at current a determination by DPH that a facility is needed has no impact on its closure. The proposed legislation would extend the notice period in advance of a closure or discontinuation in services and instruct the state Attorney General to seek an injunction requiring a care corporation to maintain services during the notice period. It would prohibit the “closure of beds, units, or facilities during any declared state of emergency pertaining to health care.”

“We are proud as nurses and healthcare professionals to stand up for our patients and their access to care – however, it is the weakness of our current essential services law that requires caregivers and communities to fight so hard against closures,” Murphy said.

The hearing comes following the announced closure of the Birthing Center located at UMass Memorial HealthAlliance-Clinton Hospital’s Leominster Hospital Campus and the Morton Comprehensive Addiction Program located at Steward Morton Hospital in Taunton. Both services were determined to be “essential” to public health by DPH but will close anyway.

“If the Department or Division officially finds services to be ‘essential,’ and then does nothing to prevent those services from being eliminated, then I respectfully submit that our current classification system has no actual value or purpose,” Taunton state Sen. Marc Pacheco said in written testimony after the announcement Morton would remove the addiction program.

The hearing will be held in room A-1 of the Massachusetts State House at 1 p.m. and will be broadcast live at