At a Senate hearing about the bankrupt, private equity-owned Steward Health Care, employees in the company’s hospitals described “tragic” conditions such as deceased infants being kept in cardboard boxes and a lack of equipment that may have led to the death of a 39-year-old pregnant woman.
Ellen MacInnes, a nurse in the emergency department at St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center in Boston, told the Senate Health Committee how staff in her department chipped in to buy meals for patients or bereavement boxes for deceased infants when Steward hospitals did not provide those services due to cost-cutting or because vendors had not been paid.
The Boston Globe’s Spotlight investigative team first reported on the allegations of neglect happening in Steward hospitals.
The Senate committee had subpoenaed Steward Health Cate CEO Ralph de la Torre to testify but he declined to appear at the hearing Thursday. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said he will prepare contempt charges against de la Torre.
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