What is the history of Steward?
In 2010, Steward was formed with investment from Cerberus Capital Management. It then acquired the six hospitals of the Caritas Christi Health Care network, which included Carney Hospital in Dorchester, St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center in Brighton, Good Samaritan Medical Center in Brockton, Norwood Hospital in Norwood, Holy Family Hospital in Metheun and Saint Anne’s Hospital in Fall River. Steward committed to making significant investments in the system and assumed Caritas’ pension obligations and debt.
Steward went on to expand throughout eastern Massachusetts with the acquisition of Nashoba Valley Medical Center (Ayer, Massachusetts), Merrimack Valley Hospital (Haverhill, Massachusetts), Quincy Medical Center (Quincy, Massachusetts) and Morton Hospital (Taunton, Massachusetts). In May, 2017, Steward acquired eight more hospitals: Sharon Regional Health System (Sharon, Pennsylvania), Easton Hospital (Easton, Pennsylvania), Wuesthoff Medical Center in Melbourne (Melbourne, Florida), Wuesthoff Medical Center in Rockledge (Rockledge, Florida), Sebastian River Medical Center (Sebastian, Florida), Northside Medical Center (Youngstown, Ohio), Trumbull Memorial Hospital (Warren, Ohio), Hillside Rehabilitation Hospital (Warren, Ohio).
In addition to these hospital acquisitions, Steward increased the number of prominent physicians in its network. Steward Medical Group, the employed physician group, and Steward Health Care Network, the affiliated physician group, now have approximately 4,500 primary care and specialist physicians.
Since 2010, Steward has invested more than $850 million in its integrated care system to improve the quality of care, renovate facilities, upgrade technology and enhance the patient experience. Steward earns top quality and safety ratings from leading industry groups.
What is Steward Medical Group?
Steward Medical Group is a physician led, multispecialty practice organization with more than 1,000 physicians providing high-quality patient care throughout four states.
What is the Steward Health Care Network?
Steward Health Care Network (SHCN) is the affiliated physician group at Steward. With approximately 4,500 primary care and specialist physicians, SHCN is the second largest physician network in Massachusetts. SHCN extends across eastern Massachusetts, southern New Hampshire and northern Rhode Island and provides care to more than 1 million patients annually. SHCN takes pride in its community-based care model, which drives value-added tools and services to our communities, patients, physicians and hospitals across the continuum of care. In addition, SHCN promotes care coordination and collaboration within the network in order to provide high quality, efficient care to patients. The network is also responsible for the implementation and execution of managed care contracts, medical management services, quality improvement programs, data analysis and information services.
What is Steward Home Care?
Steward Home Care is a Medicare-certified agency serving patients throughout southern New Hampshire and eastern Massachusetts. Steward Home Care utilizes a care management team of skilled professionals, including nurses, therapists, case managers, social workers and home care aides who work together to provide patients with the individualized care patients need. Steward Home Care services and programs include: skilled nursing; rehabilitation services; medical social work; nutrition counseling; infusion therapy; wound and ostomy care; telehealth monitoring; and home care aides.
What is Steward’s Urgent Care network?
Steward believes that patients need a full range of quality health care services in the communities where they live. Steward has 25 affiliated urgent care provider locations. When an urgent medical need arises, a patient’s primary care physician (PCP) may not have an available appointment or be open after hours or during the weekend. Urgent care locations are a convenient extension of a patient’s PCP office. At most locations, no appointments or referrals are necessary and all major insurance coverage is accepted. The average co-pay is comparable to a physician office visit and licensed board-certified physicians staff each location.
What is an Accountable Care Organization (ACO)?
As an ACO, Steward is responsible for keeping our patients healthy, not just treating them when they are sick. Instead of the traditional fee-for-service model, we have “risk-based contracts.” We are paid a lump sum to keep an individual patient healthy and take care of all of his or her health care needs within a given year. Our system aligns quality care, an emphasis on wellness, care coordination and cost containment. In fact, 90 percent of our patients with commercial insurance are covered under risk-based insurance contracts and we are also part of the CMS Pioneer ACO program. Steward is regarded as one of the most successful accountable care organizations (ACOs) in the United States.