FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Brooke Thurston

(617) 419-4729
brooke.thurston@steward.org

New 24-Hour Emergency Department and Outpatient Urgent Care Center to

Replace Quincy Medical Center
Patients Will Have Uninterrupted Access to Their Doctors;
Specialty and Outpatient Services will Remain in Quincy
Steward Working Closely with Massachusetts Nurses Association and 1199SEIU to
Identify and Match Employees to Jobs in Steward Health Care System
BOSTON, MA, November 6, 2014 Steward Health Care System LLC announced today that at the end of
the year it will transition care at Quincy Medical Center (QMC) to a more sustainable outpatient health
care delivery network in Quincy. The new outpatient delivery system will include: a new 24-hour
Emergency Department, a separately sited state-of-the-art urgent care center, multi-specialty clinic in
Quincy, radiological services including X-Ray, mammography, CT, and ultrasound, as well as a multipoint transportation plan. The plan will maintain primary care and specialist physician offices in Quincy
to ensure patients continue to have access to their own doctors. For inpatient services, patients
continue to have access to 15 hospitals within 10 miles of QMC, including a Steward hospital that is
approximately four miles away. As part of the transition in care delivery, Steward will be providing
transportation that links Manet Community Health Center locations, medical offices at 700 Congress
Street and 54 Miller Street in Quincy, Compass Medical in Quincy, Carney Hospital and St. Elizabeths
Medical Center.
While Quincy Medical Center earns top quality and safety ratings, competition from Boston-area
medical centers, significant cuts to Medicare reimbursements, continued Medicaid underfunding,
continued rate disparity, and precipitously declining inpatient volume have made QMC unsustainable.
On an average day, only 1/5 of all beds are occupied and it has become abundantly clear that local
residents no longer seek inpatient services from Quincy Medical Center, explained Mark Girard, MD,
President of Steward Hospitals. While Quincy Medical Center will no longer operate, we are one
hundred percent committed to delivering convenient access to health care in Quincy, with a new 24-7
emergency department, separate sited urgent care, and the ability for patients to continue seeing their
personal doctors.
During the past twenty years, QMC has faced serious financial hardships leading to city and state
bailouts of more than $100 million and ultimately federal bankruptcy. Since 2011, Steward has invested
an additional $100 million in the hospital, but it has operating losses of nearly $20 million a year because
the overwhelming majority of patients, especially commercial patients, leave Quincy for inpatient care
and those who do use QMC use the hospital primarily for outpatient services.

Within 10 miles of the Quincy Medical Center campus are 15 acute care hospitals, 12 surgery centers, 21
urgent care centers, more than 150 nursing home providers, more than 500 physician offices and 130
outpatient behavioral health sites.
In Massachusetts and elsewhere in the United States, care is migrating from inpatient hospitalization to
more convenient, cost-effective outpatient settings. In the Quincy area, patients have access to a wide
variety of healthcare providers. In the Boston metro area, data shows that an increasing number of
patients are migrating from community hospitals to academic medical centers in Boston for a wide
range of routine care. That is also true in Quincy. In the past year, only 16% of Quincy area residents are
seeking inpatient hospital care in Quincy.
The vast majority of patients who use the QMC Emergency Department (ED) have non-urgent health
care needs. All trauma, burn and cardiac patients are already diverted to other hospitals. According to
patient data from the last year, nearly 80% of all QMC patients who visited the ED were treated and sent
home on the same day. Approximately 50% of the remaining patients are transferred to behavioral
health units, a service that will remain unchanged. To meet the community needs, Steward will be
opening both a free standing emergency room (pending DPH approval) and an urgent care center in two
distinct locations. These will be strategically placed to optimize patient access and convenience.
In the past year, Steward has been in close contact with state regulators, officials, healthcare experts
and labor leaders about the dire financial situation facing QMC. At the beginning October, hospital
officials convened a task force of local and state officials, labor leaders, and healthcare experts to
analyze the situation and help determine a sustainable path forward. The task force has been meeting
weekly and has provided valuable insights and recommendations during these discussions.
After reviewing the data, I believe there is no other option than to close Quincy Medical Center as it
exists. Steward is doing the right thing by transitioning the healthcare services that local patients need
and use to more accessible outpatient settings and making it as convenient as possible for patients,
said Richard Bane, President of BaneCare.
We believe that our patients will be better served by our new network of services in Quincy,
continued Girard. At the same time, we are taking great care to ensure that our Quincy Medical Center
employees receive an unprecedented level of support and opportunities during this transition. We are
going above and beyond what other hospitals have done in similar circumstances.
All QMC employees will continue to be paid for the next 60 days and each will be offered comprehensive
support services. Steward has created a QMC Employee Transition Support Team made up of Steward
HR advisors, outplacement career consultants and employee assistance counselors. There are currently
job matches and opportunities in the Steward system for a significant majority of employees at QMC.
Steward will be working closely with MNA, 1199SEIU and all other QMC employees to help them secure
new jobs.
Labor has and will continue to have a seat at the table. We will continue to work closely with labor to
transition our employees to other positions in the Steward system or to provide training to facilitate
better opportunities, said Dr. Girard.

QMC will continue to be open and operating between now and December 31, 2014. All patients will be
contacted directly by their physician about transitioning their career to new locations after QMC closes.
About Steward Health Care
Steward Health Care is the largest fully integrated community care organization and community hospital
network in New England. Headquartered in Boston, Steward is the third largest employer in MA with
more than 17,000 employees in more than 150 communities. Steward is comprised of Steward Medical
Group, Steward Health Care Network, and Steward Hospital Group. Steward Medical Group provides
approximately 1 million patient encounters per year in 152 sites and manages homecare and hospice
with 300,000 and 35,000 encounters respectively. Steward Health Care Network, a fully integrated care
management company, has 2,800 physicians, with approximately 4 million patient encounters per year
and affiliates or joint ventures with 22 UrgiCenters. Stewards Hospital Group includes Saint Annes
Hospital in Fall River, Holy Family Hospital in Methuen, St. Elizabeths Medical Center in Brighton,
Norwood Hospital, Carney Hospital in Dorchester, Good Samaritan Medical Center in Brockton, Nashoba
Valley Medical Center in Ayer, Holy Family-Haverhill Campus, Morton Hospital in Taunton, Quincy
Medical Center and New England Sinai Hospital in Stoughton. Other Steward Health Care entities
include Steward Medical Group and Steward Home Care. Further information is available at
www.steward.org.
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