by HonorHealth is taking over operational control of several Steward Health hospitals and outpatient clinics after the healthcare company filed for bankruptcy, its CEO announced Wednesday.
HonorHealth CEO Todd LaPorte said that effective immediately, the following facilities would be affected: Mountain Vista Medical Center in Mesa, St. Luke’s Hospital in Tempe, Steward Mesa Hospital – Urgent Care, Florence Hospital in Florence and multiple outpatient physician practices. The most notable absentee from that list? St. Luke’s Behavioral Health Center in Phoenix.
The psychiatric hospital in downtown Phoenix has been under strict surveillance for more than a month as the Arizona State Department of Health Services investigates HVAC failures, health code violations and the facility’s subsequent closure.
When asked about St. Luke’s BHC in Phoenix, LaPorte explained, “We were never asked to take on management responsibilities for that facility. It was clear that they had a more national strategy for what to do with behavioral health facilities across the stewardship footprint nationwide.”
More than 1,000 Steward Health employees at the facilities that HonorHealth is absorbing are expected to transition to employees of the new ownership group. LaPorte said HonorHealth plans to assume full operational ownership on Oct. 1.
“During the interim management period, we will have access to all of these employees, with the expectation that once we take full operational control, we will roll these employees into HonorHealth’s payroll. While we will do this during this interim period, we will have authority over the deployment of these employees.”
Employees of St. Luke’s Behavioral Health Center in Phoenix likely won’t be part of that deal, as the psychiatric hospital is the only hospital in Arizona owned by Steward Health that is not on the list of facilities to be acquired. E
Employees at St. Luke’s in Phoenix reached out to ABC15 to share internal updates about the hospital’s closure, following the furlough of more than 200 employees in August. We reached out to Steward Health for confirmation, but a spokesperson responded stating they could not comment on the status of the facility at this time.
