Company Files Limited Objection to Trumbull Regional, Hillside Sale

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – A medical equipment company that serves Trumbull Regional Medical Center in Warren and Hillside Rehabilitation Hospital in Howland has filed a limited objection in U.S. Bankruptcy Court to the sale of the two hospitals to nonprofit entities established by Insight Health Systems.

Becton, Dickson & Co. and its subsidiary, CareFusion Systems LLC, states in its filing that it does not object to the sale of assets, but rather to the transfer of equipment at the hospitals that the company says it owns, court papers say.

Becton said in its filing that it is owed approximately $11 million from bankrupt Steward Health Care System – the former owner of Trumbull Regional and Hillside — for its use of the Pyxis System, an automated medication dispensing, electronic tracking and storage system. Medical Properties Trust, or MPT, now owns the hospitals.

The Pyxis Systems are covered under a master lease and are not included in the assets being sold, the filing says.

Becton’s filing objects to the “transfer of the Pyxis Systems located at any hospital proposed to be sold without addressing their outstanding or future obligations.”

The filing further states that “no sale should be finalized, and no closing should occur unless and until the debtors pay for their use of the BD [Bector] equipment that they propose to transfer to the purchaser.”

It also states that any sale order should state that Bector’s equipment remains subject to the master lease unless debtors assume or reject the lease, or “otherwise reach an agreement” with Bector.

The company said 42 of Steward’s hospitals used the equipment, including Trumbull Regional and Hillside, documents say. Steward is also delinquent on $1.8 million in its post-petition payments to Becton, according to the filing.

The deadline to file objections to the sale expired at midnight Wednesday. 

Steward filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy May 6. Medical Properties Trust assumed control of Trumbull Regional and Hillside from Steward Health on Sept. 11 through a negotiated settlement with Steward and its lenders. At the time, MPT designated Insight Health Systems, based in Flint, Mich., to operate the hospitals and keep them open.

Insight then created two nonprofit foundations – Insight Foundation of Trumbull and Insight Foundation of Hillside – to buy the hospitals from MPT.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez still must approve the sale of the two hospitals.

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