Steward Health Care CEO de la Torre Resigns
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Ralph de la Torre, CEO of Steward Health Care System LLC, has “amicably separated from Steward on mutually agreeable terms.”
That’s according to a statement released by a spokesman for de la Torre.
The resignation comes as Steward’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy case continues. The two Trumbull County hospitals that Steward operated – Trumbull Regional Medical Center in Warren and Hillside Rehabilitation Hospital in Howland – were threatened with closure but are now operated by Insight Health Systems. Operations at Sharon Regional Medical Center in Sharon, Pa., continue as new ownership is under consideration.
This week the U.S. Senate voted unanimously to refer de la Torre for criminal contempt for failing to testify Wednesday before the U.S. Senate Committee of Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.
U.S. Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., issued a scathing statement Saturday that blasted de la Torre ‘s resignation as “not enough and [he] must be held accountable in the court of law.”
Said Markey:
“He has extracted hundreds of millions from emergency departments, operating rooms, and intensive care units to buy luxury property, expensive vacations, and yachts, all while patients suffered and died and workers and hospitals went unresourced. As a physician and CEO of Steward, de la Torre knew the cost of his greed and mismanagement, and he allowed it to rot the financial security of an entire hospital system anyway.
“Let’s not forget that Dr. de la Torre is just one part of this tragedy. His corporate enablers – Steward’s senior leadership and board of directors, Cerberus Capital Management, and Medical Properties Trust – also must face accountability. And every private equity firm and corporate entity that stands to profit from Steward’s bankruptcy and continued investment in hospitals across the country must understand that their profit-only gains cannot continue.”
Steward Health Care has not issued a statement regarding its CEO’s resignation. As of this posting, the resignation was not reported on the bankruptcy court docket.
Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
