NORWOOD — It’s been more than four years since Norwood Hospital was evacuated and closed to patients — temporarily, said owner Steward Health Care — in the aftermath of a flash flood.
Since then, Steward has collapsed into bankruptcy. Two of its Massachusetts hospitals, Carney in Dorchester and Nashoba Valley in Ayer, were shuttered at the end of August. A half dozen others, including St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center in Brighton, are being steered into new ownership in deals on track to take effect by Sept. 30.
Through it all, the Norwood facility — once a bustling hive of patients and caregivers — has remained an empty shell. Amid months of bankruptcy proceedings, congressional hearings, and fretting over the Steward fallout, barely a word has been spoken about its fate.
The loss of Norwood Hospital and its 215 beds has aggravated a shortage of emergency room and inpatient capacity in the region. But finding a new hospital operator willing to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to complete its rebuilding will be no easy task.
Because it’s no longer open, Norwood wasn’t among the 31 hospitals in eight states Steward put up for sale this year. Steward’s license to operate the hospital expires Nov. 5. But the company has already walked away from it, turning its future over to Medical Properties Trust, an investment firm that bought Steward’s hospital real estate nationwide in 2016.
And as Steward prepares to leave Massachusetts in disgrace, the landowner and a pair of state lawmakers have been scrambling to find a new operator to take over the century-old Norwood Hospital.
“In this whole Steward mess, Norwood’s gotten lost,’’ said Tom McCabe, development director at the League School for Autism in nearby Walpole, which once sent students who were hurt in the playground to the hospital but now relies on urgent-care centers in the area.
Still, officials in this suburb of 31,000 residents southwest of Boston believe their hospital — which long occupied a pride of place near the center of town — will reopen someday. It’s inevitable, said Tony Mazzucco, the town’s general manager, even as he acknowledges it could take years.
Mazzucco suggested that the region’s overburdened health care infrastructure will dictate the hospital’s return. “It’s just a matter of time,’’ he said. “I was there the night the hospital was evacuated. I’m going to be there when we open the doors, come hell or high water.’’
It was, of course, high water that closed Norwood Hospital.
Heavy rain and flooding destroyed its electrical room on June 28, 2020, cutting off power to the facility and forcing the evacuation of about 90 patients. Ever since, ambulances have rushed patients to other hospitals from Needham to Boston, often more than a half hour away.
“We need Norwood Hospital,’’ said Lisa Corrigan, president of South Shore Staffing in Canton, which once supplied administrative and payroll staffers to the hospital. “In the time it takes to get to Needham or Faulkner [in Jamaica Plain], a lot of bad things can happen.’’
Where the hospital stood is now a massive construction site, with giant mounds of dirt and stacks of building materials in front of a hulking skeletal structure that may someday house a new hospital.
“I drive by it every day,’’ said Tom O’Rourke, president of the Norwood-based Neponset River Regional Chamber, which represents businesses in a dozen communities formerly served by the hospital. “And my heart sinks when I see that empty shell of a building.’’
O’Rourke, a former Norwood Hospital patient, said his mother worked there and two of his kids were born there. Because the hospital’s 1,000 employees had been an economic boon to many of the small businesses in the area, he said, “it was a double whammy when it closed.’’
At the Guarino Pastry Shop a block away from the construction site, “everyone misses Norwood Hospital,’’ said co-owner Sandi Guarino. The shop, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary, once made cakes for hospital employees celebrating their birthdays and cherry-topped Italian cookies that residents would bring to their loved ones in the hospital.
After the building was condemned, Steward paid for its demolition, then launched work on a $375 million project to rebuild. The contractor, Suffolk Construction, put in a new foundation and steel structure before Steward ran out of money last year and stopped paying its bills.
But there have been signs of life this summer at the hospital’s Washington Street site, where workers have built a roof, installed a heating and cooling system, and added windows and metal panels to seal the structure from the elements. Suffolk is “making the building weather tight’’ before the winter, said Suffolk executive vice president Jason Seaburg, who heads up its health care business.
As to the target date for completing the project, Seaburg said, “Between design, construction, and permitting, we’re probably at least two years away [from reopening] if we started tomorrow.’’
First, the hospital needs an operator. Medical Properties Trust, based in Alabama, has paid for the work this summer. But completing the reconstruction will require a massive investment from whomever takes it on.
Finding a new owner who will reopen Norwood Hospital has been an urgent concern for surrounding communities.
“It’s been closed for four years, three months, 12 days, and I’m not sure the number of minutes,’’ said state Representative John Rogers, whose district includes Norwood and Walpole, earlier this month. “It’s something I wake up each morning and go to bed every night thinking about.’’
Medical Properties Trust, known as MPT, sent a letter to the Norwood Building Department last April notifying the town it should be listed as the property’s owner and was assuming oversight of the reconstruction.
“MPT has accepted and assumed all of Steward’s rights, interests, and obligations in all contracts, permits, and licenses related to the construction of the new replacement hospital,’’ it wrote in its letter, which was first reported by the weekly newspaper, the Norwood Record.
Who will take over the license, or be issued a new one, is the subject of much speculation in and around Norfolk County. Mazzucco said MPT has been actively marketing the property to hospital owners nationwide. A spokesman for MPT didn’t respond to an inquiry about its plans.
Some lawmakers on Beacon Hill are also working to drum up interest in taking over the hospital, especially from nonprofit health systems in Massachusetts with the resources to fund the reconstruction.
In the fiscal 2025 budget for the state Executive Office of Health and Human Services, an amendment offered by Rogers and state Senator Michael Rush would have authorized the Healey administration to approve the sale of Norwood to a qualified health care provider.
The House version, crafted by Rogers, specifically mentioned Mass General Brigham, the state’s largest health care system, as a candidate. Though Rogers said he discussed the idea informally with MGB board members, whom he didn’t identify, an MGB spokesperson said recently, “Mass General Brigham is not seeking to operate Norwood Hospital.’’
Though the amendments from Rogers and Rush failed to pass, Rogers said they were meant to highlight the need for an operator to step forward. The lawmakers filed new legislation this month authorizing UMass Memorial Health Care, the largest hospital system in Central Massachusetts, to operate Norwood.
A spokesperson for UMass Memorial in Worcester, however, said that system also wasn’t interested in acquiring Norwood Hospital.
Beyond the reconstruction dollars it would have to put up to restore Norwood Hospital to operating condition, any buyer would face one additional challenge left by Steward, which sold the land and buildings on which its hospitals sit: It would have to pay rent to a landlord in a state where almost all its rivals own their own property.
“It’s a strategic location near the Route 128 corridor,’’ said health care consultant Marc Bard, chief executive of the MB2 advisory firm, who nonetheless conceded he was skeptical buyers would line up. “It’s an expensive way for these health systems to acquire beds.’’
Robert Weisman can be reached at robert.weisman@globe.com.