A moped driver died in a crash with a utility pole in Chelsea, Massachusetts, on Wednesday, police said.
The moped appeared to have crashed into the pole, on Marginal Street near Highland Avenue before 2 p.m., without crashing into any other v…
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Latest dolphin strandings highlight ‘historic highs’ this year on Cape Cod
Forty-one dolphins were rescued and 13 died in a recent week on Cape Cod, according to a local animal rescue group, which said the intense workload highlights an extraordinary year of strandings.
So far this year, the International Fund for Animal Welfare has dealt with 342 strandings of live dolphins, which is more than five times more than the average for a year, 67, the organization said Wednesday. Included in that total is the largest mass dolphin stranding in American history, in which 102 were rescued on cape Cod and another 44 died this July.
Dolphin strandings are so common on Cape Cod that IFAW last year built a dedicated facility there, the Dolphin Rescue Center.
“Though Cape Cod has always seen more live dolphin strandings than anywhere else in the world, the numbers this year have reached historic highs,” the organization said in a statement.
It’s not immediately clear why the 54 strandings reported the week of Nov. 9 to 16 took place, according to IFAW, though all the dolphins may have been part of one pod.
Reports of dolphin strandings rolled in throughout the week, and a minke whale became beached as well — it died of natural causes, IFAW said. Wednesday brought the organization’s 500th animal in distress of the year so far.
Man dies in fire overnight in Leominster
A man died in a fire in Leominster, Massachusetts, overnight, according to fire officials.
The Leominster Fire Department responded to a report of a fire in a condominium building on Meadow Pond Drive around 2 a.m. Firefighters arriving at the scene found a fire in the living room of one unit and a badly injured older adult inside.
Firefighters removed the man, who was in his 60s and had limited mobility, and took him to an area hospital, where he was later pronounced dead. His name has not been released.
The fire was brought under control a short time after firefighters arrived at the scene.
A second resident of the condo was displaced as a result of hte blaze.
The fire is being investigated by Leominster police and fire, along with state police investigators assigned to the State Fire Marshal’s Office and the Worcester District Attorney’s Office. Investigators found evidence of smoking materials and home oxygen equipment in the residence.
“This is the second fatal fire in less than a week where investigators found home oxygen equipment,” State Fire Marshal Jon Davine said in a statement. “There’s no truly safe way to smoke, but smoking around medical oxygen is especially dangerous. Oxygen will allow any fire to spread faster and burn hotter. If you or a loved one use home oxygen, please don’t smoke.”
Alleged gunman in weekend Attleborough shooting captured by police
The suspected gunman in a shooting over the weekend in Attleborough, Massachusetts, has been arrested, ending a search for the 33-year-old man who authorities considered armed and dangerous, according to the city’s police force.
Jacob Lacourse, 33, was tracked down by investigators and taken into custody without incident on Tuesday, the Attleborough Police Department announced Wednesday. They found him at a home on Dean Street.
Lacourse is being charged with assault and battery with a firearm and carrying a firearm without a license. He was arraigned in Attleborough District Court Tuesday and held without bail pending a dangerousness hearing.
The shooting left a 58-year-old wounded. The victim is expected to recover.
Police also arrested 30-year-old Alexandra Elliott, charging her with accessory after the fact and intimidation of a witness. She is due in court on Wednesday.
Lacourse is due back in court on Monday.
Overturned pickup truck causes delays on Route 128 in Lynnfield
There were delays Wednesday morning on Route 128 in Lynnfield, Massachusetts, where a pickup truck could be seen on its side.
The overturned vehicle is on the northbound side of the expressway but traffic delays were visible in both directions…
Healey celebrates Brown University Health’s Saint Anne’s Hospital takeover after Steward bankruptcy
After unveiling new signage making visible the shift to new owner Brown University Health on Tuesday afternoon, Gov. Maura Healey toured Saint Anne’s Hospital and celebrated that Massachusetts did “something that no other state was able to do” as Steward Health Care collapsed.
Saint Anne’s was one of eight Steward hospitals in Massachusetts whose futures were thrown into doubt earlier this year when Steward’s financial problems came to light and then when the company filed for bankruptcy. The Fall River hospital is one of six former Steward hospitals that remain open under new management.
Brown University Health (formerly known as Lifespan) finalized the acquisition of Saint Anne’s Hospital in Fall River and Morton Hospital in Taunton for $175 million on Oct. 1 and on Tuesday hosted the governor, Health and Human Services Secretary Kate Walsh, Public Health Commissioner Robbie Goldstein and others from Beacon Hill to see the facility and help rebrand it with Brown Health signage and logos.
“I’m proud that, in Massachusetts, we were able to do something that no other state was able to do. There were Steward facilities in states around the country, but only in Massachusetts were we able to do what we did, which was to save hospitals, to protect jobs and to protect the stability of a health care market and access to critically needed care. That includes 1,500 jobs right here,” Healey said.
St. Anne’s is considered a mid-sized community hospital with a high public payer mix and 187 staffed beds, according to the most recent hospital profile on file with the Center for Health Information and Analysis. The hospital had about 1,082 full-time equivalent employees as of 2022 and reported $323.4 million in annual revenue.
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St. Anne’s had 9,479 inpatient discharges in 2022 with an average length of stay of 5.1 days, according to the CHIA profile, and also fielded 45,532 emergency department visits and 157,454 outpatient visits. Just more than half of the people who left the hospital were discharged to Fall River.
The Massachusetts subsidiary of the Rhode Island-based Brown Health said when it acquired Steward hospitals that its purchases represented the next step in building “a non-profit regional healthcare organization focused on expanding access to care for all” along the Massachusetts-Rhode Island border.
Brown Health, which is Rhode Island’s largest hospital system, also includes in its portfolio the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Rhode Island Hospital, Hasbro Children’s Hospital, the Miriam Hospital, Bradley Hospital, Newport Hospital, Gateway Healthcare, Lifespan Physician Group, and Coastal Medical. And the company has ties between its executive suite and Massachusetts.
President and CEO John Fernandez left his job as president of Mass Eye and Ear and president of Mass General Brigham Integrated Care to take over at Lifespan in early 2023. And Chief Financial Officer Peter Markell joined Lifespan around the same time after a career as executive vice president of administration and finance, and chief financial officer and treasurer of Mass General Brigham.
Walsh, the former head of Boston Medical Center, said she enjoyed her previous experience working with Fernandez. She said she’s confident he’s right for the job ahead.
“John and I had the opportunity to work together earlier in our careers, and you guys should just buckle up. He’s a bundle of energy. He’s a lot of ideas. He’s the guy, when we were working together, the budget would be done and he’d say, ‘I have an idea!’ Like, ‘oh no!’ So this will be a very busy, thriving, exciting part of this community and I can’t wait to come back down and congratulate you all again,” she said.
More on Steward Health Care
Fernandez said Tuesday that Saint Anne’s has “work to be done” but added that the physical condition of the facility was “as we thought” when bidding on it. “But the really pleasant surprise is the people were better than we thought,” he added.
The Healey administration has already committed at least $417 million in public aid in part to help the new operators address infrastructure and capital needs at the former Steward hospitals. Walsh said again Tuesday that the administration “will help the acquirers.”
The secretary said the good thing about Steward’s bankruptcy process is that the new operators have been able to take over without being responsible for Steward’s debts, but the downside is that they also have no working capital.
“So Brown has to make investments in keeping the place running until the services that they’re providing right now, today, until they get paid for. So that’s about probably 90 days of working capital that Brown and Brown Health is providing to keep these hospitals open, and we are enormously grateful for them stepping up,” Walsh said.
The Boston Globe reported Tuesday that Brown Health had been in talks with the Fall River Diocese about maintaining the Catholic identity and name of Saint Anne’s Hospital, which was founded by Dominican Sisters of the Presentation and was part of the Catholic Caritas Christi Health Care system before that was bought out by Steward. Such an agreement would likely involve keeping religious items in the hospital and following Catholic edicts governing medical treatment.
“We’re in the process of working out an arrangement with the Archdiocese of Fall River,” Fernandez told the Globe.
Healey ended her stop in Fall River by encouraging people in the area to seek care at Saint Anne’s.
“I know there’s been an uptick in utilization, people coming here, I think in part because there’s a sense of, you know, now things are … the ship has been steered,” she said. “So it’s just to say, as we face the winter and cold and flu season and everything else, this is a place with wonderful providers who are ready to provide wonderful care.”
