Mercy Medical Center, identified by the Catholic Action League as the last remaining acute care Catholic hospital in Massachusetts, is set to transfer to the secular operator Baystate Health amid financial and operational challenges.
The deal, announced April 28, will integrate Mercy Medical Center — currently operated by Trinity Health of New England — along with its joint venture affiliates and related medical group entities in the state into Baystate, pending regulatory approvals, according to a joint press release. The transition is scheduled for Nov. 1. Both organizations will continue operating separately until the transaction is finalized.
Mercy, a 182-bed facility in Springfield, Massachusetts, was established by the Sisters of Providence in 1874. It has reportedly been the state’s final hospital adhering to Catholic ethical directives governing hospital care.
According to HealthCare Business News, Trinity Health will retain ownership of several regional services, including Brightside for Families and Children, Mercy LIFE, Beaven Kelly Home, and Saint Luke’s Home.
In the release, Baystate and Trinity cited “inadequate reimbursement for care, industry-wide shifts — such as declining payment rates, changing consumer preferences toward outpatient services, and persistent staffing shortages,” at Mercy as reasons for the move.
Trinity Health said Baystate Health “will preserve Mercy’s nonprofit mission, community commitment, and legacy of high quality care,” though the Catholic Action League of Massachusetts noted in a statement there was no mention of the hospital’s Catholic identity or continued compliance with the Church’s ethical directives for health care services.
The transition would move the hospital under a system that does not operate according to those directives. Baystate Health performs procedures that conflict with Catholic teaching, including abortions, elective sterilizations, and gender “transition” surgeries, as listed on its website. It also distributes contraceptives, including birth control pills and barrier contraceptives, and administers the abortifacient morning-after pill.
In its statement, the Catholic Action League described the move as the effective end of Catholic acute care in the state, noting it comes less than two years after the loss of six former Caritas Christi hospitals when the Steward Healthcare Company filed for bankruptcy.
“There will no longer be a single acute care hospital in the Commonwealth where Catholic medical ethics are practiced, where the sanctity of human life is protected from conception to natural death, where the pastoral care of Catholic patients is guaranteed, and where the conscience rights of Catholic doctors, nurses and health care workers will be fully respected and preserved as an institutional norm,” Catholic Action League Executive Director C. J. Doyle said.
In a statement cited by Western Mass News, Bishop William Byrne of the Diocese of Springfield said he received the news with “mixed feelings,” acknowledging that the healthcare industry “faces tremendous economic pressures.”
He expressed hope that by combining resources, “quality healthcare here in western Massachusetts will be available for years to come.” At the same time, he said, “the loss of the last Catholic hospital in our diocese is sobering.”
“I remain confident in the continuing partnership with the Baystate Medical Center’s Spiritual Services Department,” Bishop Byrne said. “By working with the diocese, our priests, deacons, and Catholic pastoral ministers can continue to provide spiritual care to Catholic patients.”
He also recognized the longstanding contributions of the Sisters of Providence, whose legacy “will continue through a number of remaining long-term health and specialized services.”