Steward Continues Buying Spree; Globe Reports Deal for Lowell Hospital

The Boston Globe's Rob Weisman reports here:

Steward Health Care System this morning unveiled its second deal in the past four days to acquire an eastern Massachusetts hospital, saying it has a letter of intent to buy Saints Medical Center in Lowell.

Saints is a 157-bed Catholic community hospital formed through the merger of two separate local hospitals in the late 1990s. Under the letter of intent, it will retain its Catholic identity as it affiliates with Steward, which runs six other Catholic hospitals in the state, including St. Elizabeth's Medical Center and Carney Hospital in Boston.

Financial terms will be negotiated in an asset purchase agreement, which is expected to take another 30 to 60 days.

For more background and a helpful overview of what it may mean as more hospitals shift from non-profit to for-profit status, see last week's Globe story on the topic here.