Friday, October 31, 2025

 

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Roger Williams Hospital PHOTO: File

As GoLocal reported earlier today, the bankrupt Prosepect Medical Holding has filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Texas, asking permission to close the CharterCARE hospitals, Roger Williams and Fatima, or turn them over to the state of Rhode Island.

GoLocal reached out to Rhode Island decision-makers for comment.

 

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Speaker Joe Shekarchi and Senate President Val Lawson issued the following statement:

“The CharterCARE hospital network provides vital services to Rhode Islanders and is an integral component of our health care system in Rhode Island. While Prospect’s filing has no immediate impact on CharterCARE operations, we continue to work diligently with Governor McKee, Attorney General Neronha, and all stakeholders to support the sale of the hospitals and to ensure their continued viability now and in the future.”

 

Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha’s comments can be found HERE.

 

Governor Dan McKee did not respond to requests for comment.

 

Rhode Island Department of Health

The Director of Health, Jerome Larkin, said in a statement, “We remain committed to ensuring that Roger Williams Medical Center and Our Lady of Fatima Hospital stay open and operational. This is critical for the patients in these hospitals’ communities, and for the stability of Rhode Island’s healthcare system overall. This matter remains before the bankruptcy court. No decision has been made on this motion. In continuing to work with all parties involved, we will support filings in opposition.”

 

CharterCARE

“In response to Prospect Medical’s filing with the bankruptcy court an intent to close the CharterCARE hospitals by December 31, 2025.  This filing has no immediate impact on CharterCARE hospitals; they are fully operational, census remains high, and employees are reporting for work just like any normal day. Centurion and all parties, including state leaders, continue to work diligently on a financing plan that will result in a sale close before the proposed notice date.  And on a related note, we again urge the CharterCARE Foundation to act immediately to transfer the charitable assets back to these hospitals as their donors intended,” said Otis Brown, a spokesperson for Centurion.

 

Nurses’ Union (UNAP)

The United Nurses and Allied Professionals (UNAP), a union representing almost 1,200 employees at Our Lady of Fatima Hospital, Roger Williams Medical Center, and Prospect Home Health and Hospice, said in a statement that they were calling “on state leaders to take any and all actions necessary to keep these hospitals and health care facilities operational. The union’s call to action is in response to Prospect Medical Holdings filing a court motion to close these two hospitals or transfer them to the state. The union also again called on CharterCARE Foundation to pony up the $6 million in charitable assets they are holding in order to help close the Centurion deal.”  

Chris Callaci, UNAP’s General Counsel, stated, “It will be an all out catastrophe for Rhode Island’s health care system if these important community hospitals and health care facilities close down. Our system doesn’t have the capacity to treat the patients who will be displaced in the event of closure, and Rhode Island’s other hospitals will be completely overwhelmed with a flood of new patients. Thousands of nurses and other health professionals will lose their jobs. That’s why we are calling on state leaders – the Governor, the Senate President, and the Speaker of the House – to take urgent and immediate action to keep Our Lady of Fatima Hospital, Roger Williams Medical Center, and Prospect Home Health and Hospice open and operational. There is no better use of state funds than using them to ensure these hospitals stay open and our health care system doesn’t collapse.”

Callaci continued, “We are also again calling on CharterCARE Foundation to pony up the $6 million in charitable assets they are holding in order to help close the Centurion deal. There is no more time for deliberation. It’s time to put the self-interest aside and move this money now. The fate of these hospitals, 2,500 health care jobs, and tens of thousands of Rhode Island patients depends on it.”

 

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