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Steward sells off lab assets

Move does not impact local hospital service

WARREN — Steward Health Care System has sold select assets of its outreach lab services business that serves patients and doctors in Ohio and Pennsylvania to Secaucus, New Jersey-based Quest Diagnostics.

A release from the company states Quest’s full-service lab in Pittsburgh will provide testing for physicians and patients previously served by outreach labs run by Steward in parts of the two states.

According to a statement from a spokesperson at Trumbull Regional Medical Center, the impacted outreach lab operations will convert to Quest over the course of the next two months.

Inpatient and outpatient lab locations at Trumbull Regional Medical Center in Warren and Sharon Regional Medical Center in Sharon, Pa., “are unaffected by the Quest transition” and Steward “will continue to operate these services with no disruption or change,” according to the statement.

“Normal operations will be maintained at Trumbull Regional Medical Center and Sharon Regional Medical Center with no change or disruption to any business entities or service lines,” according to the statement. “This transaction will enable Steward to focus on its core care mission while ensuring providers and patients have continued access to high quality, innovative and cost-effective laboratory services.”

Quest and Steward have had a “long-standing relationship” and Quest has provided the same services to doctors and other care providers affiliated with Steward’s hospitals in Massachusetts for nearly 15 years, according to the statement.

A release from Quest states “the relationship aims to broaden access to innovative, quality and cost-effective” lab services.

“This transaction delivers on our strategy to serve the evolving needs of health systems, which increasingly seek to entrust their critical laboratory services to our expertise so they can focus on their core care missions,” Jim Davis, chairman, CEO and president of Quest Diagnostics, said. “This acquisition also aligns with our strategy to grow through accretive outreach laboratory acquisitions and expands our ability to serve providers and patients in Ohio and Pennsylvania.”

The announcement comes less than a week after reports that Texas-based Steward, which operates hospitals in eight states, owes more than $50 million in unpaid rent to Medical Properties Trust Inc., one of the largest owners of hospital real estate in the world.

Medical Properties Trust Inc. stated its management team and advisers have worked closely with the health care provider to develop an action plan that includes the “potential sale or re tenanting of certain hospital operations” and “divestiture of non core operations.”

The spokesperson from Trumbull Regional Medical Center did not comment on the reports.

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