Unionized health care workers at Roger Williams Medical Center and Our Lady of Fatima Hospital have not held back in criticizing private and public leaders for poor management of the hospitals.
Initial frustration took aim at the hospital’s now-bankrupt owner Prospect Medical Holdings and the former majority stakeholder, Leonard Green, which sapped the hospitals’ balance sheets to boost executive salaries and payouts to shareholders. Then, it was The Centurion Foundation, the nonprofit prospective buyer, which faced union concern for its lack of hospital experience and seemingly shaky financial plan.
The United Nurses and Allied Professionals has now shifted its ire to Rhode Island Health and Human Services Secretary Richard Charest, who it accuses of “unlawfully interfering” in the sale of the Providence and North Providence hospitals.
Several dozen union members gathered outside Fatima Hospital in North Providence Tuesday afternoon, bundled in hats and coats amid freezing wind chills, to publicly condemn Charest for courting an alternative buyer when the state had already approved a sale to Centurion.
Recent filings in federal bankruptcy court in Dallas revealed that Charest, who formerly worked as CEO and president of Landmark Medical Center in Woonsocket, began courting Landmark’s owner, Prime Healthcare, to see if the company was interested in acquiring Roger Williams and Fatima.
The timeline of Charest’s interactions remains fuzzy. Gov. Dan McKee’s office said Charest reached out in September or October, while Attorney General Peter Neronha indicated he was aware of Prime’s interest well before that.
But either way, Charest’s outreach began after the June 2024 state regulatory decision granting Centurion conditional approval to buy the hospitals
“There’s something fundamentally wrong with that,” Chris Callaci, the union’s general counsel, said at the rally Tuesday. “Secretary Charest is supposed to be representing the interests of Rhode Islanders, not carrying Prime’s water. We should be seeing the Centurion deal to the finish line, not undermining it in favor of Prime Healthcare.”
Callaci warned that Charest, and by extension McKee, exposed the state to “significant legal jeopardy.”
In a follow-up interview Tuesday night, Callaci alleged that Charest’s actions breached state contract and business law, grounds for what is known as a claim of tortious interference in business relationships.
Kerri White, a spokesperson for the Rhode Island Executive Office of Health and Human Services, referred requests for comment to McKee’s office.
Olivia DaRocha, a spokesperson for McKee’s office, defended the administration’s actions in a statement Tuesday afternoon but did not specifically address allegations against Charest.
“The McKee Administration’s focus is ensuring that both hospitals remain open — providing vital care to Rhode Islanders and supporting the dedicated employees who make that care possible,” DaRocha said. “We want to see a buyer, whether Centurion, Prime, or another party, complete a deal that keeps the hospitals operating.”
The two hospitals offer 500 beds between them, including 104 beds for behavioral health patients, which represents more than one-fifth of the state’s behavioral health beds. They accounted for more 50,000 emergency room visits in 2024 and Roger Williams houses the only fully accredited bone marrow transplant unit in the state.
Closing either or both facilities would have catastrophic consequences for patients, workers and the entire state health care system.
DaRocha also said the state is developing a “plan B” if the sale to Centurion does not move forward, but did not provide any details.
Read the whole story on the Rhode Island Current.
