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Objection filed in Valley hospitals’ transfer

WARREN — A company that provides automated medicine dispensers in Steward Health Care’s network, including Trumbull Regional Medical Center and Hillside Rehabilitation Hospital, has filed an objection to the transfer of the system to the new operator of the facilities.

Filed Wednesday by an attorney for New Jersey-based Becton, Dickinson & Company and its affiliate, CareFusion Solutions, the court document states “no sale should be finalized and no closing should occur unless and until” Steward Health pays for its use of the system under a lease between the companies.

The limited objection also asks that the sale order “specifically state” the devices remain part of the lease until Steward Health assumes or rejects lease, or reaches an agreement with Becton, Dickinson & Company “as to its treatment” and the company’s “rights to its equipment are not impaired.”

The filing states Steward Health owes the company about $11 million for systems delivered under the agreement. Also, according to the filing, about $1.8 million remains due since Steward Health filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection May 6.

Insight Health System, based in Flint, Michigan, was named designated operator of the local facilities Oct. 4 by Steward Health’s landlord, Medical Properties Trust of Alabama, which took control of Trumbull Regional in Warren and Hillside in Howland as well as 13 other facilities elsewhere with interim managers Sept. 11 after a settlement agreement in Steward Health’s case.

Wednesday at 11:59 p.m. was the deadline to file objections to Insight Health’s being named designated operator.

The filing states Steward Health and Becton, Dickinson & Company have an agreement signed in December 2017 that allows for, in part, CareFusion to lease what’s called the Pyxis dispensing equipment, an automated dispensing system that provides secure medication storage with electronic tracking of the use of narcotics and other controlled medications.

“The locked medication storage cabinets integrate with the hospital’s electronic medical record system and are generally critical to the hospitals, and generally important to any purchaser of such hospitals,” the filing states.

About 42 facilities in Steward Health’s network use the system, which is designed specifically for a hospital’s use and delivered to the facilities under the agreement, the filing states.

Becton, Dickinson & Company, according to the filing, has contacted Steward Health to “flag the importance of these systems to patients and purchasers,” but Steward Health has taken the position that the agreement “is a national contract that will be dealt with at a later date.”

The Pyxis systems are not included in the assets being sold and the proposed bill of sale designates purchased assets as assets owned by the seller, the filing states. Also, Steward Health has not identified an agreement related to the systems to be assumed or rejected, the filing states.

Steward Health maintains the system is subject to the lease agreement and acknowledges the systems at Trumbull Region and Hillside are owned by Becton, Dickinson & Company, leased to Steward Health and not “subject to the sale procedures,” the filing states.

“Steward Health has not taken any action with respect to such equipment, has not assumed or rejected the master lease and has not transferred any of its rights or obligations relating to such equipment,” the filing states, adding the “rights and liability” are still with Steward Health under the lease.

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