Florida

These Florida hospitals are up for sale after their owner files for bankruptcy

A view of Palmetto General Hospital on Tuesday, May 7, 2024. Palmetto General Hospital and Hialeah Hospital owner Steward Health Care has filed for bankruptcy.
A view of Palmetto General Hospital on Tuesday, May 7, 2024. Palmetto General Hospital and Hialeah Hospital owner Steward Health Care has filed for bankruptcy. adiaz@miamiherald.com

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Hospitals in trouble

A large national healthcare company has filed for bankruptcy. A look at how Steward’s situation is affecting hospitals in South Florida.

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Steward Health Care said it wants to sell all 31 of its hospitals, including those in Florida, after the company filed for bankruptcy protections this week.

Steward, the largest physician-owned healthcare network in the United States, said in court filings it hopes to sell the hospitals by the end of summer.

Steward’s South Florida hospitals are Palmetto General Hospital, Hialeah Hospital, North Shore Medical Center in North Miami-Dade, Coral Gables Hospital, and Florida Medical Center in Lauderdale Lakes.

The company’s other Florida hospitals are Melbourne Regional Medical Center, Rockledge Regional Medical Center and Sebastian River Medical.

READ MORE: Owner of five hospitals in South Florida files for bankruptcy. Will it affect you?

The healthcare system, which has more than $1 billion in debt, said it began to conduct a “comprehensive marketing process for the sale” of its hospitals in January, court records show. By April, its Florida hospitals were also on the sale list.

Steward’s attorney told the court its Florida hospitals are the “most profitable” portion of its portfolio.

Steward indicated in court records that there is already some interest from possible buyers for its hospitals in various states, including Massachusetts, Arizona and Texas.

The company also says it has launched a “market solicitation process” to “explore a sale or reorganization around such hospital operations,” in Florida. It listed a bid deadline of July 26 for its Florida hospitals, with the auction expected for July 30 and the sale hearing set for Aug. 2.

The healthcare system filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on May 6 and says its hospitals and medical centers will remain open during the bankruptcy process.

READ NEXT: Why a healthcare giant has slowed care at a Miami hospital, and where it leaves patients

This story was originally published May 10, 2024 at 12:47 PM with the headline "These Florida hospitals are up for sale after their owner files for bankruptcy."

Michelle Marchante
Miami Herald
Michelle Marchante covers the pulse of healthcare in South Florida and also the City of Coral Gables. Before that, she covered the COVID-19 pandemic, hurricanes, crime, education, entertainment and other topics in South Florida for the Herald as a breaking news reporter. She recently won first place in the health reporting category in the 2025 Sunshine State Awards for her coverage of Steward Health’s bankruptcy. An investigative series about the abrupt closure of a Miami heart transplant program led Michelle and her colleagues to be recognized as finalists in two 2024 Florida Sunshine State Award categories. She also won second place in the 73rd annual Green Eyeshade Awards for her consumer-focused healthcare stories and was part of the team of reporters who won a 2022 Pulitzer Prize for the Miami Herald’s breaking news coverage of the Surfside building collapse. Michelle graduated with honors from Florida International University and was a 2025 National Press Foundation Covering Workplace Mental Health fellow and a 2020-2021 Poynter-Koch Media & Journalism fellow.  Support my work with a digital subscription
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Hospitals in trouble

A large national healthcare company has filed for bankruptcy. A look at how Steward’s situation is affecting hospitals in South Florida.