As part of the acquisition, Kinderhook said it was changing the name of its Nashville-based physicians organization from Rural Healthcare Group, which formerly operated only in Tennessee and North Carolina, to Revere Medical. Revere Medical went live with a new corporate website .
Kinderhook Industries Inc., a New York-based private equity firm, said it had consummated its $245 million buyout of Stewardship . The physicians network includes about 5,000 employed and affiliated doctors in 10 states, about half of them in Massachusetts.
The sale of the Stewardship Health doctors group — the last piece of Steward Health Care’s once extensive holdings in Massachusetts — was completed Thursday, ending the company’s 14-year run in the state.
The rebranding reflects the expansion of Kinderhook’s physicians group into Massachusetts, a larger and more urban market. Executives from Kinderhook and Stewardship didn’t immediately respond to inquiries.
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Some elected officials in Massachusetts and the state’s congressional delegation have been vocal in their opposition to private equity’s growing role in health care, citing the enrichment of Steward’s executives as its national hospital chain spiraled into bankruptcy. But with Congress and the state legislature failing to pass proposals to limit the role of private equity, state regulators lacked the tools to block the sale.
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In a statement on its website, Revere Medical said it was committed “to serving its providers, colleagues and most importantly patients” and to “building the country’s most revered [health care] provider organization.”
The new company said it plans to upgrade legacy Stewardship infrastructure and technology to boost the quality of care in its clinics.
“Revere Medical will seek to ensure that care remains local so that patients can still access their existing providers, specialists, and hospitals,” the statement said. That suggested that doctors in Massachusetts expect to continue to treat patients from Steward’s former hospitals in the state, now owned by nonprofit operators.
The statement quoted Revere Medical chief executive Benson Sloan as saying the next step would be integrating the Stewardship physicians with the 14 medical groups its operates in Tennessee and North Carolina.
Stewardship president Joseph Weinstein was quoted as saying the Revere Medical acquisition “provides a committed partner focused on quality care and improving the clinic experience.” The group’s statement didn’t say whether Weinstein, a long-time Steward executive, would remain with the organization under the new ownership.
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As its financial crisis deepened early this year, Steward said on March 26 that it had signed a letter of intent to sell Stewardship to the Optum unit of UnitedHealth for an undisclosed price. But that proposed transaction collapsed after Steward filed for bankruptcy on May 6.
Steward sold six of its Massachusetts hospitals on Oct. 1. Boston Medical Center paid $140 million for St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center in Brighton and Good Samaritan Medical Center in Brockton; Lawrence General Hospital paid $28 million for Holy Family Hospital in Methuen and Haverhill; and, Lifespan Health System of Providence paid $175 million for St. Anne’s Hospital in Fall River and Morton Hospital in Taunton.
Two other Steward hospitals, Carney Hospital in Dorchester and Nashoba Valley Medical Center in Ayer, were closed at the end of August after the hospital system said it found no qualified buyers.
Robert Weisman can be reached at robert.weisman@globe.com.
Steward doctors group will now be called Revere Medical
