Six years ago, during a series of thunderstorms, a wall of water broke through the doors and flooded the lower floors of Norwood Hospital. The flood destroyed the facility's electrical systems and forced an evacuation and closure.

The hospital remains closed, with a building that's incomplete, as local and state officials tussle with the site's current owners, Medical Properties Trust, over plans to reopen.

A bill making its way through the state Legislature would have the Commonwealth take the property by eminent domain. The bill passed the House on July 7 and is now in the Senate for consideration.

In a social media post, state Rep. Marcus Vaughn, R-Wrentham, said the bill would be a means to "move the process forward and create a path toward reopening a hospital on the site." He added that for many families in his district, the hospital's closure has meant "longer drives, overcrowded emergency rooms, and reduced access to timely healthcare."

"I would say that reopening Norwood Hospital would be very helpful to Norfolk in terms of time, distance, and wear and tear on our vehicles," said Rob Garrity, Norfolk's town administrator. "The alternatives to Norwood we are currently using are farther away, take a longer time to get to, meaning our residents aren't at the hospital as quickly as they had been before, which can add to negative outcomes.

"Also, traveling longer distances - both there and back - means our crews are out of town longer, increasing the chances we are going to have to call back other staff or rely on mutual aid in case there is another emergency in town," he added. "[Reopening Norwood Hospital] would definitely be a positive factor in terms of response time, cost and patient outcomes."

According to the 2025 Town Report, Norfolk's Fire Department responded to 3,088 calls for service in that calendar year. There were 2,045 emergency incidents and 1,043 nonemergency incidents.

Wrentham's Fire Department responded to 1,991 incidents involving rescue and medical emergencies, according to the 2024 Town Report (the most recent year available).

Task force issues report

An interim report released by the Norwood Hospital Task Force in late June also urged for support of the bill, as well as detailing the role corporate ownership and financial interests have played in the hospital's continued closure.

"What happened to Norwood Hospital should concern every resident of Massachusetts," said Task Force Chair and Town General Manager Tony Mazzucco. "This hospital did not fail. It was profitable. It served generations of families. It was lost to a natural disaster, and then became trapped in a system that increasingly treats health care infrastructure as a financial asset rather than a public necessity."

The report documented the real consequences of allowing critical health care assets to remain tied up in financial and real estate disputes while communities continue to lose access to care.

The Norwood Hospital property is owned by Medical Properties Trust, an Alabama-based real estate investment trust, which recently raised its asking price by 50% during negotiations with Mass. General Brigham.

"Across Massachusetts and around the country, private equity firms, real estate investment trusts and other financial interests have extracted enormous value from hospitals while communities are left to deal with the consequences," said Steve Costello, a member of the Norwood Hospital Task Force, president and chief executive officer of the Bank of Canton. "Norwood Hospital is one of the clearest examples of what happens when financial engineering takes priority over patient care and community health."

"Today, a partially completed hospital sits vacant while hundreds of thousands of residents continue to live with the consequences," Mazzucco said. "The need for emergency care, inpatient services, cardiac care and behavioral health services never disappeared. What disappeared was the political will to force a resolution."

The full report is available at https://finishthejobnorwood.com/.

Timeline

2020 - Flooding from a series of thunderstorms forces closure of Norwood Hospital. Due to the extensive damage, Steward Health Care announced the hospital would be rebuilt.

2022 - Hospital demolished, reconstruction begins.

2024 - Reconstruction suspended due to Steward's financial problems. Steward filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy; the hospital's licensed satellite centers closed in October.

2025 - Town of Norwood forms a health-care working group, with the goal of reopening the hospital.

2026 - Mass. General Brigham withdraws from plan to buy the hospital when the property's landlord, MPT, increased the asking price; Norwood's state legislators, state Rep. John Rogers and state Sen. Michael Rush, filed bills to take the hospital property by eminent domain. The bill has passed the House and is currently in the Senate.