Ralph de la Torre resigns. What about the Steward’s board?

As chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Steward Health Care, Dr. Ralph de la Torre is the public face of a private company that has come to symbolize the most extreme and terrible consequences of prioritizing personal enrichment over patient care.

But de la Torre didn’t solely run Steward’s for-profit business model. According to Steward’s website, Steward’s board of directors – which includes former Speaker of the House John Boehner – is “responsible for overseeing strategy and governance to deliver world-class health care in the communities we serve.” At Steward, the opposite was achieved, as siphoning money away from hospitals led to shortages of staff and supplies. As reported by The Globe, several people died as a result.

With the company in the final stages of bankruptcy, de la Torre is officially stepping down as chairman of the board and CEO. But what about the rest of the board and the role they played in Steward’s financial downfall? Sen. Edward Markey, who led the charge along with Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont to hold de la Torre accountable, said board members also share responsibility for what happened — and should also resign. De la Torre “had no board of directors. He had a council of activists. Made possible by his greed and mismanagement,” Markey told me in an interview. “So far they have largely avoided responsibility. This has to change.”

However, board members can still cover for de la Torre. As Lawrence Cunningham, director of the Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware, told the Globe’s Mark Arsenault and Jessica Bartlett, “Why did it take so long for the board to take action? And why did they decide to accept his resignation instead of firing him for cause? Termination for cause would eliminate any ongoing benefits, whereas a waiver allows those benefits to continue.

Josephine Martin, a spokeswoman for Steward, said she had “no idea” why de la Torre was allowed to resign rather than being fired for cause.

According to Martin, in addition to Boehner, current board members include Mark Rich, who was promoted to president of Steward in November 2023; James Karam, former chairman of the board of trustees of the University of Massachusetts and president and founder of First Bristol Corp., a large retail shopping center development company; Sister Vimala Vadakumpadan, who served as chairwoman of the board of directors of Saint Anne’s Hospital in Fall River, the Steward-run hospital that is being purchased by Lifespan Health System of Providence; Michael Callum, executive vice president of physician services at Steward Health Care and immediate past president of Steward Medical Group, a physician network; Carlos M. Hernandez, former CEO of Fluor Corp.; and Ruben King-Shaw Jr., Steward’s chief strategy officer.

Martin said three members of the “transformation committee” that was established during the bankruptcy proceedings are also considered board members.

As Markey notes, Steward’s financial crisis “unfolded over months and years,” raising questions about what Steward’s board and senior management “knew or should have known” about the consequences of the company’s business strategy under de la Torre. “Instead of doing anything, they did nothing,” Markey said. Now he said: “We need to find out how much money the board and senior management made and how they made it. They also need to be investigated.”

Last week, the Senate voted unanimously to refer criminal contempt charges to the Justice Department after de la Torre ignored a congressional subpoena to testify before one of the committees. Such a rare bipartisan agreement shows how Steward’s damage to hospitals in Massachusetts, Florida, Texas and Louisiana transcends political boundaries, Markey said. On Monday, de la Torre filed a lawsuit against the Senate, claiming his constitutional rights were being violated.

As reported by the Globe Spotlight Team, de la Torre, a former heart surgeon, oversaw the financial collapse of a hospital chain that started in Massachusetts and expanded to other states by selling hospital properties to a real estate trust. Instead of reinvesting the money into hospitals, the money was used to pay dividends to Steward’s owners. While the hospitals under Steward’s management were deprived of key revenues, de la Torre acquired luxury yachts, used corporate jets and visited frequently visited places such as Versailles.

As a physician, de la Torre ignored the principles of the modern Hippocratic Oath, which states, among other things:

“For everything that is most important to me, I promise my patients competence, honesty, sincerity, personal commitment to their best interests, compassion, absolute discretion and confidentiality under the law.”

It also said: “I will charge only for my professional services and will not derive any other financial benefit from the advice or care I provide to my patients.”

But as CEO of a hospital chain serving thousands of patients, de la Torre did not trample on these principles alone. He received help during his term.

Responsible management should have addressed the financial turmoil under de la Torre’s leadership – and the deadly consequences for patients – long ago.

Joan Vennochi is a columnist for the Globe. She can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her @joan_vennochi.