APPOINTMENTS CANCELED. Contracts questioned. The threat of continued disruptions or complete closures of vital clinical services. The fear of harm to patients. Over the past two months, patients, clinicians, and health care workers across Massachusetts have been grappling with the ripple effects of escalating financial turmoil and growing patient safety concerns at Steward Health Care.

We are no strangers to these concerns. Lawrence General Hospital is located in the Merrimack Valley and is in close proximity to two Steward hospital campuses that serve tens of thousands of people each year. As such, we stand to be deeply impacted by the outcome of Steward’s situation. Putting patient safety first, we want to take a proactive approach in proposing a solution: a reorganization of health care in the Merrimack Valley by creating a regional health care system led by Lawrence General Hospital.

While the outcome of Steward’s situation is still uncertain, as evidenced by news reports, Gov. Maura Healey’s letter, and Steward’s response, the breach of trust with Steward is palpable and the ripple effects are real. As health care providers, our “business” involves caring for people when they are sick and often vulnerable. That means putting patients over profits is fundamental, and any breach of this core tenet should be of grave concern to all stakeholders.

But concern is not enough. As health care providers, our “business” is also to solve problems, to find the cure. That is why we want to use this crisis of care and trust as an opportunity to reimagine the delivery of health care in the Merrimack Valley, with equity, efficiency, quality, and the well-being of communities at the core of the reorganization.

An inspiring article in Harvard Business Review describes safety net hospitals as “anchor health systems” that are “crucial to US health care in general, the well-being of their surrounding communities, and the interests of local businesses whose employees depend on their care.”

Lawrence General Hospital is one such “anchor institution,” with a 150-year history of providing culturally aligned, mission-driven health care in the Merrimack Valley. Forty percent of our patients are from Lawrence, a long-time gateway community for immigrants. It has a population of over 90,000, predominantly Hispanic, and has one of the highest poverty rates in the state. The remainder come from Methuen, Haverhill, Andover, North Andover, and other Merrimack Valley communities.

We are proud to serve this diverse and often vulnerable population. Lawrence General Hospital operates one of the busiest emergency rooms in Massachusetts, a special care nursery for premature babies, a new state-of-the-art surgical building, and the full breadth of acute care services, including cardiovascular and stroke care. We help to train more than 100 doctors and nurses every year, and, during the pandemic, we stepped up to create and run one of the biggest Covid testing centers and vaccination projects.

Recently, Lawrence General was recognized as one of the top performing 250 hospitals in the US on various quality measures. And we’ve proven we can deliver high quality care more affordably than the larger health systems based in Boston, thanks to lower overhead costs.

The current health care crisis in our region presents an opportunity to reorganize the delivery of care and create new synergies with Steward’s nearby hospitals in Methuen and Haverhill. A 2013 report by the National Academy of Medicine estimated that 30 percent of US health spending in 2009, roughly $750 billion, was due to six areas of waste: unnecessary services, inefficient delivery of care, excess administrative costs, inflated prices, prevention failures, and fraud.

We believe that a regional system of care led by Lawrence General Hospital, the community’s own anchor institution, would reduce such waste. It would also provide new opportunities to focus on significant unmet needs.

For example, Lawrence General is in a “behavioral health desert,” and like other hospitals has patients in the emergency room night after night, waiting for a behavioral health bed to open up. With appropriate regional planning, we could identify excess capacity and repurpose space to create a locally run behavioral health center of excellence, providing multidisciplinary services across a continuum of care. This could significantly improve both the mental and physical health of the Merrimack Valley. There are many other ways in which we could restructure and improve care in our region.

It is important to recognize the financial obstacles to such innovative reorganization. These obstacles, while not unique to Lawrence General, are in part due to decades of underinvestment and reimbursement rate disparities in marginalized communities, a practice we view as “reimbursement rate redlining.” Reversing these trends is not only imperative, but possible, especially now, with a governor and her team committed to equity in all things.

At Lawrence General, we are grateful for support from business and government leaders who share our deep and abiding commitment to serving our community. This support is more than just financial. It’s strategic. It’s reputational. It’s galvanizing. It is critical that the support continues and that we are at the table as the future of health care in our community is determined.

Let’s work together to prioritize equity and regional health care leadership as we design an improved health care system for current and future generations. Lawrence General Hospital is ready, willing, and able to help design such a system and serve more patients and families in the Merrimack Valley.

Dr. Abha Agrawal is president and CEO and Rosemarie Day is chair of the board of Lawrence General Hospital.