NBC investigates private equity and patient safety at Waterbury Hospital

AnNBC News investigation examines how years of financial struggles, staffing shortages, and patient safety failures at Waterbury Hospital in Connecticut preceded the death of a 21-year-old patient who had been admitted for a broken ankle. The investigation features commentary from the Private Equity Stakeholder Project (PESP) about the financial practices commonly used by private equity firms that acquire hospitals.

The September 24 investigation tells the story of Dale Alice Martin, who died in April 2025 after hospital staff administered multiple narcotic pain medications. State investigators found that her vital signs and breathing had not been documented overnight. NBC also uncovered records showing that another patient had died at Waterbury just five months earlier after receiving 50 times the prescribed dose of morphine.

Waterbury Hospital was acquired in 2016 by Prospect Medical Holdings, a hospital chain backed by private equity firm Leonard Green & Partners. NBC reported that Prospect’s expansion was accompanied by mounting financial problems, deteriorating hospital conditions, and concerns from nurses about staffing and patient safety.

A 2025 U.S. Senate Budget Committee investigation found that Prospect paid investors $645 million in dividends while the hospital system experienced severe financial distress. PESP Communications Director Matt Parr spoke with NBC about how private equity firms use debt to generate returns for investors.

“Private equity firms tend to add debt to the things they own, and they use that debt to pay themselves dividends,” Parr told NBC News.

The investigation also features firsthand accounts from longtime Waterbury nurses who described being assigned more patients, working in unfamiliar units, and purchasing medical supplies themselves as conditions deteriorated. Prospect filed for bankruptcy in January 2025, and its remaining hospitals have since been sold or closed.

The story comes as PESP’supdated Private Equity Hospital Tracker identifies 561 private equity-owned hospitals nationwide, representing nearly one in eight private hospitals and more than one-third of for-profit hospitals. The tracker also documents the financial structures used by private equity-backed hospital systems, including real estate investment trusts and joint ventures with nonprofit health systems.

The findings at Waterbury underscore concerns PESP has raised through its research into private equity hospital ownership, including how debt, investor payouts, and financial instability can affect hospitals and the communities that rely on them.

Read the full NBC News investigation:She went to the hospital for a broken ankle. Why did she end up dead?