Steward Health Care Bankruptcy Docket

Introduction

The Steward Health Care bankruptcy docket is the primary record of court orders, motions, objections, financing, hospital sales, claims activity, and case outcomes. Press coverage gives context. The docket tells you what a judge actually signed.

Steward Health Care System LLC and 166 affiliated debtors filed Chapter 11 petitions on May 6, 2024 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas, Houston Division. Because so many entities are involved, verify the current status, case number, judge, and official case website before relying on any filing.

This guide covers where to find the docket, which filings matter most, how to research the case efficiently, and how to read claims notices.

Key Takeaways

• Lead case No. 24-90213 is before Judge Christopher M. Lopez; claims run through Kroll's site.
• Creditors, vendors, employees, patients, lenders, landlords, and investors each read the docket differently.
• Signed orders control; news reports and motions only describe positions.
• Liquidation plan: check the docket for trust and claims updates.

Understanding the Steward Health Care bankruptcy case and docket

The case at a glance

The cases are jointly administered under Case No. 24-90213 (order at Dkt. 24). Joint administration groups case management; it does not by itself merge the debtors' estates.

The court confirmed the Joint Chapter 11 Plan of Liquidation on July 25, 2025. Kroll's 2026 notices identify the SHC Plan Administrator Trust as successor in interest and estate representative. The matter is a liquidation and claims-administration case, not a going-concern reorganization.

Court docket, claims agent site, and third-party databases

• Court docket: the official sequence of filed pleadings, motions, objections, hearing notices, and entered orders, accessed through PACER.
• Claims agent site: Kroll Restructuring Administration LLC is the court-authorized claims, noticing, and solicitation agent (retention order at Dkt. 29). Its site hosts notices, claim forms, and updates.
• Third-party platforms: useful for search and monitoring, but check them against the official record.

PACER charges $0.10 per page, capped at $3 per document, with fees waived for users who incur $30 or less in a quarter.

Who appears on the docket

Parties that commonly appear include:

• Debtors and estate professionals
• Secured lenders and unsecured creditors
• Landlords, including Medical Properties Trust (MPT)
• The creditors' committee
• State regulators and asset purchasers

Terms you will meet

• First-day motions: early requests for operational relief. Steward's first-day declaration is Dkt. 38.
• Automatic stay (§ 362): halts most collection and enforcement actions on filing.
• Adequate protection (§ 361): protection for a party's interest in estate property.
• Executory contracts (§ 365): contracts and leases the debtor may assume or reject.
• DIP financing (§ 364): postpetition credit, possibly with priority or liens.
• Stalking-horse bidder: an initial bidder whose offer sets the floor for a sale. Not a Code term.
• Claims bar date: the deadline for proofs of claim.
• Adversary proceeding: a lawsuit inside the bankruptcy case.
• Disclosure statement and confirmation order: the plan's information document and the court's approval.

Why one search returns many entities

A search for "Steward" can return dozens of debtors. Read the caption and the docket entry before attributing a filing to a specific entity.

Source integrity

Separate what a signed order establishes from allegations in complaints, arguments in objections, proposed relief in motions, and commentator conclusions.

How to find and use important Steward bankruptcy docket filings

Step-by-step search

1. Search PACER by 24-90213 or the debtor name, or open the Kroll case site at restructuring.ra.kroll.com/steward.
2. Confirm the court and case number.
3. Open the docket or document index.
4. Filter by date or filing type.
5. Download the full document with all attachments.

Filings by research purpose

Purpose	What to look for
Case setup	Petitions, first-day declaration (Dkt. 38), joint administration (Dkt. 24)
Liquidity	Cash-collateral and DIP motions, budgets, financing orders, lender objections
Hospital sales	Bidding procedures, stalking-horse agreements, sale motions, objections, sale orders
Creditor recovery	Schedules, SOFAs, bar-date orders, claims notices, plan documents
Disputes	Adversary complaints, landlord disputes, fee applications

Kroll lists the disclosure statement at Dkt. 5028, its order at Dkt. 5036, and the plan at Dkt. 5492. Confirm the confirmation order number directly on the live docket.

Reading a docket entry

Distinguish a filed document from an entered order. Check whether relief is interim or final, note hearing dates and response deadlines, and read incorporated exhibits.

Common terms:

• Sealed: access restricted by court order.
• Redacted: specified content masked.
• Continued or adjourned: hearing moved.
• Withdrawn: filer no longer presses the request.
• Sustained or overruled: objection accepted or rejected.
• Without prejudice: the request can be renewed, subject to the order.

A practical trace

Say you want to know whether a Florida hospital sale was approved. Start with MPT's August 19, 2024 objection (Dkt. 2037), which challenged stalking-horse designations and raised lease issues.

Then read Dkt. 2445, filed September 10, which addresses global procedures and a Space Coast sale hearing and references the Orlando Health bid protections. Finally, find the signed sale order and closing notice. The first two documents show the dispute, not the outcome.

Professionals who track docket activity alongside stakeholders, advisors, timelines, and outcomes can use BankruptcyData's platform, licensed datasets, or API workflows. This keeps the court record as your source of truth.

Key dates, procedural milestones, and case developments to track

Timeline

• May 6, 2024: petitions filed.
• June 3, 2024: bidding-procedures order, as referenced in later filings.
• July 31, 2024: Massachusetts DPH says the court allowed an emergency motion on Carney Hospital's closure.
• August 31, 2024: Carney and Nashoba Valley Medical Center closed, per Massachusetts.
• September 2024: the Health Policy Commission concluded its reviews of the Massachusetts hospital transfers, clearing parties to proceed toward a targeted September 30 closing. That is not proof each sale closed.
• July 25, 2025: liquidation plan confirmed.

Confirm each date on the live docket before relying on it.

Why each stage matters

• First-day relief aims to preserve cash, keep operations running, and protect patient-care continuity. Steward's declaration described a proposed junior DIP facility from an MPT affiliate: $75 million interim and up to $225 million more, subject to milestones. That is a proposal, not realized borrowing.
• Financing and cash-collateral orders shape liquidity, lender protections, reporting duties, and how long a debtor can operate while assets are marketed.
• Bidding procedures and sale hearings in healthcare involve licenses, equipment, contracts, workforce, real estate, and regulatory approvals.
• Objections and emergency hearings can shift the schedule when landlords, lenders, committees, or regulators dispute terms.

Current status

As of October 20, 2026, Kroll materials include a filing signed October 2, 2026 and a hearing notice for October 5, 2026. The hearing outcome is not readily available from those materials, so check the docket for the latest material order.

What the docket means for creditors, vendors, investors, and other stakeholders

Creditors and vendors

Use the petition, schedules, claims notices, and Kroll's instructions to decide whether and how to file a claim. Kroll's case page lists bar dates of August 23, 2024 (general), November 4, 2024 (governmental), and December 20, 2024 (administrative).

A separate post-confirmation process exists for medical-liability claims. Holders must elect within 180 days of service and submit documentation, or risk disallowance. Individual circumstances may require advice from bankruptcy counsel.

Lenders, landlords, and real-estate parties

Look for financing motions, adequate-protection requests, lease pleadings, sale objections, and collateral disputes. MPT's August 2024 objection describes Master Lease I properties in Texas, Florida, Arkansas, Louisiana, Arizona, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, plus a separate Massachusetts lease.

Investors and special-situations researchers

Extract capital structure, lender groups, claim classifications, sale terms, releases, litigation assets, and plan treatment. No verified aggregate debt figure, distribution, or recovery percentage is readily available on the public docket, so keep proposed estimates apart from amounts actually paid.

Employees, patients, and communities

Look for operating notices, closure plans, and government filings. Carney's transition plan says WARN notices went to employees, residents, and union representatives, and names St. Elizabeth's Medical Center as custodian of records. Massachusetts publishes patient and employee resources.

Positions versus orders

A motion or objection signals what a party wants. Only an order grants, denies, or modifies relief. For every material conclusion, record the document number, filing date, entity, paragraph, effective date, and source URL.

A practical workflow for monitoring the Steward bankruptcy docket

Repeatable process

1. Define your research question.
2. Identify every relevant debtor entity.
3. Subscribe to official notices.
4. Review new docket entries.
5. Prioritize orders and deadlines.
6. Save source documents.
7. Update your research log.

PACER's notice of electronic filing emails registered case parties. Kroll's site also offers email docket updates. A case-specific RSS feed for Steward is not readily available.

Separate watch lists

Keep separate lists for:

• Deadlines
• Financing
• Hospital or asset sales
• Creditor claims
• Litigation
• Professional fees
• Plan or distribution developments

Search cautions

• Try alternate entity names and abbreviations.
• Remember that exhibit-only references and scanned PDFs may not be text-searchable.
• Sealed filings and descriptive docket text can hide the real issue.
• Confirm time zones (Kroll labels hearings "CT") and check for amended notices.
• Never rely on search snippets; treat social-media posts and unverified summaries as leads.

BankruptcyData supports ongoing monitoring by pairing court and docket intelligence with stakeholder, advisor, transaction, and outcome data for legal, investment, advisory, and credit-risk work. Its platform covers 600k+ records spanning 45+ years of U.S. bankruptcy activity.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why am I getting mail from Epiq Corporate Restructuring LLC?

Kroll Restructuring Administration LLC, not Epiq, is the claims and noticing agent appointed in this case. Mail from another sender may relate to a different matter. Verify any notice at the official Kroll Steward site before submitting information or paying anything.

Does Steward Health Care still exist?

The court confirmed a plan of liquidation, and the SHC Plan Administrator Trust handles estate matters. Some hospitals closed and others were transferred. Check the latest orders, sale documents, and official notices for the specific entity or facility.

Is Steward Healthcare a legit company?

Steward was a real hospital operator, formed in 2010 when it acquired Caritas Christi. Bankruptcy or an investigation is not itself a finding of fraud. Rely on court filings and official records for claims about the company.