Jun. 28—Steward Health has paused the sale of Sharon Regional Medical Center and other properties owned by the bankrupt company.

Steward and its debtors said Wednesday in a joint bankruptcy court filing that the auction of its hospitals scheduled for the following day was postponed to evaluate bids.

The new deadline is 5 p.m. Monday.

Hospitals for sale in the first round included Sharon Regional, Trumbull Regional Medical Center in Warren, Ohio, and Hillside Rehabilitation Hospital in Howland Township. It also included hospitals in Arkansas and Louisiana.

The fact that the company’s debtors jointly filed the document is significant, as Steward’s debtors have been pressuring the healthcare provider to sell its hospitals quickly.

In the same filing, Steward and its debtors said the July 11 court hearing to consider approval of the sales of those same hospitals is still set to proceed. But that doesn’t necessarily mean the hospitals will be sold by that date.

Both parties gave themselves some wiggle room, as they said in the court filing the sales process “may be further extended.”

Steward’s second round of hospital sales, which includes those in Florida hospitals and four in Texas, still has a bidding deadline of Aug. 12, with a court sales hearing on Aug. 22.

Steward owns 31 hospitals.

Dallas-based Steward filed May 6 for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the Southern District of Texas federal court. Sharon Regional employs about 700, with Sharon Regional Medical Center in Sharon as its main care center.