Posted on 03/28/2014 5:56:45 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
(VIDEO-AT-LINK)
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. – After 129 years, North Adams Regional Hospital is shutting down.
Hospital workers were informed of the decision on Tuesday. Around 530 people will lose their jobs.
The decision to shut down comes as the hospital files for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. It also affects the VNA & Hospice, along with the Northern Berkshire Healthcare Physicians Group.
Current patients will be transferred to other facilities through April 4. The emergency room will close on Friday.
“In the six years that I have been on the board we have investigated every possible avenue and exhausted all options as we searched for a way to continue operating the hospital and its affiliates,” said Board Chair Julia Bolton in a released statement. “Board members, management, physicians, and employees have worked together with dedication and commitment to prevent this outcome. But now, given our finances and the daunting challenges that small rural community hospitals are facing in this healthcare environment, we can no longer continue.”
According to the hospital's website, they are the largest employer in the city of North Adams. The hospital is now helping employees file for unemployment benefits.
Without North Adams Regional Hospital, people will have to drive an extra half-hour to get to the next closest hospital.
Berkshire Medical Center is about 22 miles away in Pittsfield. Southwestern Vermont Medical Center is actually a little closer at 18 miles away.
"The severity of what is going on caught us all totally off guard," said Diane George, a registered nurse at NARH.
Doctors, nurses, and patients say they were blind-sided by the announcement, calling it a travesty, and wondering what will happen next.
"The cost of relocation, your family uprooted, if you're in this community all your life, how do you take your family away?" Nancy Bullett, a North Adams councilwoman asked rhetorically. "Trying to find jobs here is going to be extremely difficult. This is a small town and no way can this town absorb that many people."
"Right now it's hard to get a primary care physician," said Susan Wood, a hospital employee, "Shutting the doors of the OBGYN and the surgeons, where are they going to go?"
For some people, like Bridget Herman, having a medical facility close to home can be especially reassuring.
"As a caregiver for my mother who has acute leukemia, not having a hospital nearby, if something happens, is scary," she says.
CEO Timothy Jones says there'll be a state rapid response team at the hospital this week to help staff file for unemployment benefits and health insurance. They'll also be helping with resume writing and job searches.
Many of the angry workers and residents, on Tuesday night, were hoping their elected representatives can do something to relieve the community-wide misery.
Do we blame Romneycare,Obamacare, or both?
Both are to blame. So are the congress critters who mandated care whether or not it could be paid for.
Time to go back to Dr. Marcus Welby MD. Time to go back to family doctors and cut the red tape and expense. I’st time for people to take care of themselves, the government sure won’t.
My brother told me Madison Memorial in Rexburg may be facing the same thing.
probably the rigid board unwilling to change is the blame
Many of the smaller ‘independent’ hospitals can only remain open if they’re bought out and taken over by a larger group. The rest will have to shut down. This has been going on for several years. 0bamacare may be hastening events.
bamey care is a completely different animal....
but some of you out there keep trying to find excuses why you were so sure bammey's 2nd term wouldn't be too bad when you voted for him...
When my town’s hospital closed, most assumed it was due to the free treatment provided to illegals (of which my town has tons). The same state that required the hospitals to treat them regardless of insurance (or ID) continuously pared back the reimbursements for such care until the hospital closed; happening all over the country.
Sure the hospital’s closed, but now the healthcare is free.
Expect lots of this. ACA stopped the SHIP program which is what was helping the hospitals to take care of the people who couln’t or wouldn’t pay.
I guess they assumed that everyone would have insurance to pay for their care. Plus they are cutting Medicare reimbursement 80% from 97% of cost.
There will soon be less hospitals in the USA.
The large hospital Corporations are taking over health care.
Giant medical centers and no choices.
I assure you that hospital corporation are non profits in name only and you are not their primary concern.
probably the rigid board unwilling to change is the blame
_____________
Probably insane JACHO requirements coupled with insane treatment rules.
I wonder what creative lie the progressive communists will vomit out of their black mouths when, for the first time in history, American’s life expectancy falls? I predict they will use something like “freedom from old age,” “a glorious sacrifice to help the young,” or “Bush-induced accelerated aging syndrome.”
Well, one no longer has to pay the Hospital....
So, how do they stay open? North Adams is a nice place but there is no way the local citizenry can support a facility this size. This isn't necessarily Obamacare or Romneycare. It's more about declining demographics.
Per Capita Income, #233
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| Massachusetts |
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| U.S. |
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*Based on 2008-2012 data. View historical per capita income data.
Evil corp BS !
your not on the DU !
Useful idiot of the left .
The whole point of Obamacare is to punish rural voters !,
Medicare payment system was designed to pay Urban hospitals not conservative rural health.Yale designed it.
Bush and the Gop run Congress helped rural health and Pelosi and Barry uses it to drive people into urban cesspools the Dems Run!
actually, The adems want to close rural health centers and force everyone into urban cesspools they run ,
its an actual strategy at CMS aka Medicare.
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