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.
There are no "urban cesspools" near N. Adams. It would hours away.
I still think is more about a dying community than anything else.
Which was the strategy of Obamacare.
Make the White middle class PAY.!,,,
Barry screamed revenge in his reelection campaign and he means it.
Destroy all the rural and exurban hospitals and make the white folk go wait in line in the Urban ghetto facilities !
Then they have to drive to Springfield.!
That is CMS strategy run by the lefts plan.
Bush and the GOP run Congress helped fund programs to help rural hospitals and Reid, Pelosi, Barry shut these programs down on purpose.
My local hospital was about to go bk but was acquired by another hospital for 1 dollar.
They shut everything down except for the ER and about 40 beds.
The consolidation has meant greater efficiency but less convienience for the patients.
It’s just amazing to watch what’s going on with healthcare in the southern suburbs outside of Houston. There have been 14 new clinics, day surgery centers and emergency care clinics opened since December 2013. Of course Houston has added 250,000 people in the last three years alone and a whole lot of them live outside the city. Many, many new doctors and all seem to be from somewhere outside the United States.
The size of the office staff has also increased significantly just to handle all the new electronic record demands.
The other thing I see happening is that many of the doctors who are specialists see patients at a different office location each day of the week. If I want to see mine locally I have to have an appt on Wednesday. If I need to see him on Monday, I have to go to League City, Tuesday he’s in Bellaire, etc. Five different specialists get together and rent five offices and each has one day per location. Staff, equipped with computers and medical samples, travels around the city with them.
The reason is the Dem run Medicare program now punish small, hospitals with lower payments and pay urban Dem run locations with higher payments.
.
I can foresee the death of the big hospitals and more of the “doctors” hospitals emerging.
What was the number of deadly hospital induced infections because they paid low skilled administrative clerks more than janitors?
As one who was provided better “care” from the cleaning staff, than from the nurse on duty...
Whoa, I ran into some of those today during my son's outpatient surgery. Totally amazing. They should be like me - retired.
Free Insurance won’t be helping to provide good HealthCare.
Just to be clear about this, that is perhaps the stupidest comment I've seen posted on FR. Ignorant can be fixed ... stupid can't.
Now, are we even? Or, do you want to keep it up?
It may take a while, but I fully expect the hospital here in Kellogg to close as a result of this evil. It’s already shipping out the serious stuff to Coeur d’Alene.
From the article: “Many of the angry workers and residents, on Tuesday night, were hoping their elected representatives can do something to relieve the community-wide misery.”
There they go looking to government. The same government that screwed them up in the first place.
Socialized Medication at work. You’’ll see more of hospitals closing in the future.
Well, we at least have several primary care docs in the area, so mostly we just go to the doc. Still, when you have a real emergency, it’s an 1 1/2 hr drive at top speed to the nearest St. Louis hospital.
I know our local hospital will likely not survive Obama care, but I hope one of the neighboring towns will have a survivor. That’s only about a 30 min. drive.
-PJ
Hmmmmm — and who do these Mass-holes vote for, everytime?
What’s that I hear? Democrats?
Sorry, folks — elections have consequences.
More to come under Ocare
In the whole report, not a word as to WHY the place is closing. I guess this just happened in a vacuum, with no rhyme or reason? The closest they get to an explanation is a vague reference to “the health care environment. “ More crackerjack journalism from our friends in the media.
Did you really think they were going to come out and say the “O” word?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.