THE BEST CARE POSSIBLE

 

“The Best Care Possible” Volume Chronicles the 117-Year History of Beverly Hospital and Northeast Health System.

 

In the very beginning (1888), there was one enterprising and dedicated doctor, Samuel W. Torrey, M.D., and six beds for women only, located on the second floor of 55 Cabot Street.  Today, Beverly Hospital has been awarded among the top-ranked community hospitals in the country, caring for more than 150,000 patients annually within the ever-growing Northeast Health System (NHS), which also provides expansive behavioral health and long-term care ranging from the lower Merrimack Valley to Cape Ann down to Lynn and Boston.

 

Dr. Sam Torrey would not believe his eyes.

 

It’s all part of the amazing story that is Beverly Hospital and its parent company, Northeast Health System, chronicled in author/historian Gary Larrabee’s new book, The Best Care Possible: From Beverly Hospital to Northeast Health System (Commonwealth Editions, 265 pages).

 

A concept nurtured and given birth by NHS Chairman of the Board Henry Ramini, M.D., fully supported by NHS President Stephen Laverty, the NHS Board of Trustees and the Evelyn Lilly Lutz Foundation, The Best Care Possible tells a fascinating, human story of the people, from near and far, who have given Beverly Hospital and NHS its lofty standing in the extraordinary Greater Boston medical community.

 

Boasting 292 images, more than half in color, the volume relates:

• How the hospital’s leadership remained in large part in two families from its birth in 1888 until the 1970s – The Torrey/Dr. Peer Johnson/Dr. Richard Alt clan on the medical side, and the father son Ayer team, Fred and Neil, on the administrative/fundraising side;
• How Robert Fanning’s tenure as the hospital’s first CEO led to an unprecedented era of growth and diversification in the 1980s and 1990s; and
• How the dedication and loyalty of medical staff, administration, nursing staff, employees, patients, volunteers and contributors from all over the North Shore and beyond have played vital roles in the institution’s 117-year history of proving The Best Care Possible.

The book is on sale for $40 in the Addison Gilbert and Beverly Hospital Gift Shops.