Press Release

Merger Conditions Show AGH Concern Heard Loud and Clear 

GloucesterTimes.com, Gloucester, MA

The final approval granted by the state's Public Health Council on Wednesday does not, on the surface, extend any assurance that Addison Gilbert Hospital will continue to provide its current services beyond the end of 2015.

Yet, by conditions handed the newly forming Lahey Health Systems - the essential merger of AGH's parent Northeast Health System and The Lahey Clinic - the state's decisive panel has at least ensured a three-year guarantee of level services at Addison Gilbert. And the addition of other provisions should indeed give Cape Ann residents all the assurance they could have expected in a deal that pulls together two of the dominant nonprofit health care corporations that serve patients across the North Shore.

The approval - expected to lead to a completion of the "affiliation" by May 1, Lahey official said - also calls for the new corporation to "undertake a comprehensive community health needs assessment" over the next three years to evaluate how Lahey Health Systems will go forward. The council approval also mandates that the corporation issue a one-year advance notice of any new plans regarding services after the three-year time frame.

That should indeed give the Cape Ann community a means of addressing any potential changes before they are implemented. Residents should take heart from a subtle message driven home by both the emerging corporations and the state board: that the concerns and fears of local residents and officials were heard loud and clear.

Lahey President Dr. Howard Grant said the affiliation should allow the newly formed nonprofit to invest in its community hospitals - and we hope that's the case. At the same time, Grant is right to note that Cape Ann residents can make the greatest case for preserving AGH's services by simply using them. That use will show up in the mandated comprehensive assessment, and make the greatest pro-AGH case of all.

In the end, however, Cape Ann's health care consumers can feel confident they got the best guarantee any health care agency could reasonably offer in today's health care landscape. That's as good as it gets.