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.