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CLAREMONT — Valley Regional Hospital is considered one of simply 5 hospitals in New Hampshire that aren’t but part of bigger well being methods, however which may be about to alter.
Late final month, Claremont’s Valley Regional introduced it had signed a letter of intent with Dartmouth Well being and with Windsor’s Mt. Ascutney Hospital and Well being Middle, one other member of the DH system.
As outlined within the letter, Valley Regional would be a part of the Lebanon-based system, which is the state’s largest personal employer, and be collectively managed by the present CEO of Mt. Ascutney Dr. Joseph Perras. Valley Regional interim CEO Dr. Jocelyn Caple would function chief medical officer of each hospitals, whereas Mt. Ascutney CFO David Sanville would serve in that function for each organizations.
The 2 small hospitals would have “largely mirror” boards, together with as many as 5 representatives from every of the three organizations.
On Thursday evening, the hospitals’ leaders held a public listening session on the Claremont Financial savings Financial institution on Broad Avenue in Claremont to make their case.
“I prefer to say that Valley Regional Hospital is small however mighty,” Caple mentioned throughout Thursday’s session, which was attended by about 50 folks, lots of whom are employed by one of many well being care organizations. However, she mentioned, the hospital, which has 21 staffed beds and 350 staff, can’t do it alone. It already depends on partnerships to supply specialty care within the Sullivan County metropolis of some 13,000, a area the place she mentioned “the inhabitants is flat and considerably reducing.”
Consolidation in rural well being care is critical for small hospitals to outlive, mentioned Caple, who beforehand led Frisbie Memorial Hospital in Rochester, N.H., throughout its sale to a for-profit chain.
“Being an unbiased rural hospital is basically, actually laborious,” she mentioned, noting that nationally previously 10 years greater than 136 rural hospitals have closed. She mentioned she applauds Valley Regional’s board for being proactive in in search of out a associate.
DH is the best associate, she mentioned, as a result of in rural areas, “geography is future.”
The letter of intent, signed in December, describes “an extended and broad historical past of collaboration” between Valley Regional and DH. DH gives cardiology, oncology, pathology and radiology companies at Valley Regional. Valley Regional belongs to the New England Alliance for Well being, a shared-services group that’s a part of the DH system. Valley Regional and Mt. Ascutney even have collaborated in areas resembling rehabilitation and laboratory administration companies.
The brand new relationship, if finalized, will permit for “tighter integration” of scientific, administrative and monetary sources with the intention of attaining operational efficiencies to maintain “cost-effective, high-quality scientific companies of their rural communities.”
Ought to the transaction transfer ahead, which would require regulatory approval from the attorneys common of each states, Valley Regional will grow to be the fourth group entry hospital to return beneath the DH umbrella. Along with Mt. Ascutney, the system additionally contains Alice Peck Day Memorial Hospital in Lebanon and New London Hospital, in addition to the bigger Cheshire Medical Middle in Keene and Visiting Nurse and Hospice for Vermont and New Hampshire.
Only a few different Higher Valley hospitals will stay unbiased: Gifford Medical Middle in Randolph; Cottage Hospital in Woodsville; and Springfield (Vt.) Hospital.
Leaders of the small hospitals which have already joined the DH system credit score their membership with serving to them climate the COVID-19 pandemic, enabling them to supply specialty companies nearer to residence, and permitting higher communication between suppliers at completely different establishments by means of a shared medical report.
“The advantages of affiliating with Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Middle (DHMC) boosted the companies we have been capable of provide, that means the inhabitants we serve may entry the identical world-class care at NLH in specialties like Dermatology and Oncology — with out the burden of driving 30 miles away,” Tom Manion, New London Hospital’s CEO, mentioned in a current group publication. “Up to now few years, the advantages expanded past companies to incorporate merging onto the identical digital medical report platform, which strengthened a seamless continuity of care systemwide for our sufferers.”
Dr. Sue Mooney, Alice Peck Day’s CEO, additionally pointed to the shared medical report as a “complete game-changer for a way we take care of sufferers,” noting that suppliers not should chase down data from different hospitals. Hospitals within the DH system have standardized their lab gear in order that all of them have the identical reference ranges so there’s no must redo checks when a affected person goes from one hospital to a different, Mooney mentioned.
Given its proximity to DHMC, APD additionally shares skilled workers, together with hospitalists and emergency division physicians, with the tutorial medical middle.
“Because of that we’ve seen simply a capability to care for a bigger quantity of sicker sufferers,” Mooney mentioned. “That’s actually been a profit to the group. That’s been, I feel, the largest transformation.”
Yearly, earlier than the affiliation, APD noticed about 6,300 emergency division visits, whereas now that’s as much as 9,000, Mooney mentioned. Inpatient stays are additionally up from a mean of 15 sufferers per day to 17 now. As well as, the working rooms, CT scan and Magnetic Resonance Imaging machine are all doing extra work than earlier than.
All the pieces’s slightly busier,” Mooney mentioned.
By permitting extra and sicker sufferers to obtain care exterior of the 396-bed DHMC, it helps cut back strain on the tutorial medical middle, which is commonly full.
“If each single small rural hospital needed to begin reducing companies or closing doorways, (we) couldn’t accommodate them at one educational medical middle in Lebanon,” Dr. Joanne Conroy, DH’s CEO, mentioned throughout Thursday’s listening session.
Perras mentioned that Mt. Ascutney joined the DH system in 2014 when it was in “fairly dire straits.”
Whereas Perras mentioned DH “didn’t come down with luggage of cash to avoid wasting us,” it did present the experience and sources Mt. Ascutney wanted “to get us to a greater place.”
Claremont resident Bernie Folta, a retiree who stood utilizing a walker and mentioned he has just lately been a affected person in any respect three hospitals related to Thursday’s dialogue, peppered the hospital leaders with questions.
He mentioned, and hospital officers confirmed, that Valley Regional owns a stake in Summercrest Senior Residing Neighborhood in Newport and that can should be mentioned as a part of the affiliation. He additionally famous {that a} mortgage Valley Regional acquired in 2017 from the U.S. Division of Agriculture, which allowed the hospital to restructure its long-term debt incurred throughout a 2010 renovation and growth, can even should be a part of the affiliation talks.
“It is a large deal,” Folta mentioned. “There’s a variety of little issues to marvel about.”
Nonetheless, in an interview after the session, Folta mentioned he understands the strain that Valley Regional is beneath as of late.
Of the affiliation, Folta mentioned, “I feel it’s inevitable.”
Along with the Twin States’ attorneys common, the affiliation will want approval by boards of the three organizations.
For now, the organizations every are doing their very own due diligence or, as Caple put it, “ensuring we need to actually be wedded to one another.”
Nora Doyle-Burr could be reached at ndoyleburr@vnews.com or 603-727-3213.
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