Berkshire Health Systems has announced the leadership team that will helm the reopening of North Adams Regional Hospital. In 2014, the hospital servicing Berkshire County’s second-largest community shuttered abruptly when owner Northern Berkshire Healthcare went bankrupt. Since then, the residents of North Adams and the surrounding region have faced hour-long drives to the nearest full service healthcare facility in Pittsfield — Berkshire Medical Center. BHS bought the property after the closure and has provided limited healthcare services at the campus. BHS says if it receives the necessary regulatory approvals, the hospital will reopen in the spring with an inpatient capacity of up to 25. President and CEO Darlene Rodowicz spoke with WAMC.
RODOWICZ: We have promoted Laurie Lamarre, who has a Master's in healthcare administration and has been a long-term member of our senior leadership team, as the new Vice President for North Adams Regional Hospital. Laurie grew up in the northern Berkshire region and knows the area well, and I think has been a big fan of the health system and looking forward to providing that leadership at North Adams Regional Hospital.
WAMC: What does BHS think is the most important thing to understand about this project that this new leadership team will have to take on?
I think there's a lot to learn about opening up a new hospital. In particular, we've done a great job opening up all the outpatient services that the community has come to depend upon, but this is a whole new process in how we're going to triage patients from the emergency department, when someone needs to stay for an admission, decide which patients will stay at North Adams and which ones will need a level of care at Pittsfield. I think it's also really important that, you know, North Adams is part of Berkshire Health System. So, we're also looking at what services can be shared across the various hospitals within the health system and what services need to be provided at the local level. And I think her knowledge of Berkshire Health Systems will help in that discussion and advocating for North Adams and also understanding the full system and how it operates.
This gives us an opportunity to get an update on this project in general. At this point, how do things stand with the reopening? What's the timeline look like? And when will this new leadership actually be installed at the institution?
Well, the leadership is there today. Laurie Lamarre is splitting her time between Berkshire Medical Center and North Adams. I think Bob Boebert is doing the same thing, and Jennifer Dowling is at North Adams full time running the emergency services and will ultimately run the inpatient unit as well. So, I think there's a lot of good news there. I think from a timeline perspective, we have received the report from the determination of need staff, which was favorable to the application. The last hurdle we have is going before the public health council on December 13th. After that, we will complete the renovations of the inpatient unit and we're looking for a start- We're hoping sometime in March. Could dribble into April, but we're really trying to focus on March as a go-live date.
What have the biggest challenges been so far in reopening the full hospital experience North Adams?
I think we're spending a lot of time om making sure we have policies and procedures and we're ready for licensure and accreditation. And so that's where a lot of effort is, as well as making sure that we're staying on top of the renovations necessary on the campus.
As far as hiring at this point, do you have a sense of exactly how many jobs this might bring to the Northern Berkshire economy?
I believe it's about 70 jobs that will be available in North Adams. We have posted many of them, they're available on our website. We're seeing a lot of experience coming forward from both within Berkshire Health Systems as well as from other sectors as well. So, we're excited and it looks very promising. As we said before, we're going to add inpatient beds in small increments to match the staffing ratio. So, I don't envision us opening all 18 beds initially. We'll probably open with four or five beds and then grow to 10 beds as the demand grows.
From your perspective, what will the benchmarks be to understand how successful a reopen North Adams hospital will be?
I think we're going to look at the number of patients that we can take and are able to keep in North Adams. That will be the success that we have. We're also trying to be very careful about the incremental cost that we're adding to the healthcare delivery system and being very pragmatic and slow in that ramp up. And then making sure we really tested where we need additional people or additional resources as we grow. So, I think 2024 will be our growth year as we open up the hospital, and then 2025, we should see a pretty stable operation.
