More than 100 people filled Bass Hall in Peterborough Thursday night to hear from the CEOs of Monadnock Community Hospital, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health and GraniteOne on how a possible collaboration could impact healthcare in the region and beyond.
GraniteOne Health – a collaboration of three hospitals including Monadnock Community Hospital – and Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health are planning a combination of services which could go into effect in 2020, following approval by the state’s Attorney General and federal regulators.
The CEOs explained the hospitals involved have already had a history of collaborating and the combination would allow for more specialty services to be shared.
Monadnock Community Hospital, said CEO Cynthia McGuire, is able to provide specialty care services only through its current collaboration with GraniteOne Health and through Dartmouth-Hitchcock. And more are wanted by the hospital’s patients.
“What I hear more often is the need for specialty services,” McGuire said – in particular, the need for more pulmonology, endocrinology and dermatology services.
She said the combination would also give patients access to specialists at other hospitals through telemedicine and telehealth programs in which patients could consult doctors by video chat, rather than having to travel to other hospitals.
Joanne Conroy, CEO of Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health, said the potential partnership with more hospitals supports its core mission by allowing Dartmouth’s research programs a wider pool of potential participants in clinical trials.
The hospitals would also be able to pool resources, have increased buying power and have more opportunities for training and advancement opportunities for their personnel through the collaboration.
Several residents who attended the session asked about ensuring their donations or fundraising efforts would continue to support their preferred hospital.
Of particular concern for some attendees were contributions to Catholic Medical Center, one of the hospitals under GraniteOne Health. Residents from Milford and Nashua expressed concern that the combination with non-secular hospitals could result in donations going to procedures at odds with the Catholic doctrine.
Joseph Pepe, the CEO of GraniteOne, said that while the intent was for all the hospitals involved to eventually have “one bottom line,” they would still have separate accounting. The Catholic Medical Center would continue to have oversight by the Bishop of Manchester and could refuse to participate in anything which went against the hospital’s religious guidelines, and if there was a question on that matter, the Bishop would have the final say. The agreement between the health organizations would be clear on preserving the Catholic identity of the hospital in perpetuity, he said.
“Catholic Medical Center wants to continue its Catholic identity forever,” Pepe said. “We’re going to be Catholic forever based on this structure.”
There are many ways to collaborate that preserve that identity, he said. In fact, he said, CMC currently runs a program to provide care to women through their pregnancy and birth, who are uninsured or underinsured, which he said saves lives both through providing care and preventing abortions for mothers who can’t afford care through their pregnancy. The doctors in that program are provided by Dartmouth-Hitchcock already, he said.
Conroy said Dartmouth has an academic mission and there is a way to respect each other’s missions and collaborate. She also said the other hospitals involved would also have the wishes of donors preserved – money donated to a particular hospital would remain in that hospital.
Antrim Select Board member Bob Edwards questioned whether the umbrella organization would have say over individual services or programs. In particular, he was concerned about the primary care satellite offices offered by Monadnock Community Hospital – which include offices in Antrim, Jaffrey, New Ipswich and Rindge.
Conroy said the individual institutions would continue to be the primary decider of whether a particular service will continue, be expanded or reduced.
Ashley Saari can be reached at 924-7172 ext. 244 or asaari@ledgertranscript.com. She’s on Twitter @AshleySaariMLT.