“Taking away services, especially for these types of people, is such total disregard. Somerville emergency department nurse Lisa Valley-Shah said she’s worried that vulnerable patients - including the undocumented and the homeless - will suffer if they have to travel to Cambridge or Boston for emergency care. The Massachusetts Nurses Association, a labor union that represents nearly 900 nurses in the Cambridge Health Alliance network, also opposes the closure. Assaad Sayah is serving as interim chief. Patrick Wardell, stepped down in June and Dr. Jehlen said in a statement that Cambridge Health Alliance should have delayed the decision until after the appointment of a new chief executive. “They’ve made no major investments,” Curtatone said.
Curtatone of Somerville said he was disappointed by the decision and argued that hospital officials didn’t do enough to improve and expand emergency services for the city of more than 80,000 residents. and will be able to treat patients with minor ailments and those who need stitches, X-rays, blood tests, and IV fluids.Īfter the change, the Highland Avenue facility will no longer receive ambulances or treat patients with emergencies such as heart attacks. The urgent-care center that opens in place of the Somerville Hospital emergency department will be staffed by doctors and nurses, hospital officials said. Patients usually pay lower co-pays to use urgent-care centers instead of emergency departments. and 7 a.m., the emergency room typically sees less than one patient per hour.Īs Somerville’s population changes, hospital officials said, younger residents are demanding more convenient and affordable health care options - including walk-in urgent-care clinics that can treat a variety of health problems at a lower cost than emergency rooms. They said emergency department visits at Somerville Hospital have declined 36 percent since 2008, to about 16,000 annually.
Hospital officials said they have considered the emergency department plan for three years and that it was not related to the Levis case. Levis’s husband wrote about her death in a Boston Globe Magazine story published last November. She was unconscious by the time emergency responders found her and later died. Levis was suffering an asthma attack and collapsed outside the hospital. Somerville Hospital made headlines after the death of 34-year-old Laura Levis, who tried to enter the emergency department early one morning in 2016 but found a locked door. The decision follows an unsettling period for the organization. The board of the alliance - a public hospital system that also includes hospital campuses in Cambridge and Everett - unanimously approved the emergency room closure at a meeting Tuesday.
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