Athol Hospital Moves To Affiliate
Athol Memorial Hospital is looking into the possibility of affiliating with another hospital or health system.
The hospital issued a request for proposals today, citing advantages that working with a larger institution would offer for implementing government health care mandates, expanding and renovating hospital facilities and attracting more primary care and specialty physicians. Still, the hospital noted that it has had a positive bottom line for 10 years and doesn't need to make a drastic change.
"It's an exploratory process at this point," said Community Relations Manager Marcia Maglione Flynn. "We're just looking at options as to how we can best position ourselves down the road."
If the RFP doesn't yield promising results, Flynn said, the hospital will look at other avenues to achieve its goals, like a capital campaign to fund the expansion of its emergency services department.
Flynn said the request for proposals is open to anyone, but the hospital specifically sent copies to eight parties, ranging from fellow independent local hospital Heywood Hospital of Gardner to large national systems. The hospital is targeting Heywood, UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester, Saint Vincent Hospital of Worcester and its parent company Vanguard Health Systems, Baystate Health of Springfield, Universal Health Services of Pennsylvania and Essent Healthcare and HCA Inc. of Tennessee.
Flynn said the deadline for responses to the RFP is Aug. 6 and the hospital will respond by the end of August. She said any transaction would be completed by the end of the year.
Athol Memorial has 25 beds and 260 employees. It reported $22 million in revenues for fiscal year 2008.
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