🔒Natick hospital shifting to behavioral campus

Leonard Morse Hospital in Natick is planning to shift to a behavioral healthcare campus, no longer offering acute care services such as surgical and emergency departments.

The change was proposed Jan. 21 by MetroWest Medical Center, of which Leonard Morse Hospital is a part. MetroWest filed a notice with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, which starts a regulatory review process.

The shift would take place in about 120 days, the hospital said.

“We envision the Leonard Morse Hospital campus becoming a unique behavioral health specialty center dedicated to the mental health of our community for child, adolescent, adult and geriatric psychiatric care,” Andrew Harding, the CEO of MetroWest Medical Center, said in a statement. “Behavioral health is a challenge in our community, and it is critical we optimize our services to help address the issue.”

MetroWest Medical Center will instead shift acute care services to its Framingham Union Hospital campus about six miles away. It will make investments to improve acute care services there, the hospital said, including to the emergency department, hospital infrastructure and clinical equipment.

The proposed change would eliminate Leonard Morse's medical and surgical unit, intensive care unit, operating rooms, emergency department and outpatient rehabilitation services, according to a filing with the Department of Public Health. Only psychiatric services, sleep services and CT scan services will remain.

The Natick campus is licensed for 160 beds: 64 medical and surgical beds, 10 intensive care unit beds, and 86 psychiatric service beds.

MetroWest Medical Center, along with Saint Vincent Hospital in Worcester, is owned by Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare.

In the most recent five-year period on record with the Massachusetts Center for Health Information and Analysis, MetroWest Medical Center reported a 10% drop in patient discharges, compared with a median increase of 1% among cohort hospitals. Longer-term, the drop has been 41% in the most recent eight-year period, the sharpest decline of any hospital in Central Massachusetts.

MetroWest Medical Center said it intends to formally submit a 90-day closure notice around Feb. 20, which will start a regulatory review process. The Department of Public Health's review includes ensuring measures have been put in place to minimize the effect on the community.

Leonard Morse will not be the first to reposition its behavioral health services. UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester opened the 120-bed Hospital for Behavioral Medicine in 2018, with inpatient and outpatient care for adults and children. A new 14-bed psychiatric unit at the Univrsity Campus opened later in the year.