MetroWest Medical Center

A former nurse practitioner at MetroWest Medical Center has been arraigned in court in connection with allegedly illegally prescribing thousands of painkillers to her family members and friends across the state, Attorney General Maura Healey announced Wednesday.

Urgent care centers are rapidly popping up across Central Massachusetts, as the region starts to feel the ripples of a national trend.

All but two acute care hospitals in Central Massachusetts reported year-over-year profits for the first three months of 2016, according to a report from a state agency that tracks hospital financials.

MedPost, a national chain of urgent care centers, will open three locations in Central Massachusetts next month -- its first clinics in the northeast.

MetroWest Medical Center in Framingham will undergo $7.6 million in renovations starting this month.

Several Central Massachusetts and MetroWest hospitals received high safety ratings in semiannual scores from the Leapfrog Group, an independent hospital watchdog nonprofit.

Registered nurses working at the MetroWest Medical Center and Leonard Morse Hospital in Natick have reached a tentative two-year deal, the Massachusetts Nurses Association announced Friday.

The MetroWest Medical Center will unveil its new, 24-bed geriatric behavioral health unit this week.

Lung cancer has long been a particularly terrifying diagnosis. Out of every 100 people who were found to have the disease between 2005 and 2011, only 17 percent were alive five years later.

Massachusetts has a problem with unplanned patient readmissions as 78 percent of hospitals face federal penalties for having higher-than-expected readmissions in the most recent federal fiscal year.