Southbridge

Faced with declining patient discharge numbers and seeing a chance to pare costs that didn’t directly affect patients, UMass Memorial Health Care leaders in Worcester made a tough financial choice to cut much of its executive ranks.

More than five decades ago, the first U.S. surgeon general’s report warned against the health hazards of smoking. But it wasn’t until much more recently screening for lung cancer became a reliable tool. The Harrington HealthCare System is on the forefront.

When Spectrum Health Systems got its start half a century ago, the agency was located in Methuen, was named the Challenge House, and the addiction treatment industry thought little of the complex ways people could be helped.

A Framingham company has been fined nearly $50,000 for violating asbestos regulations for a building project in Southbridge, the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection announced Tuesday.

Harrington Hospital is now staffing its emergency departments in Southbridge and Webster with a physicians group associated with Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.

Hospitals in Worcester, Clinton, Framingham, Gardner and Milford have received the highest patient safety ratings in the newest report from a nonprofit hospital group.

An IT analyst at Southbridge's Harrington Hospital has been named president of United Way of Southbridge, Sturbridge and Charlton.

Harrington Hospital has been designated a lung cancer screening center by the American College of Radiology.

Lou Brady took as president and CEO of Family Health Center of Worcester on April, replacing Frances Anthes, who helmed public service agency for 22 years.

Harrington HealthCare in Southbridge and Heywood Healthcare in Gardner will join the Massachusetts Value Alliance.