Ayer

Athol Hospital has risen to the top as the most profitable in Central Massachusetts, according to data released Thursday.

Worcester-based healthcare system has begun construction on the Groton facility.

As the Nashoba Valley Region continues to grapple with the loss of a hospital, a local group received a three-year, $250,000 grant to bolster health equity in Ayer, the Healey administration announced Wednesday.

Rediscover Mapledale is working to engage the community to celebrate Hawkins’ patrimony.

Local leaders, first responders and medical providers offered long-awaited recommendations Wednesday for restoring some health care services and alleviating ongoing transportation and emergency response concerns in the Nashoba Valley, where a Steward Health Care hospital closed last summer.

UMass Memorial Health’s first choice to open a standalone emergency room to partially replace the shuttered Nashoba Valley Medical Center was to purchase the closed facility.

The largest nonprofit health care system in Central Massachusetts said Wednesday that it thinks it can help the communities around the closed Nashoba Valley Medical Center in Ayer.

The state auditor found a key industry watchdog was not properly holding the hospitals to account, which are claims the watchdog agency disputes.

Canvassers with the nonprofit Health Care For All have fanned out across communities affected by the closures of Carney Hospital in Dorchester and Nashoba Valley Medical Center in Ayer and managed to speak with thousands of people, Executive Director Amy Rosenthal said.

The U.S. military base known as Fort Devens closed in 1996, jettisoning more than 7,000 local military and civilian jobs.