National Nurses United

MASSACHUSETTS T he massachusetts Nurses Asso- ciation, along with concerned Greater North Adams community members who have been meeting weekly since the illegal closing of North Adams Regional Hospital in March 2014, have formed the North County Cares Coali- tion (NCCC) in an ongoing campaign to ensure access to needed inpatient and outpatient healthcare services for the resi- dents of Northern Berkshire County. As 37,000 residents in the region contin- ue to go without desperately needed access to inpatient services, the group held a press conference and rally in February outside the entrance to North Adams City Hall to pres- ent data from a new report prepared by MNA that clearly shows the need for, and sustainability of, a full-service hospital to meet the health needs of this area. "All of us care about healthcare and are committed to ensuring the availability of all needed services in our community," said Jim Lipa, a longtime resident of North Adams and founding member of the North County Cares Coalition. "The Massachusetts Department of Health and Human Services' commissioned report has confirmed that the healthcare needs of Northern Berkshire County residents are the greatest in the Commonwealth and has confirmed the need for 18 to 21 acute inpatient beds to meet the needs of Northern Berkshire County residents. The report we presented today builds on those findings with more current and more accurate data to clearly show that a full-service hospital is viable and must be restored if we are to meet the needs of these communities." "The costs of providing inpatient care to the residents of the Northern Berkshires are not unmanageable, especially given how profitable Berkshire Health System's facili- ties—BMC and Fairview—have been," said Nykole Roche, a strategic researcher for MNA, in her report, summing up that "all evidence points to a sustainable community hospital, and this report and community input are indisputable: inpatient services are needed in North County." For the 37,000 residents here and across the Vermont border, the 40-to 60-minute trip to Pittsfield can range from merely an incon- venience to a potentially life-threatening trek. "To ask a woman in labor to travel 45- plus minutes to Pittsfield to deliver her baby is unconscionable," Roche said. Shirley Davis blinked back tears when telling of a good friend whose critically ill fiancé had to be taken by ambulance to Berkshire Medical Center on Saturday, a week before their wedding. "She had to stay sitting up in a chair all night because she didn't drive and there were no buses running," Davis said, convinced that her friend's stress would have been reduced and the fiancé's outcome better if they'd been able to stay in North Adams. "It really heartens us and gives us more incentive to keep at this," Lipa told the more than 70 community members and elected officials shivering in the City Hall parking lot. "We're not going away, we're not going to stop, we're here until we meet our goal and that is providing inpatient services back at North Adams Hospital." According to Richard "Dick" Dassatti, a North Adams resident and member of the coalition, "We are calling on all local, state, and federal public officials and Berkshire Health Systems to provide our neighborhoods and our community with full inpatient servic- es. The neighborhoods of North Berkshire County require and deserve the same quality and array of services offered by South Berk- shire County's Fairview Hospital, regardless of any study, federal designation, or whether it is profitable. Berkshire Health Systems and our government have the resources necessary to provide the residents of North Berkshire equal access to a full-service hospital as the findings of this report verify." MNA and NCCC's call for restoration of a full-service hospital for Northern Berkshire County has broad-based support with the city and town councils of seven communities in Northern Berkshire County, which passed reso- lutions last fall to that effect, including North Adams, Adams, Cheshire, Clarksburg, Egre- mont, Great Barrington, and Williamstown. "As a citizen of North Adams, thank you from the bottom of my heart for your efforts to restore North Adams Regional or BMC North to some more services here in North Adams, which are greatly needed," said Deacon Bruce Ziter in offering a closing prayer. —David Schildmeier M A R C H 2 0 1 5 W W W . N A T I O N A L N U R S E S U N I T E D . O R G N A T I O N A L N U R S E 5 Massachusetts RNs lead coalition calling for hospital reopening Northern Berkshire County desperately needs full-service facility

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