Merrimack Health CEO Richardson Outlines Possible Expansion Plans for Haverhill Hospital

The newly renamed Merrimack Health Haverhill Hospital could soon be home to the healthcare system’s expanded state-of-the art sleep study center.

Diana L. Richardson, interim president and CEO of Merrimack Health, formerly Lawrence General and Holy Family Hospitals, a recent guest on WHAV’s “Win for Breakfast,” discussed what will stay the same at Haverhill’s hospital and what services are expanding.

As of Oct. 1, any patient who comes into the emergency department and needs to be admitted will be transported to another healthcare center— most likely to its sister Merrimack Health Methuen Hospital, formerly Holy Family Methuen, as the few in-patient beds in use will be shut down, Richardson explained. Services provided by the stand-alone emergency department, however, will not change, she said.

“The actual services are the same. You have an ambulance that needs to get you care in Haverhill, you come to our emergency room. You have a condition at home you want to come into the emergency room, we are there. Full service, lab, radiology, all the things you are used to today will not be any different come Oct. 1,” Richardson added.

Because so few in-patient beds were occupied in recent years, an average of nine a day, Richardson said this change will impact few of the hospital’s patients.

“Every hospital has different capabilities. Sometimes you need the really advanced services of some of our academic partners in Boston. So there could be times when you come into an emergency facility and your are transported there or transported to another facility in the region that has services that are only available in a few locations,” Richardson said.

Richardson added the local healthcare center has an upgraded wound management center and that hospital officials are considering making its Haverhill location the headquarters for a state-of-that-art sleep study center.

“So one thing we’ve already done is we’ve put in new hyperbaric chambers and really expanded our wound care service there. And the next service we’re looking at. . . there is a small sleep center there in Haverhill now. But we have the opportunity to really make it a showcase for our system and make it a much larger system-based sleep center that provides all services so we are going through that process now,” Richardson said.

Lawrence General Hospital, now Merrimack Health, purchased the two Holy Family campuses in Haverhill and Methuen from bankrupt Steward Health Care last year for $28 million with state assistance. In May the new owners announced plans to close Haverhill’s general in-patient beds and keep its emergency department as a free-standing service.

Haverhill has had a hospital since City Hospital opened in 1887. It was renamed Hale Hospital in 1898 and moved to Buttonwoods Avenue in 1901. The city acquired it in 1931 and built a modern hospital at its current location in 1984. By 2001 the hospital was insolvent so the city sold it to Essent Health Care but kept most of its debt. The city finally paid off all but pension liabilities in 2021.

Support the show