The town of Oak Bluffs has been awarded a state grant to examine flooding around Martha’s Vineyard Hospital and its impact on transportation to and from the facility.

The $169,150-award from the state’s office of Coastal Zone Management will fund the town’s assessment of hospital access routes and their vulnerability to increased flooding.

Working with an engineering firm, the town will study six flood-prone routes to the hospital — Beach Road, Barnes Road, Wing Road, County Road, Circuit avenue and New York avenue — and weigh the feasibility of raising the roads, creating alternative routes and applying nature-based flood reduction solutions.

“We’ll really be looking at the living shoreline, especially along Beach Road and the hospital property perimeter, and will likely plan to restore any plants and materials to protect against erosion,” said Wendy Brough, Oak Bluffs assistant town administrator and the project’s lead manager. “It will be a mix of greenscape and hardscape solutions.”

Heavy and frequent flooding around the hospital is causing a delay in patient care, wrote Denise Schepici, the hospital’s president, in a press release. And as sea levels rise and storms become stronger and more common, it will become increasingly difficult for emergency medical service vehicles to reach and leave the facility.

“A critical component of the health of Island residents and our visitors, especially during a flood or a storm, is the ability to get to the hospital for treatment,” wrote Ms. Schepici.

The assessment will likely be completed by June 2024 and summarized in a report to inform local construction decisions and future climate resiliency projects, said Ms. Brough.