Just seven weeks after announcing their intention to negotiate an
affiliation with the giant Partners Health group, Martha's
Vineyard hospital trustees voted unanimously to approve the landmark
sale agreement on Saturday.
The current Martha's Vineyard Hospital building no longer offers adequate capacity and is in its final stages of usefulness, hospital officials told members of the Martha's Vineyard Commission last night.
The remarks came during a marathon five-hour session that kicked off the formal public hearing process for the proposed $42 million hospital renovation and expansion project, which the commission is reviewing as a development of regional impact (DRI).
Trustees at the Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket hospitals this week announced their intention to join Massachusetts General Hospital and its parent company, Partners Health Care, as affiliates by the end of the year.
As summer moves into high gear on the Island, the Martha's Vineyard Hospital will launch the final push to raise the rest of the money for the construction of a new building.
Hospital chief executive officer Timothy Walsh said the building campaign has raised about $33 million of the $42 million required to rebuild the hospital at its Linton Lane campus in the Eastville section of Oak Bluffs.
An increase in the number of primary care physicians employed at the
Martha's Vineyard Community Hospital is improving its financial
performance, according to the chief executive officer.
Martha's Vineyard Hospital leaders told the Oak Bluffs
selectmen Tuesday they are confident in their fund-raising abilities and
plan to begin the permitting process for the $42 million hospital
building project soon.