December 2018

Updates from December 2018

Reminder: The Department of Public Health has scheduled a public hearing on the closing of the Lawrence Memorial Hospital satellite emergency facility for January 2, 2019 at 6 p.m. at the Lawrence Memorial Hospital School of Nursing (added 12/20/2018)

Mass. DPH has indicated that written comments may be submitted to the address highlighted below up to and including the date of the hearing.

Please find the official DPH notice below:

NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING CONCERNING
MelroseWakefield Healthcare, Inc. – Lawrence Memorial Hospital Satellite Emergency Facility
170 Governors Avenue, Medford MA

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health has received notification of MelroseWakefield Healthcare, Inc. intent to close the Satellite Emergency Facility at its Lawrence Memorial Hospital Campus.

Pursuant to 105 CMR 130.122(D) the Department will conduct a hearing on the proposed change at 6:00PM on Wednesday, January 2, 2019, at the Lawrence Memorial Hospital/Regis School of Nursing, Classroom A/B, 170 Governors Avenue, Medford, MA. This hearing will not be adjudicatory in nature, but rather a public forum for the presentation of any comments which may be relevant to the Department’s consideration of the proposed change.

Written comments concerning this matter may be submitted to the Department of Public Health, Division of Health Care Facility Licensure and Certification, Attn: Closure Coordinator, 11th Floor, 99 Chauncy Street, Boston MA 02111 through the period of up to and including the date of the hearing. All written and oral comments submitted to the Department may be posted on the Department’s website and released in response to a request for public records.

Third Follow-up to Community-wide Meeting (added 12/18/2018)

The December 12 community meeting about the proposed ambulatory surgery center at the Lawrence Memorial Hospital campus was videotaped for those who were unable to attend.

We are happy to provide the link to the video here.

You may also watch the video at Medford Community Media at https://www.medfordtv.org/.

Second Follow-up to Community-wide Meeting (added 12/14/2018)

Thank you again to everyone who attended our most recent community meeting Wednesday, December 12, 2018, at Medford High School.

As a follow up to last night’s meeting, please see the full slide presentation here.

The full videotaped presentation and subsequent discussion is being finalized by the vendor and will be made available to the community on our website and Medford Community Media early next week. We will let you know once it has been posted to the website.

Additionally, we’ve decided to add another abutter to the Community Advisory Group. Given the selected site location, we feel that this abutter should be someone who lives on Governors Ave. If you live on Governors Ave and are interested in serving on the Community Advisory Group, please let us know by emailing our team at Community@MelroseWakefield.org.

Follow-up to Community-wide Meeting (added 12/13/2018)

Thank you to everyone who attended our most recent community meeting last night at Medford High School. The evening included a panel presentation by representatives from Lawrence Memorial Hospital, Shields Health Care and the parking and traffic engineering firm VHB, who shared the preliminary results of their recent parking and traffic studies.

We appreciate the continued thoughtful questions and discussion by the community, who shared thoughts, comments and insights on the presentation.

The full videotaped presentation and subsequent discussion, including slides, is being finalized by the vendor and will be made available to the community on our website and Medford Community Media early next week.

Please continue sending questions and comments to our team at Community@MelroseWakefield.org.

Notice of Massachusetts Department of Public Health Public Hearing on the Closure of the Lawrence Memorial Hospital Satellite Emergency Facility on January 2, 2019 at 6 p.m. (added 12/12/2018)

We have been notified by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health that they have scheduled their public hearing on the closing of the Lawrence Memorial Hospital satellite emergency facility for January 2, 2019 at 6 p.m. We have reserved the School of Nursing classrooms again at Lawrence Memorial Hospital. We are proactively communicating this through our communication channels, including email, website and with the City, and are sending the DPH notice to the Medford Transcript.

Please find the official DPH notice below:

NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING CONCERNING
MelroseWakefield Healthcare, Inc. – Lawrence Memorial Hospital Satellite Emergency Facility
170 Governors Avenue, Medford MA

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health has received notification of MelroseWakefield Healthcare, Inc. intent to close the Satellite Emergency Facility at its Lawrence Memorial Hospital Campus.

Reminder: Community Meeting Wednesday, December 12 (added 12/10/2018)

Join us at a community meeting for an update on the Ambulatory Surgery Center and future services at Lawrence Memorial Hospital on Wednesday, Dec. 12 at 6 p.m. at Medford High School, Caron Theater, 489 Winthrop St., Medford.

Please feel free to continue emailing any questions or comments to our team at community@melrosewakefield.org.

Clarification of Information about DPH Process (added 12/5/2018)

For anyone who may have attended or watched the Dec. 4, 2018 City Council meeting, we are providing clarification on some information presented.

Approval for the Ambulatory Surgery Center is not complete.
Information presented last evening is only the Staff Recommendation by DPH for approval (see process below).
The application still needs to be reviewed by the Public Health Council, now scheduled for review at their January 9, 2019 meeting.

As required by the Department of Public Health’s Determination of Need (DoN) regulations, DoN staff review all applications. Based upon that review, the DoN staff issues its recommendation to the Public Health Council. The Public Health Council is the decision-making body that has the ultimate authority to approve the DoN application (and separate from the City’s oversight of zoning.)

The recommendation related to the Medford Surgery Center application by the DoN staff is for approval with certain conditions of continued community engagement. However, the DoN application has not yet been voted upon by the Public Health Council. As noted, the Department of Public Health has rescheduled the meeting of the Public Health Council on this matter as the Department of Public Health did not properly notify all of the interested parties of the Public Health Council meeting date and afford them time to respond. The new meeting date is January 9, 2019.

We hope that this provides clarification.

On another matter, there was also a comment made that members of the community advisory group are not permitted to speak negatively or otherwise about the project as a condition of membership. This comment is simply not true. We continue to welcome different opinions and open dialogue.

Further questions, please email community@melrosewakefield.org.

Reminder: Drop-in Meeting on Thursday, December 6 (added 12/4/2018)

Please note that we have updated the start time to 6:30 p.m.

We are happy to be hosting a second drop-in meeting for abutters and any other interested residents on Thursday, Dec. 6, from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. at Lawrence Memorial Hospital in the Johnson Conference Room on the first floor.

This is an open-house style opportunity for abutters and neighbors to stop by should anyone have questions about information that was shared at the recent City Council meeting.

Members of our leadership team will be available to talk with you and answer your questions.