by Julie Gowel ·
Friday, August 30, 2024
The Harvard and Ayer councils on aging, which provide services to older adults in their respective towns, had their work cut out for them in the past month. Texas-based Steward Health Care announced on July 26 that it would close the Nashoba Valley Medical Center in Ayer as of Aug. 31, disrupting the well-being of local seniors.
While state regulation requires a 120-day period in which a health care facility must submit a detailed closure plan, a bankruptcy judge in Texas allowed Steward to shut down two Massachusetts hospitals in just 36 days, to the dismay of COA directors and older residents.
NVMC has served the communities of Ayer, Harvard, Groton, and Shirley and a number of other towns for 60 years, since opening its doors in 1964. “I’m concerned about the people that live around here,” said Eileen Jansky, a senior living in Harvard. “Older adults, they need that hospital. They need it badly, where else are they going to go?”
Jean Griffith, a senior residing in Ayer who remembers when NVMC first opened, expressed her concern regarding peoples’ ability to travel to the next closest hospitals, Emerson in Concord, and UMass Memorial HealthAlliance in Leominster. “There are a lot of people who use [NVMC] who cannot get to Emerson because they can’t drive,” she said. “We have no means of [public] transportation around here for them to get where they have to go.”
To assuage fears and prepare for the closure, COA directors have been working diligently to strategize ways to ensure older residents do not experience a lapse in access to health care. Debbie Thompson, COA director for Harvard, submitted an impact statement to Town Administrator Dan Nason. In it, Thompson highlighted a $45,000 increase in transportation costs that is not currently supported by her budget. While the Harvard COA operates two vans to take nondriving residents to doctors appointments, it does not always have the staff to drive both vans.
Similarly, Ayer’s transportation will be stretched thin. “Instead of taking people four to five minutes up the road, we’re going to take them 25 or 30 minutes to Leominster or Concord,” said Katie Petrossi, COA director for Ayer. “Our capacity to serve is going to go way down.” Petrossi intends to apply for grant funding to get an additional van and drivers but said the process could take up to six months, time she would have had if Steward were held to state regulations.
“I think it is going to really hit people in another couple of weeks,” said Thompson. “We are talking about it and making sure they know they are not alone. All of the surrounding towns are dealing with the same thing.”
“It’s a stressful experience,” said Petrossi. “We want to be able to help our seniors, but this one doesn’t have a tidy solution to it, and it’s one that will play out for many months.”
Both COA directors said they will have social workers, SHINE (Serving the Health Insurance Needs of Everyone) counselors, and transportation in the form of vans and volunteers ready to assist older residents when NVMC closes, tomorrow.