With tears and hugs, staff at Nashoba Valley Medical Center close the doors

The Nashoba Valley Medical Center closed last Saturday, Aug. 31, after serving 16 central Massachusetts communities for more than 60 years.

The hospital’s operator, Texas-based Steward Health Care, announced July 26 that it would close both Nashoba and Carney Hospital in Dorchester on the same day, giving barely 36 days notice, far short of the 120 days required by state law. When Judge Christopher Lopez of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Houston approved the closure two days later, he said the decision pained him but Steward met the legal standard for shutting down both hospitals.

Despite intense lobbying by legislators and stakeholders, Steward proceeded with its plan, leaving the hospital’s 490 employees scrambling to find new jobs, and area emergency services and agencies adjusting as best they could to the medical center’s absence.

Workers replace Nashoba Valley Medical Center signs at the entrance with blank placards as the hospital closes Aug. 31. (Photos by John Osborn)

Tears and hugs

The closing last Saturday was marked by tears and hugs as more than 100 current and past hospital workers gathered to greet the final shift when it exited the building. At precisely 7 a.m.—the time of closing set by Steward Health Care—the doors to the ER opened and the nurses, doctors, techs, and service workers who had gathered inside emerged single file to face the crowd of well-wishers who stood waiting for them in front of the building. Many were clad in the blue, white, or purple scrubs of their specialty, others in red T-shirts, and each holding a placard displaying their years of service. One sign read, “Friends don’t say goodbye, they say, ‘See you soon.’”

Chief of Surgery Dr. Paul Harasimowicz gives a coworker a hug as the doors to the hospital close.

They were greeted with applause as they filed out. By the time the last participant had taken their place, the line stretched across the front of the hospital building to the driveway that leads to the now shuttered ambulance entrance. A contingent of uniformed Ayer police officers and firefighters stood by, joining in the applause. “We love you,” someone in the crowd shouted. “We love you, too,” several in the procession shouted back.

Elizabeth Acevedo and Ellen Logiodice, the two nurses on duty for the final 12-hour shift that began at 7 p.m, said they had received about 10 patients and sent them elsewhere that night. Finding beds had been relatively easy, they said. Other hospitals were aware of their extenuating circumstances and cut them some slack, said Acevedo. Colleagues had brought meatballs and sausages to share. “We had a slumber party without the slumber,” said one.

As visitors and staff mingled to hug and say their goodbyes, two ambulances arrived to provide the coverage promised by Steward, a basic life support unit from EasCare of Worcester and an advanced life support ambulance from Pro EMS of Cambridge. One BLS and one ALS ambulance will remain stationed outside the hospital’s former ambulance entrance for the next seven days to help patients who may not be aware of Nashoba hospital’s closure.

By 8 a.m., the crowd was gone. Workers had already removed emergency room and Steward Health Care signs from the hospital entrance and from the building itself. The blue and white “H” signs in Ayer and elsewhere pointing the way to Nashoba Valley Medical Center are gone, and those on Route 2 announce the hospital is “Closed.” A click on the link to the hospital’s website leads to the following message: “Nashoba Valley Medical Center in Ayer, Massachusetts, has permanently closed and is no longer providing patient care.”

In downtown Ayer, however, red ribbons hang from the entrance to Ayer Town Hall and there are lawn signs everywhere calling for the hospital to remain open. The Facebook group “Save Nashoba Save Lives” remains active. Employees have yet to hear whether they will receive the paid time off and severance pay guaranteed by their union contracts with Steward.

A matter of speculation

Whether the Nashoba Valley Medical Center can or will be revived as an urgent care center or emergency room remains a matter of speculation. In the near term the task of dealing with the disruption to emergency services in North Central Massachusetts has fallen to the towns, though state health commissioner Robbie Goldstein and Department of Public Health staff have worked behind the scenes to ensure the area’s responders are coordinating plans.

The loss of Nashoba as an emergency care hub is likely to increase the cost of operating emergency services in the region, an unwelcome strain on fiscal 2025 budgets—and beyond. In an afternoon press release on Friday, Aug. 30, the Healey-Driscoll administration announced the state will make money available to eight of the 16 towns previously served by Nashoba hospital. The announcement invites them to apply for grants to acquire and upgrade ambulances and emergency medical vehicles, as well as emergency medical equipment, life support devices, maintenance equipment, and other capital equipment “associated with municipally-owned ambulance and emergency medical vehicles.” The eligible towns are Ayer, Devens, Groton, Harvard, Littleton, Pepperell, Shirley, and Townsend.

The statement also confirmed for the first time that the state is discussing future uses of the abandoned facility with UMass Memorial Health of Worcester, as previously reported by the Worcester Business Journal and in last week’s Harvard Press.

The state is engaged in “ongoing discussions” with UMass Memorial Health and other providers in the region with the goal of “reimagining future care on the Nashoba Valley Medical Center campus,” the statement said. “UMass Memorial Health is considering alternative possibilities, such as converting the hospital’s emergency room into an urgent care facility.” UMass Memorial has previously said it had no interest in becoming the hospital’s operator. (For an overview of the difference between urgent and emergency care facilities, see “Urgent care ≠ emergency care,”)

That particular solution is strongly opposed by the Massachusetts Nursing Association. “We flatly reject this idea,” spokesperson David Schildmeier wrote in a Sept. 2 statement. “This is not a solution to this crisis and will not address what the community, local officials, first responders, physicians, and nurses testified to at the DPH public hearing [Aug. 15], which is that the 155,000 residents currently served by a full-service hospital deserve a full-service hospital.”

Doctors offices remain open

Meanwhile, doctors offices in the medical building on the Nashoba campus remain open, according to those contacted by the Press. Former Nashoba chief surgeon Paul Harasimowicz, now affiliated with the Haverhill campus of Holy Family hospital, told the Press Saturday that some former hospital staff are investigating whether services such as lab work, X-rays, and ultrasound could be relocated in vacant office space at 198 Groton Road, a building that is not involved in Steward Health’s bankruptcy proceedings. “But there is no plan,” he added.

In the statement released by the governor’s office Friday, Aug. 30, Executive Secretary for Health and Human Services Kate Walsh said, “As Steward runs away from its obligations in these communities, we are running toward them to do what is needed to maintain access to essential medical care for patients and support the dedicated employees who have been delivering extraordinary care during this difficult time.”

“Nothing’s been done. I think the resources are there. [The state] could do something, but have chosen not to,” Harasimowicz told the Press. “That’s the maddening thing about it, and unfortunately, people are going to suffer.”

Editor’s note: This is a developing story. Watch the Harvard Press website for breaking news.