Hospital president: Union ER to remain

LYNN – North Shore Medical Center?s president said plans to move surgical beds out of Union Hospital and psychiatric beds into the Lynnfield Street facility may be “tweaked” but not shelved.Robert Norton said an essential part of North Shore?s and parent company Partners HealthCare?s plan – the Union Hospital emergency department – have not been fully defined.He said state regulations governing emergency departments, and the backup services hospitals need to provide to those departments, are in the draft stage and will probably be completed over the next year even as Partners seeks approval for changes it wants to make at hospitals including Union and Salem.?We will have full emergency services on both campuses,” Norton said.But he said Partners? three year-long, $220 million plan to join forces with Hallmark Health – a hospital operator north of Boston – has taken shape over the last several years as health care providers across the nation grapple with the high cost of providing medical care and changing ways patients are treated.?If people believe we can go back to the status quo, that is not tenable,” he said.Unveiled last Thursday in a press release and meetings with North Shore Medical employees, Partners? plan faced criticism from Lynn elected officials who vowed to fight it. Nearly 100 city residents voiced their objections to the Union Hospital changes at a City Council meeting attended Tuesday by Norton.Another community meeting is scheduled Wednesday, Oct. 23 at 6:30 p.m. at Union.Norton said changes proposed for Union and other Partners hospitals partly involve providing more care to patients through primary doctors and medical professionals working with doctors.Partners plans to hire more doctors to work at Union and Salem hospitals, and expand a patient care system that has doctors and nurses reaching out to patients to make sure they are taking medications as prescribed, managing their weight and taking other health maintenance steps.?That?s 180 degrees different from how we used to think from even a few years ago,” he said.He said four out of 10 people seeking care at Union Hospital?s emergency department could get the help they need from primary care doctors and the people working with them. Norton said other patients, including ones with heart problems, need the help available in Salem Hospital?s emergency department.?If you have a heart attack, you want to go to Salem,” he said.Norton said Partners? plan to move psychiatric services now located in Medford and Salem to Union Hospital is part of a commitment to address the growing demand for mental health care he said other major health care businesses won?t tackle.Norton said Partners is mindful of security concerns raised by residents who attended Tuesday?s council meeting.?We have an obligation to ensure the community we have very good security,” he said.Providing more psychiatric care beds in Union will help reduce the number of people seeking mental health care in the hospital?s emergency department.?These patients are backed up in emergency departments across the state. It?s inhumane,” he said.Norton said about 750 people work at Union Hospital and many employees currently divide their time between Union and Salem. Changes introduced over the next three years as part of Partners? plan will shift some Union workers to Salem and visa versa.Norton made a promise Friday even as he said Partners will probably apply to begin the formal state review process in January.?There will definitely be a Union Hospital in Lynn in five to 10 years, and it will provide patient access to a new model of care,” he said.