ITEM FILE PHOTO
An aerial view of North Shore Medical Center Union Hospital is seen in this August 2016 file photo.
By THOMAS GRILLO
LYNN — Union Hospital’s days are numbered.
Dr. David J. Roberts, who took over as president of the North Shore Medical Center (NSMC) this week, said the city’s only hospital will be shuttered in the fall of 2019 and sold.
Its closure will coincide with the opening of a $210 million campus in Salem. The new building will include an emergency room and two dozen medical/surgical beds. The Spaulding building will be renovated and become a mental health center. “The new NSMC facility will be completed in October of 2019 and at that point the Union campus will close,” he said.
Today Union Hospital offers an ER, inpatient pediatric and geriatric psychiatry, intensive care units and a medical floor for patients recovering from orthopedic surgery.
Last year, they served 20,000 ER patients and averaged about 50 medical/surgical patients.
Roberts said it’s still unclear what kind of urgent care will remain in Lynn.
Union Hospital could close earlier if demand for service continues to dwindle, he said.
“We are seeing fewer people using the hospital since we announced plans the closure,” Roberts said.
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As Partners HealthCare, which operates NSMC, struggles financially, it recently eliminated 166 positions or 5 percent of its workforce.
“We are a financially challenged,” he said. “I don’t think patients are feeling significant effects of it because it was mostly administrative positions.”
Partners posted the biggest annual operating loss in its 22-year history in 2016 when it reported $108 million in losses on operations in the year that ended Sept. 30.
Thomas Grillo can be reached at [email protected].
