NORTH ADAMS, Mass. – The North Adams Regional Hospital is set to reopen in the coming weeks after 10 years.

It closed in 2014 after the former owners declared bankruptcy. 

Berkshire Health Systems are the new owners, and excited to bring the option for care back to the area. 

“It’s their hospital, you know, the community back in 2014 lost their hospital,” said Vice President of Operations Laurie Lamarre. “And so, traveling, it will help to reduce the ambulance transport time. That offers convenience and comfort to a patient coming here, and I think that, again, being closer to home where your family can support you is part of the healing.”

The hospital re-established the inpatient medical surgical floor with 18 private rooms, and is hoping to add more in the future. It also advanced four state-of-the-art ORs for both endoscopy and surgical procedures. The company says staff are trained to handle a variety of patient needs. 

“We took just about every scenario that we could think of, that a patient would go through and did a mock patient and brought them through those different scenarios. It was a lot of fun for the staff, but we learned a lot and we believe that we have covered pretty much anything that we will run into when we open the hospital,” said Senior Director of Clinical Operations Robert Boebert.

The hospital is waiting to get its license and pharmacy in-lab license before it can open. 

The federal government will come in after opening and perform a survey to certify it can be a critical access hospital offering medical services to rural communities.

This will add swing beds for extended care and make it eligible for better reimbursement.

Jennifer Dowling worked at the hospital as a nurse for 31 years before closing, volunteering since she was 15. She's excited to open the new doors to the community.

“I did have my babies here, too. I’ve had family members die in this hospital, so it’s very personal,” said Dowling, director of emergency and medical surgical inpatient services. “I’m so excited, I feel very privileged to be the one kind of starting this process and making it happen. I’m still thankful to the administration at BMC for continuing the process.” 

The hospital is hoping to open by the end of the month, they will have a ribbon-cutting ceremony on March 28 to commemorate the reopening of the hospital exactly 10 years since it closed.