Lawrence General CEO Says Pandemic Brought Needed Health Care Cooperation

One positive result of the COVID-19 pandemic was a sharing of resources that culminated in the recent agreement between Lawrence General Hospital and Steward Health Care’s Holy Family Hospital and St. Elizabeth.Lawrence General President and CEO Deborah Wilson, a recent guest on WHAV’s morning show, said the pandemic helped bring about the collaboration.“One of the things about the pandemic, and it was so horrible, and we’ve all been struggling with the recent surge, but one of the things that was really good about the pandemic is that local institutions came together, in very stressful circumstances, to help deal with the patient issues during the pandemic crisis,” she said.Wilson said the partnership between non-profit Lawrence General, and for-profit Steward St. Elizabeth’s and Steward Holy Family will allow the facilities to invest in the physicians and technology to bring Boston level Health Care to the Merrimack Valley“The importance of this is that, by working together, we are going to be doing our very best to keep care local. And, to offer a level of services here at each hospital that sometimes patients sometimes need to travel to Boston for. So, there are things like thoracic surger that often times will have to go to Boston and that won’t be necessary anymore. These are things that are very helpful to the patient, again, not having to travel to Boston, but it’s a Boston level of care right here in the Merrimack Valley,” she added.Wilson said the physicians at Lawrence General, and the community at large, are excited about the affiliation. They point to the opportunity to bring additional high value and high-quality care to the Merrimack Valley while also having access to the services offered by Steward’s St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Boston.Support the show