WOONSOCKET — Women & Infants Hospital’s lease on its Woonsocket Medical Office at 2168 Diamond Hill Road expires July 1, and the hospital, which is owned by Care New England, has not yet decided where it will move in the area.
“We’re looking at other opportunities in the community,” said Amy Blustein, public relations manager for Women & Infants, which has medical office locations in Woonsocket, East Greenwich and South County and additional clinical locations in Providence and New Bedford.
District 1199 SEIU New England, which represents about 4,000 nurses, certified nursing assistants, technicians, clerical employees, service and maintenance workers in Rhode Island and Massachusetts, including at Women & Infants Hospital, is cooperating with CNE to find a new spot.
“District 1199 SEIU New England is working with Women & Infants to find an alternative location before the June closure of the Woonsocket office. 1199 SEIU is committed to finding a solution, so patients in Woonsocket and the surrounding areas are able to continue to access high-quality care,” said Patrick J. Quinn, executive vice president of District 1199 SEIU New England.
Blustein said CNE’s Pawtucket medical offices remain a strong presence for the company and as medical resources for the Blackstone Valley area.
“Care New England remains committed to providing excellent care to the Blackstone Valley community. In Pawtucket, we offer a range of services through Care New England Medical Group Primary Care and Specialty Services, as well as Express Health Care for those who need ready access to health care but do not require hospital-level care,” Bluestein said.
Those Pawtucket offices, at 111 Brewster St., include the Internal Medicine Center offering cardiology, dermatology, general surgery, oncology/hematology, orthopedic surgery, and pulmonary and sleep medicine, diagnostic imaging and phlebotomy, and the Center for Rehabilitation offering outpatient rehabilitative services in physical, occupational and speech therapy.
Dr. Michael Fine, former director of the R.I. Department of Health and a member of the board at the George Wiley Center in Pawtucket, said he expects moving the offices to a new location, even outside Woonsocket, would have little effect on patients’ access to perinatal care.
So long as the current collaborative relationship on high-risk pregnancies between Women & Infants, Landmark Medical Center and Thundermist Health Center remains intact, Fine said, “I don’t see any significant risk.”
With any high-risk pregnancy, Fine said, the other medical centers in the area will collaborate with Women & Infants. Such collaboration doesn’t require the hospital to maintain offices in Woonsocket. Fine said high-risk pregnancy patients are better off traveling close to home for their medical visits, but that’s easy to accomplish in Rhode Island despite the native attitude toward distance.
“Our Rhode Island version of what’s close to home is pretty parochial,” Fine said. “In lots of parts of the world, perinatal networks exist over many more miles.”
Rob Borkowski is a PBN staff writer. Email him at Borkowski@PBN.com.
