Nantucket Cottage Hospital’s effort to build a new hospital for the island community passed a significant milestone today as the Massachusetts Public Health Council voted unanimously to approve the Determination of Need application for the new facility.

The approval from the state agency represented the final major regulatory review for the new hospital project, as the plans for the proposed 106,000 square-foot facility received the endorsement of the Nantucket Planning Board and the Historic District Commission over the summer. The hospital is currently seeking the final building permits from the Town of Nantucket’s department of Planning & Land Use Services.

“Today’s approval is the culmination of a tremendous effort by our team to advance the project to this point, and represents a major milestone for our historic campaign,” said Nantucket Cottage Hospital President and CEO Dr. Margot Hartmann. “We are so grateful to the Nantucket community for the heartfelt support of our new hospital.”   (more…)

On Tuesday Sept. 13, we celebrated our staff during an employee appreciation luncheon and recognized Betsey Minihan and Roberta Santos who have each worked at Nantucket Cottage Hospital for 35 years!

President and CEO Dr. Margot Hartmann, along with Human Resources director Jason Hull and Chief Nursing Officer Greg Bird honored 32 other hospital employees for their years of service to NCH and their achievements over the years. (more…)

Watch Nantucket Community Television’s coverage of the 2016 Boston Pops on Nantucket!

Nantucket Cottage Hospital has announced a $500,000 gift from the Nantucket Golf Club Foundation for the hospital’s capital campaign that will make possible the nursery inside the new hospital. This extraordinary gift from the Golf Club Foundation will directly benefit the medical care of the hospital’s youngest patients and continues the Foundation’s long tradition of supporting island children.

The nursery will be a key component of the Birthplace within the new hospital, where Nantucket Natives are born, and the Golf Club Foundation will be prominently recognized in this area of the facility. The hospital is on pace to record 160 births during the current fiscal year, which would set a record, and underscores the importance of a first-class maternity unit in the new building. The Nantucket Golf Club’s generous gift will help ensure that this essential island service has a dynamic new space within the new hospital, and that it continues to support a growing Nantucket population. (more…)

For Bruce and Elisabeth Percelay, Nantucket Cottage Hospital is more than just the only medical center on the island, it’s where their children, William and Charlie, were born. The hospital is the safety net for their family and for the community they love.

That relationship and the Percelays’ passion to make a difference on Nantucket were manifested over the summer in the largest family gift in the history of the island: a $10 million contribution to Nantucket Cottage Hospital’s capital campaign.

This transformational challenge gift is intended not only to inspire others to join the campaign and move the hospital closer toward its dynamic new facility, but also to secure the future of the institution by creating an actual hospital campus complete with new housing for medical staff.

“This enormously generous gift is important on many levels, not the least of which is that it is coming from a family that has been so involved with the hospital on a personal level,” said Dr. Margot Hartmann, President and CEO of Nantucket Cottage Hospital. “It is truly a game-changer for our campaign.”

It was at the Percelays’ direction to expand the scope of the campaign which will ultimately result in not only a cutting edge hospital but a unified campus. The expanded campaign will also fulfill the potential of the new building by marshalling the resources necessary to staff it with the best programs and best clinical staff. A key part of that equation is addressing the enormous challenge of affordable housing for the hospital in the midst of an island-wide housing crisis.

“Elisabeth and I consider housing for hospital staff to be almost a medical care delivery issue – if we don’t have the people and the programs to deliver high quality care, the building is nothing more than bricks and mortar,” said Bruce Percelay. “And by addressing the housing needs of our community’s hospital, it will reduce the pressure on the island’s housing supply in general.”