(December 1, 2017) Nantucket Cottage Hospital is pleased to announce that it has awarded $762,000 in grant funding to 13 non-profit recipients through its Community Health Initiative, which seeks to address the island’s most pressing health issues through collaborative, innovative, and sustainable programs.

The Community Health Initiative grant funds are available through the private donations to Nantucket Cottage Hospital’s capital campaign to build the island’s new hospital. This year’s awards are the first of five grant cycles that will ultimately invest more than $4 million in community health. The hospital sought proposals in four areas: behavioral health; women’s and children’s health; access to healthcare; and access to housing.

These priorities were identified by the island community following a comprehensive process that included public forums, prioritization sessions and input from the hospital’s 2015 Community Health Needs Assessment. The resulting document, the Nantucket Community Health Improvement Plan, is better known as Healthy Nantucket 2020 and served as the roadmap for the Community Health Initiative grant process.

“I want to thank Nantucket Cottage Hospital’s generous donors for making the Community Health Initiative possible,” said Dr. Margot Hartmann, President & CEO of Nantucket Cottage Hospital. (more…)

Nantucket Cottage Hospital has welcomed a new full time staff surgeon, Francis X. O’Connor, MD, to the medical staff and the NCH surgical team.

Dr. O’Connor, a former captain in the U.S. Navy Medical Corps, will bring vast general surgery experience and laparoscopic surgical skills to Nantucket Cottage Hospital, and will be an important part of the team that will maximize the capabilities of an expanded surgical suite within the new hospital.

The addition of Dr. O’Connor will complement the hospital’s current full-time surgeons, including longtime island general surgeon Dr. Tim Lepore and orthopedic surgeon Dr. Rocco Monto, and allow more patients to stay on-island for emergency and elective procedures.

Dr. O’Connor, who is moving to Nantucket with his wife Maribeth and purchasing a home in the mid-island area, is a Massachusetts native who grew up in Woburn. The couple has four grown children: Kelley, Francis, Alyssa, and Ryan.  (more…)

Leave your signature on a piece of steel that will be part of Nantucket’s new hospital! The steel beam will be placed on the ground outside the entrance of the existing Nantucket Cottage Hospital building beginning on Wednesday, October 4th at 9:00 a.m. through Friday, October 6th at 8:00 a.m. Staff, patients, trustees, donors, and members of the island community are welcome to sign the beam at their convenience during that time.

On Friday, October 6th at 9:00 a.m., staff, trustees and all donors are welcome to join us in the Founders Building parking lot for a “Topping-Off Ceremony” to watch the construction crews place the beam on the new hospital during this exciting construction tradition.

For questions, please contact the Nantucket Cottage Hospital Foundation at (508) 825-8250. Thanks to the entire Nantucket community for supporting the island’s new hospital!

In April 2015, Jeannie Critchley was coming to the end of another school year and looking ahead to summer on Nantucket. But Critchley, who has been a teacher at Nantucket Elementary School for nearly 30 years, was about to receive some health news that would change her life.

After a routine mammogram at Nantucket Cottage Hospital and follow-up tests, Critchley was diagnosed with stage three breast cancer. After the initial shock and deluge of information about her condition, Critchley and her physicians agreed on a plan that included two surgeries, chemotherapy, and radiation.

It was daunting to say the least. “The fear factor, the worry, and wondering what will this be like, it was pretty intense,” Critchley said. “I had ideas in my head from TV and movies about what it would be like, and it was really intimidating and scary.” After a gauntlet of surgery and radiation over the following year, Critchley was relieved to discover that she could do her chemotherapy and many of her oncology consults right here on the island thanks to Nantucket Cottage Hospital’s partnership with the Mass General Cancer Center.

“I had been thinking about the travel, the time, and the physical toll it takes to go back and forth with the boat ride and traffic and the whole thing,” she said. “So that was the best piece of information, that I would be able to do my treatment here.” (more…)

Focusing on Nantucket Cottage Hospital’s campaign to build a new hospital, Milestones magazine is designed to provide an update on the project and celebrate the donors and volunteers who are making this historic initiative a reality. Published in June 2017, our fourth issue highlights Wendy and Eric Schmidt’s $5 million donation, plus we give readers a glimpse into what’s happened on the campus over the winter. Read the complete digital edition by clicking below: