Somerville Hospital, part of Cambridge Health Alliance, has announced that it will convert its emergency department (ED) to an urgent care center, effective in the spring of 2020. The hospital said the changing demographics of its service area drove the change. It noted that ED visits are down 36% over the past 10 years and that the kind of care patients seek in the Somerville ED is closer to urgent care level than an emergent level. Somerville Hospital said all affected employees will be offered comparable positions within the urgent care center or elsewhere within Cambridge Health Alliance.
In Rhode Island, Care New England, the parent of Butler, Kent and Women & Infants hospitals, has called off merger negotiations with Providence-based Lifespan health system and Brown University. Massachusetts-based Partners HealthCare had been negotiating with Care New England but ended its talks earlier this year at the request of Rhode Island’s governor, who wanted to craft a Rhode-Island-focused merger.