BROCKTON – About a year and a half of redirecting ambulances, using backup ambulances as much as their main vehicle, paying overtime to ambulance crews and a loss of some flexibility in where patients could be transported, eased a bit on Tuesday, Aug. 13 as Signature Healthcare Brockton Hospital reopened some parts of the building, including the emergency room.
“The opening of Brockton Hospital is fantastic,” said Whitman Fire Chief Timothy Clancy, who was traveling for a fire chiefs’ conference in Texas Tuesday. “Not only for the hospital itself to get back in operation after the fire, but, really, it’ll be beneficial to the communities in the area.”
“We’re jumping for joy,” Hanson Fire Chief Robert O’Brien Jr. said Tuesday afternoon, noting it has reopened at 7 a.m. that day. “It has been a huge strain on our system.”
He credited the Brockton Hospital staff for working to help ease the burden on fire departments.
It had not been unheard of that Hanson ambulances were taking 45 minutes to 1.5 hours to get a patient back home as well.
Once an ambulance arrives at a hospital, it’s been taking over an hour for them to get back in town. And ambulance crews have also been responding to another call from the hospitals or a neighboring community, he said.
As a result, Hanson’s Ambulance runs as much as the first ambulance and Whitman has seen a similar increase in demand and transport times.
Clancy said it allows people to get back into a routine if they’ve preferred Brockton Hospital for a long time or their doctors are there.
“I hope the reopening means some of the overall crowding of the emergency rooms is eased and people can get seen in a timely manner,” he said.
Overall, 48 percent of Hanon’s call volume has been second calls while the primary ambulance has been on the road since the fire in February 2023.
“Problem-wise, it’s been multitudes of things,” he said. “Let’s start with Norwood. Norwood hospital being closed a couple of years ago due to the flooding, impacted Good Samaritan,” O’Brien said. “And, with Brockton Hospital shutting down, we do have patients that could go to Good Sam, but then Good Sam’s wait times became even longer and South Shore Hospital over the years, with Quincy Hospital shutting down and [Carney Hospital] shutting down, South Shore Hospital got inundated with people as did B.I. Plymouth.”
Call volume for Hanson Fire, due to South Sore and B.I. Plymouth, the two main hospitals they send patients to going to, as a result of the Brockton Hospital.
“We are doing the best we can to accommodate a patient’s request, but there’s a whole bunch of factors that go into that,” said O’Brien.
Brockton is also Hanson Fire Department’s medical control hospital, with all the paramedics working with Dr. Daniel Muse.
“I will say, he has been phenomenal from the first day they were closed all the way through,” O’Brien said. “He has still maintained our continuing education, and has kept us apprised of everything the whole time.”
After the unfortunate building fire in February 2023, we have been replacing the Hospital’s infrastructure and worked tirelessly to enhance and revamp our facilities,” said Hillary Lovell, manager, marketing provider and community relations spokesperson for Signature Healthcare Brockton Hospital.”
“Signature Healthcare Brockton Hospital has provided safe, quality healthcare to the community for the past 125 years, and we are dedicated to continuing this legacy for another 125 years and beyond President & CEO, Robert Haffey stated. He is eagerly anticipating the reopening of Brockton
Hospital. He aims to ensure a safer, more welcoming, and notably more patient-centric environment.
A a new Outpatient Surgical facility, designed to be more convenient and accessible for same-day surgical patients, will provide ease of access to care and allowing patients to recover in the comfort of their homes.
While some facilities at the hospital – the Maternity Unit (no labor and delivery), Pediatric Unit and Behavioral Health Unit are still closed.
A newly improved main lobby that offers a more comforting and welcoming environment for all.
An updated Emergency Department that now includes a new 12-unit behavioral health triage unit, ensuring better, and more private care for behavioral health patients.
Other newly-reopened departments are: installation of a new 1.5-megawatt solar array will offset the hospital’s daily electrical power use and contribute to reducing its carbon footprint; the acquisition of two new state-of-the-art Cardiac Catheterization machines to upgrade and enhance the Cardiac Catheterization Lab technology.