Heywood Hospital

Description

Heywood Hospital is a nonprofit community hospital licensed for 153 beds located in Gardner Massachusetts The Hospital is located fortyfive minutes north west of Worcester and a little over an hour from Boston The Hospital is governed by a local community Board of Trustees and has 1000 employees on staff The Medical Staff has close to 180 active courtesy and consulting doctors in primary care and a multitude of specialties

Heywood offers medicalsurgical telemetry and intensive care emergency care maternity and pediatricsgeriatric psychiatry inpatient mental health outpatient oncology and hematology special procedures a skilled nursing subacute care unit rehabilitation services and many other services on an inpatient and outpatient basis

In addition to the main campus located at 242 Green Street in Gardner Massachusetts the Hospital has two satellite facilities the Winchendon Health Center on Hospital Road in Winchendon MA and the Heywood Rehab Center located at 69 Pearson Boulevard in Gardner In addition the Hospital operates a schoolbased health center called Murdock Health Center at the Murdock Middle High School in Winchendon MA

History

Heywood Hospital opened its doors to receive patients on June 27 1907 The Hospital was given to the Henry Heywood Memorial Hospital Corporation by Mrs Henry Heywood and her daughter Helen in memory of their husband and father Henry Heywood

There has been steady and continuous growth in the years which have passed showing how much the facilities are used and appreciated by the community and surrounding areas

The first addition to the hospital came in 1921 adding Maternity and a Pediatrics ward The north wing of the hospital was built in 1941 and consisted of three stories the basement and the first and second floors the third floor was finished in 1945 In 1952 the hospital again expanded to add the Obstetrical Department Radiology Laboratory and a new Pediatrics floor

In 1961 a new surgical wing was opened on the south side of the hospital In addition to the surgical suites an eight bed Recovery Room large Emergency Room area Central Supply and educational classroom areas were added On the first floor a modern nursing unit was developed to include 40 medical and surgical beds In 1972 a 35 million dollar expansion project was completed adding Coronary Care beds Nuclear Medicine Administrative offices and a much needed cafeteria In 1978 the north wing was renovated and the 12 bed Mental Health Unit was completed

In 1982 the Winchendon Hospital was acquired and converted to the Winchendon Health Center expanding the service area Also during that year a new Radiology wing was added housing the Radiographic Imaging Ultrasound Nuclear Medicine Mammography and CT Scan Department in a modern functional facility

In 1990 a new Medical Office Building was completed which houses physician offices and a pharmacy In 1993 the hospital completed several renovations and expansion projects including the Watkins Emergency Center the LaChance Maternity Center Physical Therapy and the Mental Health Unit In addition major renovation projects began at the Winchendon Health Center and the hospital Annex building The majority of these renovations were made possible by a successful 32 million capital campaign involving more than 1000 donors from the hospital and the community

Conversion of the Pediatrics Unit to a Transitional Care Center was completed at the end of 1995 In 1996 the hospital completed an addition to the Medical Office Building and additional renovations to the Hospital Annex

In December of 2010 the Hospital completed its largest expansion ever with the opening of the Watkins Center for Emergency and Acute Care Named for the Watkins Family Foundation in honor of Chris and Karen Watkins the Watkins Center contains a new 20bed Emergency Department the new Garrison CT Suite a new Hospital Aid Association Gift Shop and two floors of inpatient space The first floor is known as Watkins I and has 19 telemetry medical and surgical beds and 6 ICU beds replacing Favor III and ICU The new ICU is named for the RobinsonBroadhurst Foundation The second floor is known as Watkins II and houses 25 medical surgical beds replacing Favor II The project cost 376 million and was completed over an 18month period from June of 2009 to November of 2010 The Hospital raised close to 10 million in philanthropy to support the project