North Adams (Mass.) Regional Hospital held a ribbon-cutting ceremony March 28 to celebrate the reopening of the hospital 10 years to the day after it closed.
Owned by Pittsfield, Mass.-based Berkshire Health Systems, the hospital was not eligible to become a critical access hospital when it closed in 2014 after its previous owners filed for bankruptcy.
The hospital has been called the North Adams Campus of Berkshire Medical Center since its 2014 closure and offered a cardiac rehabilitation unit, outpatient services and an emergency department.
Since then, the critical access hospital criteria have changed, with the hospital now eligible for designation.
"I am pleased that after working alongside the Biden Administration, we were able to make substantial progress in this endeavor by changing the designation criteria for Critical Access Hospitals," U.S. Rep. Richard Neal said in a news release shared with Becker's. "This change is what ultimately allowed North Adams Regional Hospital to reopen, and I am thrilled that communities in my district will be a significant benefactor."
CAH designations are approved by the federal government and limited to small, rural facilities, which must meet specific criteria to receive federal support. The support allows the hospitals to to maintain services that would not be financially or operationally supported without federal funding.
The Massachusetts Department of Public Health will survey the hospital's inpatient unit for the CMS, which is required before it can become a critical access hospital. The timeline for the survey is expected soon.