The Martha’s Vineyard Hospital announced just before Christmas that it would welcome the return of Dr. Richard H. Koehler, a surgeon and specialist in laparoscopic surgery.
Dr. Koehler was a staff surgeon at the hospital from 1994 to 2002. His arrival on the Vineyard was hailed as a new era in medicine on the Island. Seven years later he severed his contract with the hospital amid outspoken criticism of the former hospital administration and its board of trustees. The chief executive officer and board have since changed.
One year after a program using a live interpreter was discontinued at the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital, patients and medical providers say the replacement system, which uses an electronic telephone program instead of a person, is meeting needs adequately, if not as personably.
Twelve months ago the hospital replaced its interpreter program with an AT&T telephone interpreter service.
The Martha’s Vineyard Hospital announced this week that it will buy the Thorncroft Inn in Vineyard Haven to house traveling medical professionals, including doctors and nurses.
“The hospital spends more than $800,000 per year in costs related to housing medical professionals who travel to the Island to provide necessary patient services at the hospital. Most of the costs for housing occur during the s
ummer months,” the hospital said in a brief announcement about the purchase.
The purchase price is $2.35 million, including land, buildings and furniture.
Martha’s Vineyard Hospital physicians and medical staffers met last Friday with leadership from the recently-announced Coordinated Cancer Care Program, a collaboration between MVH and Massachusetts General Hospital, to discuss details and goals of the new agreement, which increases oncological care access to Vineyarders by providing chemotherapy treatments on-Island. The program also includes Nantucket Cottage Hospital.
The Coordinated Cancer Care Program was announced earlier this month, and began this week at the hospital.
With Dr. Rocco Monto’s impending relocation to Nantucket in May, the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital is taking immediate steps to expand orthopedic services on the Island, including emergency orthopedic services.
Dr. Mark Scheffer, an orthopedic surgeon at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Clinic in Concord, New Hampshire, will join the hospital staff this summer. He is expected to arrive in mid to late July, director of physician services Jay Ferriter told the Gazette on Wednesday.
A free flu shot clinic hosted last Sunday by the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital, Vineyard Nursing Association and Island boards of health was called a success by town officials and health care workers.
“We will be less sick as a little population because of this effort, and I wanted to commend the collaboration,” Cynthia Mitchell, West Tisbury selectman and executive at Island Health Clinic, said at the town selectmen’s meeting this week.