OB/GYN Offices Open at North Adams Regional

By Jen ThomasiBerkshires Staff
Print Story | Email Story
NORTH ADAMS — A move to North Adams Regional Hospital translates into stability, support and a platform for growth for a local practice as it embarks on a new venture as Northern Berkshire Obstetrics and Gynecology.

The doctors are switching parent organizations from Williamstown Medical Associates to Northern Berkshire Healthcare.

"We're going to be the same people, with the same staff and it'll feel the same," said Dr. Susan Yates at the open house for the practice's new home on Thursday. "Our goals have always been the same. We're just taking the hospital entity and our practice entity and combining them. "

Starting on Monday, the two doctors — Yates and Charles O'Neill — and two certified nurse midwives Robin Rivinus and Carol Bryan will move into a third-floor wing at NARH. Boasting eight exam rooms, four offices and easy accessibility to the maternity and surgical units, the new space will suit the growing practice well, said Bob Calway, NARH's vice president of physician services and business development.

"The proximity to services is definitely an advantage and being in the hospital, the practice shares our attention to quality patient care and service," Calway said.

Discussion concerning a move from WMA began more than 15 months ago, Calway said, amid fears that "skyrocketing" malpractice insurance for obstetricians would force the Berkshire staple to close its doors, as many other community practices had done.

sign
sign
"This move was primarily driven by economics. Obstetricians are being forced to cut back because it's just becoming too expensive," said Calway. "We felt having an obstetrician in the community was an important investment and something we needed to preserve here."

With a goal of "stabilizing and then growing" the practice, Northern Berkshire Healthcare — NARH's parent organization — expects to eventually add more staff to the practice and possibly extend the hours of operation.

"The biggest benefit is the economic power of the hospital to help us with capital needs," said Yates, who noted that Northern Berkshire Obstetrics and Gynecology was able to hire Bryan in March thanks to the partnership with the hospital. "Expansion and growth and providing the services that the community needs is what this is all about."

Yates said merging with the hospital will allow the practice to become economically sufficient at a later date.


"It's an honor for us to help [Northern Berkshire Obstetrics and Gynecology] transition to being a practice in the hospital. Knowing we can keep this service available means we're doing our job to help the community," said NBH President and CEO Richard T. Palmisano III.

For Rivinus, the move will hopefully allow the practice to expand its offerings in specialized areas like perinatal psychology.

"I'm hoping we can provide more services that benefit women's health — an integrated model of women's health care," said Rivinus, who is an advocate for treating the "whole package."

"We start at the heart and move out from there. It's not just symptom management," she said.

According to Rivinus, the practice is one of the only in the state that offers integrated medicine programs, which focuses on emotional well-being as much as physical health.

"Now, there's more of an institutional awareness of having people with these skill sets and I hope we'll see growth here. It's an unexpressed need because women may not even know they need it," said Rivinus.

As the practice looks forward to its first week in its new location, Yates said that change is expected but the fundamentals remain the same.

"This is about the future of obstetrics but at the same time, I'm in the career of helping babies get born and we're going to continue you that for years to come," she said.

Edited on May 10, 2008, for clarification.
If you would like to contribute information on this article, contact us at info@iberkshires.com.

Sanford, Maine, Edges SteepleCats in Season Opener

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires.com Sports
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. – The SteepleCats Sunday started their 2026 season the way they ended their 2025 campaign: with a narrow loss to the Sanford Mainers.
 
Sanford, which won a best-of-three playoff series against North Adams last August, scored four runs on 14 hits to earn a 4-2 win at Joe Wolfe Field.
 
The Mainers broke a 1-1 tie with a two-run rally in the third inning, and four Sanford pitchers combined to collect 11 strikeouts as the visitors improved to 2-1 this summer.
 
North Adams, which saw its planned road opener rained out on Saturday, got to open the season in front of its home fans.
 
And those fans saw a strong performance from the North Adams pitching staff, which, despite allowing 14 hits, including five doubles, gave up just three earned runs.
 
“I like the grit,” SteepleCats coach Mike Gladu said of his team’s Game 1 performance. “I thought the pitchers performed pretty well. We had a couple of situations where we definitely should have gotten some runs in and didn’t get that hit.
 
“And there were a couple of plays with a little rust. Certainly, the ball that was hit over [Evan] Meier’s in left field, he just mistracked that one. And the extra run they scored in the eighth, the kid wasn’t going to go [from third on a fly ball], we made a throw and nobody could stop it.
 
View Full Story

More North Adams Stories