Markey Vows Advocacy for North Adams Medical Services
 U.S. Sen. Edward Markey visited MCLA, BMC North and Mass MoCA on a swing through the city on Monday afternoon. Above, the senator and Mass MoCA director Joseph Thompson discuss Clifford Ross' Landscape Seen & Imagined. |
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — U.S. Sen. Edward J. Markey on Monday afternoon promised to be a "vigorous advocate" for the expansion of medical services at the former North Adams Regional Hospital.
Markey met briefly behind closed doors with Mayor Richard Alcombright, City Councilor Nancy Bullett and Berkshire Health Systems' President David E. Phelps, Chief Financial Officer Darlene Rodowicz and Fairview Hospital President Eugene Dellea at what is now the Northern Berkshire Campus of Berkshire Medical Center.
"I am going to closely partner to advocate for every single program that this incredible institution can qualify for," he said, standing in the facility's lobby after the meeting. "We're going to be vigorous advocates. ...
"We're going to partner with Congressman [Richard] and [Sen.] Elizabeth Warren, that we're fighting to maximize the revenue stream and the resources which are needed to continue this as a vital part of the community."
Markey is on a swing through Western Massachusetts over the next few days. After flying into Albany, N.Y., from Washington, the Malden Democrat toured the former hospital and Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts and Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art before heading to Pittsfield City Hall. He was expected to be in Northampton and Springfield on Tuesday.
"It was great to have Senator Markey here in the city to see the many great things happening," said Alcombright. "I was very pleased to be with him as he toured the Center for Science and Innovation at MCLA, witnessed the restoration of health care services at BMC North Campus and closing out his time with a tour of Mass MoCA.
"I think we made the senator a true fan of North Adams today."
At MCLA, he met with administrators and toured the new science building, asking questions about the college, its scores, students and potential.
"Public colleges are the future," he said, noting how MCLA offers higher education especially for lower and middle class students.
"It's beautiful. I love it," Markey said, adding that his wife, Susan, would fit right into the liberal arts college with her biology and English degrees. "I want to go here."
Markey also got a whirlwind tour of Mass MoCA from Executive Director Joseph Thompson.
The cheerful and animated senator peppered Thompson with questions about the artwork, the artists and the building's history.
A walk through Jim Shaw's "Entertaining Doubts" and his gallery of Superman "having a bad day" — as Thompson put it — had him recalling how he had once clipped coupons from old comics to send away for a Superman T-shirt. The shirt was a hit until his mother washed it and it shrunk so much it couldn't be worn.
"That's when I became a consumer advocate," he laughed.
Markey was also taken by the museum's outreach to local schools. Thompson estimated that 98 percent of North Berkshire schoolchildren get to tour Mass MoCA or participate in its educational programs.
When he was growing up, Markey said the nuns would put "60 boys on a bus" to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, instilling a love of art and impressing its importance.
"So it's great that you make this educational commitment to the kids," he said. "Otherwise, where would they go?"
The senator's visit seemed to be more about getting know some of the city's more important facilities. The stop at BMC North, however, was seen as a hopeful sign that the federal delegation is paying attention to the city's loss of its hospital last year.
"His support as part of our federal delegation most specifically when our hospital closed, was admirable and he looked very favorably on services restored and is excited about more to come," said the mayor.
Berkshire Medical Center, which purchased the facility a year ago, has pumped millions into upgrading the building and has reopened an emergency satellite facility, outpatient services and a number of surgical services.
Residents have been hoping for the return of a full-service (inpatient) hospital, even if limited in size. BMC officials have continually said any reopening of inpatient services depends on a number of factors, most especially financial feasibility.
"I would say that this is phoenix-like in its restoration of the services for this entire area," Markey said. "It's very impressive. You can see clearly that there is a plan in place to further expand and refine and the services.
"I want to work closely with the mayor, with the medical facility to continue to tap into federal resources that can help to make this a huge success."
Bullett, who accompanied the tour at all three venues (Councilor Eric Buddington joined the group at Mass MoCA), said she lobbied for Markey and health system officials to consider looking at health care from a different perspective.
"I told the senator that this facility has the opportunity to look at health care from 'health care,' and not 'sick care' anymore," she said. "This is an opportunity to change the face of health care in the community."
Bullett said she was thinking along the lines of what former gubernatorial candidate Dr. Don Berwick had espoused during his campaign.
"It's not necessarily outpatient sick care that we have to do," she said. "It's outpatient services that can take care of people before they get sick and broken."
Tags: BMC North, Markey, NARH,
