Founded in 1891, Lowell General Hospital is an independent, not-for-profit
community hospital A community hospital can be purely a nominal designation or have a more specific meaning. When specific, it refers to a hospital that is accessible to the general public, and provides a general or specific medical care which is usually short-term, ...
serving the
Greater Lowell
Greater Lowell is the region comprising the city of Lowell, Massachusetts, and its suburbs. These lie in northern Middlesex County, Massachusetts; in the Merrimack Valley; and in southern New Hampshire.
Towns
The Greater Lowell area as defined ...
area and surrounding communities. With two primary campuses located in
Lowell,
, Lowell General Hospital offers a full range of medical and surgical services for patients. Lowell General Hospital is a member of the
Voluntary Hospitals of America. Lowell General is affiliated with
Tufts Children's Hospital
Tufts Children's Hospital (formerly Floating Hospital for Children) in Boston, Massachusetts was a downtown Boston pediatric hospital owned by Tufts Medical Center, occupying the space between Chinatown and the Boston Theater District, which ...
in Boston.
History
The Lowell Free Hospital Association was founded in May 1891. James Fellows funded the purchase of the Fay mansion in the
Pawtucketville
Pawtucketville is a neighborhood and village within the city of Lowell, Massachusetts.
The area was settled in the 1668 as Drawcott and was previously inhabited by the Pennacook tribe, and eventually " e settlement that developed on the north sid ...
neighborhood with a $30,000 donation, and in July 1893, Lowell General Hospital opened. In the first year, the Lowell General Hospital Training School for Nurses started.
LGH Nurses responded to the Spanish Influenza outbreak, which struck Lowell particularly hard, in November 1918. The epidemic killed several hundred people in the city.
In the twentieth century, the hospital underwent several expansions, with a building dedicated to the Nursing School, and a Maternity and Children's Building.
In 2012, Lowell General merged with Saints Medical Center, adding a second campus to the hospital, and consolidating hospital care in the city under the Lowell General Hospital name. The hospital, now one of the largest institutions in the Merrimack Valley, has 407 beds. Saints Medical Center itself has a long history in Lowell, itself formed by the 1992 merger of St. Joseph's Hospital and St. John's Hospital. St. Joseph's Hospital, the oldest in the city, had been founded as Lowell Corporation Hospital in 1839.
Magnet designation
The
Magnet Recognition Program The Magnet Recognition Program is a recognition program operated by the American Nurses Credentialing Center that allows nurses to recognize nursing excellence in other nurses. It is considered the highest recognition for nursing excellence. The pr ...
recognizes healthcare organizations that are dedicated to nursing excellence, professionalism and patient focused care. The
American Nurses Credentialing Center
The American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), a subsidiary of the American Nurses Association (ANA), is a certification body for nursing board certification and the largest certification body for advanced practice registered nurses in the U ...
(ANCC), the largest and most prominent nursing credentialing organization in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
, honored Lowell General Hospital with Magnet Recognition for excellence in nursing care in October 2010. Lowell General was the eighth hospital in Massachusetts to achieve Magnet designation.
Criticism
The hospital has received criticism for the salary paid to its president, Joseph White, being 1.25 million, while hospital staff have not received increases in their compensation. According to
ProPublica
ProPublica (), legally Pro Publica, Inc., is a nonprofit organization based in New York City. In 2010, it became the first online news source to win a Pulitzer Prize, for a piece written by one of its journalists''The Guardian'', April 13, 2010P ...
, in 2019 there were 12 employees being paid more than $200,000 per year:
Joseph White (President): $1,324,761
Amy Hoey (Chief Operating Officer): $759,458
William Galvin III (Board Member/Medical Director):$523,540
Cecelia Lynch (CNO): $409,111
Arthur Lauretano (CMO): $400,926
William Wyman (VP of finance): $366,595
Wendy Mitchell (Medical Director): $312,213
Ramya Prabhakar (Physician): $272,947
James Woolman (Director ACO Performance Management): $261,532
Emily Young (Director of Healthcare Operations): $261,055
Yishis Ren (Chief Medical Physicist): $252,271
Michelle Davis (VP External Affairs): $233,198
References
External links
Lowell General
{{Coord, 42, 38, 51, N, 71, 20, 30, W, display=title
Hospital buildings completed in 1891
Hospitals in Middlesex County, Massachusetts
Buildings and structures in Lowell, Massachusetts
Voluntary hospitals
Trauma centers