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The new urgent care center on State Road is set to open Nov. 1.

North Adams Urgent Care Center Ready to Open in November

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The center will offer a variety of services for urgent, non-life-threatening illnesses, including labs, vaccinations, X-rays and pharmacy. 
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Southwestern Vermont Health Care and ClearChoiceMD Urgent Care are teaming up to bring convenient care options to the Northern Berkshire community. The organizations have formed a joint venture to build and operate an urgent care center under the identity of SVHC Urgent Care powered by ClearChoiceMD. 
 
The new center located in the Stevens Plaza next to Stop & Shop was approved by the Planning Board in December 2020. 
 
This is the first urgent care center to serve North Adams and the surrounding communities. Up until now, people with urgent medical needs had to seek care in the emergency room or drive 20 miles to the nearest urgent care clinic. The partnership between ClearChoiceMD and SVHC will meet a need in this community.
 
"Partnering with ClearChoiceMD was an easy decision for us," stated Stephen Majetich, chief financial officer of Southwestern Vermont Health Care. "Not only are our missions aligned — to provide our communities accessible, affordable, compassionate, exceptional patient care; they are also the Northeast's leader in developing physician-led urgent care centers focused on patient-centered care."
 
SVHC Urgent Care powered by ClearChoiceMD is equipped to treat urgent non-life-threatening medical needs. Additionally, it offers physicals, vaccinations, and occupational health services. The facility has onsite laboratory and X-ray services, as well as prescription medications.
 
"We are honored to be partnering with SVHC," said ClearChoiceMD Urgent Care President and Chief Medical Officer Dr. Marcus Hampers. "The people of Northern Berkshire County deserve immediate and convenient access to quality, non-emergency medical care. We are united in our missions of providing compassionate, quality medical care to our communities. Working together allows us to offer alternative cost-effective options, at the highest quality of care consistent with what people are accustomed to receiving from SVHC."
 
ClearChoiceMD Urgent Care is based in New London, N.H., and currently operates 14 walk-in centers across the region. The new co-branded urgent care center, located at 856 State Road is slated to open Nov. 1. This will be the first ClearChoiceMD facility in Massachusetts. 
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2024 Year in Review: North Adams' Year of New Life to Old Institutions

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff

President and CEO Darlene Rodowicz poses in one of the new patient rooms on 2 North at North Adams Regional Hospital.
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — On March 28, 2014, the last of the 500 employees at North Adams Regional Hospital walked out the doors with little hope it would reopen. 
 
But in 2024, exactly 10 years to the day, North Adams Regional was revived through the efforts of local officials, BHS President and CEO Darlene Rodowicz, and U.S. Rep. Richard Neal, who was able to get the U.S. Health and Human Services to tweak regulations that had prevented NARH from gaining "rural critical access" status.
 
It was something of a miracle for North Adams and the North Berkshire region.
 
Berkshire Medical Center in Pittsfield, under the BHS umbrella, purchased the campus and affiliated systems when Northern Berkshire Healthcare declared bankruptcy and abruptly closed in 2014. NBH had been beset by falling admissions, reductions in Medicare and Medicaid payments, and investments that had gone sour leaving it more than $30 million in debt. 
 
BMC had renovated the building and added in other services, including an emergency satellite facility, over the decade. But it took one small revision to allow the hospital — and its name — to be restored: the federal government's new definition of a connecting highway made Route 7 a "secondary road" and dropped the distance maximum between hospitals for "mountainous" roads to 15 miles. 
 
"Today the historic opportunity to enhance the health and wellness of Northern Berkshire community is here. And we've been waiting for this moment for 10 years," Rodowicz said. "It is the key to keeping in line with our strategic plan which is to increase access and support coordinated countywide system of care." 
 
The public got to tour the fully refurbished 2 North, which had been sectioned off for nearly a decade in hopes of restoring patient beds; the official critical hospital designation came in August. 
 
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