Aeral photos by Hugh Robbins, all other photos by Cary Hazlegrove, Porter Gifford, and Barbara Clarke Photography

NANTUCKET — When emergency medical helicopters used to pick up patients at Nantucket Cottage Hospital, they would land in the parking lot. The entire lot would be shut down, and hospital staff would look into the beds of trucks to make sure nothing inside could be caught in the rotor wash.

It’s inefficiencies like these that the hospital is hoping to fix with a new facility that’s expected to be completed by late next year.

For years now, hospital staff have been dealing with a facility that was largely built in 1957 and has been deteriorating around them, hospital spokesman Jason Graziadei said.

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Nantucket Cottage Hospital emergency department nurse Dani Brunelle was named the first recipient of the Seinfeld/Hartmann Prize for Compassionate Medical Care during the hospital’s 106^th Annual Meeting on Friday.

In recognition that compassionate care is a key hospital goal and a distinct privilege, NCH established this new annual prize in 2017 to honor a staff member for extraordinarily compassionate care. The Seinfeld/Hartmann Prize for Compassionate Medical Care will pay lasting tribute to a physician, nurse or any other hospital staff member who throughout his or her professional career demonstrates an outstanding level of compassion and care in their role at NCH. Dani was nominated by her peers based on the award criteria including: respect; integrity; empathy; communication; altruism; service; excellence; and professionalism.  (more…)

In April 2015, Jeannie Critchley was coming to the end of another school year and looking ahead to summer on Nantucket. But Critchley, who has been a teacher at Nantucket Elementary School for nearly 30 years, was about to receive some health news that would change her life.

After a routine mammogram at Nantucket Cottage Hospital and follow-up tests, Critchley was diagnosed with stage three breast cancer. After the initial shock and deluge of information about her condition, Critchley and her physicians agreed on a plan that included two surgeries, chemotherapy, and radiation.

It was daunting to say the least. “The fear factor, the worry, and wondering what will this be like, it was pretty intense,” Critchley said. “I had ideas in my head from TV and movies about what it would be like, and it was really intimidating and scary.” After a gauntlet of surgery and radiation over the following year, Critchley was relieved to discover that she could do her chemotherapy and many of her oncology consults right here on the island thanks to Nantucket Cottage Hospital’s partnership with the Mass General Cancer Center.

“I had been thinking about the travel, the time, and the physical toll it takes to go back and forth with the boat ride and traffic and the whole thing,” she said. “So that was the best piece of information, that I would be able to do my treatment here.” (more…)