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.

Read the complete story by clicking here: 

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…)

The first in a series of oral history events about the hospital took place on June 27th at the Nantucket Historical Association’s Whaling Museum. “A Night of Stories: Tales From the Cottage Hospital Nurses” featured six current and former NCH nurses telling the heartwarming, hilarious, and eccentric stories of delivering care on an island 30 miles out to sea.

(July 20, 2017) Getting medical information just in the knick of time only goes so far in keeping on the population on the island healthy. Outside of an annual checkup, most people don’t worry about connecting with medical resources when they and their families are well. A new series of health talks is directed towards connecting women on the island with those resources before a medical crisis hits.

Read the full story by clicking here

When the Steamship Authority’s Iyanough ferry crashed into a jetty at the entrance to Hyannis Harbor on the evening of June 16, the impact left 15 people injured.

Stranded on the rocks, the victims of the crash did not have immediate access to medical care. But one of the passengers happened to be Nate Woodason, a patient care tech in the Nantucket Cottage Hospital emergency department.

“Initially I was in shock, he said. “But I’m CPR certified, and working in the emergency department, so I thought I should do this and jump in.”

Although he was slightly injured himself, Woodason sprang into action and began making rounds on the boat to identify passengers who had been hurt. (more…)