(April 22, 2020) The Boston Pops on Nantucket is a beloved tradition for the island community that brings so many people together and is a critical source of support for Nantucket Cottage Hospital.

After careful consideration and with public health as our top priority, Nantucket Cottage Hospital has made the decision that we will not be able to gather on Jetties Beach for the 2020 Boston Pops on Nantucket as originally planned this August due to the precautions like physical distancing that are imperative to limit the spread of the coronavirus.

So while we already know this year will not look like the Pops concerts of years past, it’s important that we don’t give up on this wonderful event. Extraordinary times offer us an extraordinary opportunity to celebrate the heart of Nantucket.

Nantucket Cottage Hospital will reimagine the Boston Pops on Nantucket in 2020 and deliver a special experience that celebrates the hospital, our brave healthcare workers, first responders, and essential workers across the island. The event will still bring our community and the hospital’s steadfast supporters together virtually, in way that complies with the best practices we have learned for keeping our island healthy.

“In keeping with the tradition of the Boston Pops on Nantucket, our objective for this year’s reimagined event is to make the evening accessible and fun for all islanders in appreciation for the caring and concern the whole community demonstrated in protecting and helping our neighbors,” said Courtney O’Neill, Vice President of Community Relations and Development at Nantucket Cottage Hospital.

Nantucket Cottage Hospital will share these plans with the community as soon as possible, and will provide further details as we secure commitments from the talent that will be involved and structure a truly enjoyable experience for all islanders.

More than ever, the hospital needs to rally the support of the community to help fund its operations, so we are asking our supporters to continue their generous commitments and to consider participating as sponsors of this reimagined special event. The funds raised will allow us to continue to respond to this unparalleled challenge in the most effective way possible, and help our hospital emerge with the financial foundation and professional staffing capability we need to continue to provide excellent care for all.

Expanding telemedicine during the coronavirus pandemic
Your health and wellness remain our highest priority as we navigate these challenging times and continue to respond to the coronavirus pandemic. Our doctors and medical providers are leveraging technology to see patients, conducting Telemedicine visits via video, phone, and through the Patient Gateway app, based on your needs during your visit, and the technology resources available to you.

Telemedicine visits are available with NCH providers across many departments, including:

• Primary care for new and established patients seeking annual wellness checks or sick visits
• Specialty physician visits
• Physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy
• Nutrition consults
• Same-day/next-day appointments for urgent health issues

Read more about telemedicine by clicking here.

Nantucket Cottage Hospital is mourning the loss of Charles Balas, a longtime member of our Board of Trustees, who passed away last weekend.

Mr. Balas served as Chairman of the Nantucket Cottage Hospital Board of Trustees from 1995 to 2001. As Chair, Mr. Balas led the hospital through some of its most important initiatives, including the creation of the Boston Pops on Nantucket fundraising event and the Campaign for the 21^st Century.

In light of his extraordinary record of service to the hospital, in 2012 Mr. Balas was appointed a Lifetime Honorary Trustee of Nantucket Cottage Hospital.

Nantucket can be proud of its leaders for acting early and decisively to protect the community from the threat of coronavirus, and I am in awe of the collective actions of all island residents to physically distance, stay home, wash their hands diligently, and adhere to the emergency orders put in place. Thanks to those actions, to date we have been able to limit the deadly impact of this virus and prevent significant community spread on the island. So far, so good.

But we know it takes only one person to change that. It takes only one person who may be carrying the virus unknowingly without showing symptoms to set us on a dangerous path of seeing more cases, more severe illness, and potentially a surge of COVID-19 patients that could threaten to overwhelm the healthcare resources of our remote island.

The coronavirus is amongst us and it remains a threat to our community. While we have welcomed the recent streak of days without a confirmed new case, we should not let this good news allow us to become complacent. Our island and our economy are tied to the mainland in so many ways, and we can all see what is happening just a short boat ride away on Cape Cod, in Boston, and New York where the coronavirus continues to have a major impact.

• The coronavirus testing criteria continues to evolve, and in some cases it changes day to day, but it has become less restrictive from the time we launched the drive-through evaluation site on March 16.

• Our current testing capacity essentially allows us to test all those patients who the clinical team feel have a need to be tested. If you are experiencing symptoms of respiratory illness, such as cough, sore throat, shortness of breath, and fever, please come to the drive-through evaluation site. The turnaround time for test results has been reduced to 24 hours in most cases.

• Patients coming to the drive through should know that specimens are sent out daily, weather permitting, at 3 p.m. to the mainland, so there’s a faster turnaround time if patients are swabbed before then. Coming after 3 p.m. means turnaround time could be around 48 hours.