On Dec. 1, Nantucket Cottage Hospital awarded $762,000 in grant funding to 12 non-profit recipients through its Community Health Initiative during a ceremony at the Nantucket Hotel. Thanks to Nantucket Community Television for filming the event!

(December 1, 2017) Nantucket Cottage Hospital is pleased to announce that it has awarded $762,000 in grant funding to 13 non-profit recipients through its Community Health Initiative, which seeks to address the island’s most pressing health issues through collaborative, innovative, and sustainable programs.

The Community Health Initiative grant funds are available through the private donations to Nantucket Cottage Hospital’s capital campaign to build the island’s new hospital. This year’s awards are the first of five grant cycles that will ultimately invest more than $4 million in community health. The hospital sought proposals in four areas: behavioral health; women’s and children’s health; access to healthcare; and access to housing.

These priorities were identified by the island community following a comprehensive process that included public forums, prioritization sessions and input from the hospital’s 2015 Community Health Needs Assessment. The resulting document, the Nantucket Community Health Improvement Plan, is better known as Healthy Nantucket 2020 and served as the roadmap for the Community Health Initiative grant process.

“I want to thank Nantucket Cottage Hospital’s generous donors for making the Community Health Initiative possible,” said Dr. Margot Hartmann, President & CEO of Nantucket Cottage Hospital. (more…)

Nantucket Cottage Hospital’s capital campaign chair Bruce Percelay and NCH Trustee Elisabeth Percelay, were featured in the Winter 2017 edition of Nantucket Today as two of the magazine’s “12 People Who Make a Difference.” The Percelay family has committed a $10 million gift, the largest single philanthropic donation in island history, for the new Nantucket Cottage Hospital and have contributed invaluable wisdom and leadership to the campaign.

In recognition of the Percelay family’s generosity, a major portion of the new Nantucket Cottage Hospital building, which will include services such as the inpatient rooms, the emergency department, and surgical suite, will be named the Percelay Pavilion.

In August, the Percelays were honored with the Sandy Craig Leadership Award during Nantucket Cottage Hospital’s 106^th Annual Meeting. The award, given in memory of Alexander “Sandy” M. Craig, Jr., is presented annually by the hospital’s Board of Trustees to a member or members of the Nantucket community who have made a positive contribution to the island through Nantucket Cottage Hospital.

Check out the latest edition of Nantucket Today to read more about how the Percelays give back to the island and the many other causes and organizations they support.

Leave your signature on a piece of steel that will be part of Nantucket’s new hospital! The steel beam will be placed on the ground outside the entrance of the existing Nantucket Cottage Hospital building beginning on Wednesday, October 4th at 9:00 a.m. through Friday, October 6th at 8:00 a.m. Staff, patients, trustees, donors, and members of the island community are welcome to sign the beam at their convenience during that time.

On Friday, October 6th at 9:00 a.m., staff, trustees and all donors are welcome to join us in the Founders Building parking lot for a “Topping-Off Ceremony” to watch the construction crews place the beam on the new hospital during this exciting construction tradition.

For questions, please contact the Nantucket Cottage Hospital Foundation at (508) 825-8250. Thanks to the entire Nantucket community for supporting the island’s new hospital!

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…)