No one in the health care field had an easy 2020, but things were particularly bad for providers and patients in the Norwood area after their local hospital flooded and forced the closure of most inpatient services. Sixteen months later, a new hospital is set to be built at the same location to provide much-needed local medical support for a town still struggling to get through the COVID-19 pandemic.
Steward Health Care, the hospital's owner, plans to open the new Norwood Hospital in 2024. Hospital employees, local leaders and activists who have pushed for the replacement hospital celebrated the groundbreaking of the new facility Tuesday alongside Gov. Charlie Baker, U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch and others.
"There will be a beautiful new hospital here, and this hospital will continue to provide care and service to this community for at least another hundred years," Baker said at the groundbreaking ceremony outside the facility.
Norwood Hospital was inundated by flash flooding in June 2020, near the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. The floodwaters caused immense damage and forced the closure of the 215-bed hospital, which serves the town of around 32,000 people and several other communities just outside Rt. 95.
Two days later, Steward Health Care said the company would rebuild the facility in the same location.
"I saw firsthand the great work on behalf of patients and community, and I know that the new Norwood Hospital will continue to expand on this proud tradition," said Dr. Sanjay Shetty, president of Steward Health Care and a former physician at Norwood Hospital.
The closure had a huge impact on a community already struggling to provide health care during a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic.
"Not only were many left without access to their healthcare professionals, our first responders had to reroute all emergency medical calls to other hospitals outside of the region. In a matter of days, hundreds of essential hospital jobs that supported local families and our community were eliminated or transferred," said Matthew Lane, a Norwood selectboard member, in a statement at the flood's one year anniversary in June 2021.
While most services at the hospital were closed, the facility maintained cancer care, outpatient services, COVID testing and primary care through telehealth and other services throughout the last 18 months.
