Two Boston-based hospitals are expanding ASC offerings to the suburbs through two $400 million projects — one with opposition from community and healthcare groups.
1. Mass General Brigham is planning three ASCs in Westborough, Westwood and Woburn, all in Massachusetts, that would offer surgery, physician services and diagnostic imaging. The $400 million ASC expansion is part of the hospital's larger $1.9 billion expansion.
The project is receiving pushback by community groups who say the three planned ASCs will increase healthcare costs and threaten the availability of existing services. The group, dubbed the Coalition to Protect Community Care, in May said the services offered at the proposed facilities are "already offered by lower-cost, high-quality community providers in these regions."
John Fernandez, president of Mass General Brigham's Mass Eye and Ear, responded May 9 in a CommonWealth op-ed saying the care the ASCs would provide “hasn’t always been accessible to the communities who need it most.”
2. Boston Children's Hospital is planning a $435 million suburban expansion, which would include an ASC in Needham, Mass., the Boston Globe reported July 1.
The planned 224,000-square-foot ASC will span five floors and offer surgery, as well as imaging and specialty clinics in audiology, gastroenterology, ophthalmology, ENT, orthopedic surgery and sports medicine.