Heywood Hospital and President & CEO Win Brown are Honored with Leadership Award

GARDNER, Mass. - May 17, 2013 - PRLog -- Gardner, MA – The Greater Gardner Chamber of Commerce presented Win Brown and Heywood Hospital with the Leadership Recognition Award at the Chamber’s Annual Meeting and Awards Recognition Dinner.

The Leadership Recognition Award acknowledged Heywood Hospital’s mission of continuous quality improvement, and access to healthcare in the greater Gardner region, most recently through the formation of a strategic alliance with Athol Hospital that created Heywood Healthcare.

The Heywood Healthcare system has expanded inpatient and outpatient services, enhancing the quality and continuum of care while fostering a greater coordination of care among physicians practicing at both hospitals. Working together, the hospitals are able to invest in new health care technologies and expand services to meet the changing health care needs of the people of North Central Massachusetts, including Cardiology appointments onsite at Athol Hospital, Inpatient and Outpatient rehabilitation and new MRI machines at both Athol and Heywood Hospitals.

Additionally, Heywood Hospital recently renovated and opened its Specialty Care Center offering advanced clinical care in areas including neurology, rheumatology, endocrinology, podiatry, pain management, and coming soon, vascular surgery, bringing access to specialized care to the North Central region.

Heywood Hospital also sponsored the Greater Gardner Suicide Prevention Task Force, which just celebrated its one-year anniversary. Most recently, the Task Force spearheaded the Out of the Darkness Campus Walk at Mount Wachusett Community College, where over 400 people walked to raise more than $21,000 for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. The Task Force has also partnered with the Mass Department of Mental Health and area law makers to place a focus on the Greater Gardner region to raise awareness on this critical issue.

About Heywood Healthcare

Heywood Healthcare is an independent, community-owned healthcare system located in the North Central region of Massachusetts. It is comprised of Heywood Hospital, a non-profit, 153-bed acute-care hospital in Gardner, MA; Athol Hospital, a 25-bed non-profit, Critical Access Hospital in Athol, MA; Heywood Medical Group with primary care physicians and specialists located throughout the region; and four satellite facilities -Winchendon Health Center and  Murdock School-based Health Center in Winchendon, West River Health Center in Orange and Heywood Rehabilitation Center in Gardner.

About Heywood Hospital

Part of the Heywood Healthcare system, Heywood Hospital provides a broad range of high quality medical, surgical, obstetrical, pediatric and behavioral health services on an inpatient and outpatient basis. The hospital’s Centers of Excellence include the Watkins Center for Emergency and Acute Care; the LaChance Maternity Center; the Diabetes Center; and the Heywood Heart Center, an affiliate of the Heart and Vascular Center of Excellence at UMass Memorial Health Care.