“It comes down to one word all the time and that is control — are we going to lose our sense of identity, control and autonomy? We have been thoroughly convinced that is not the case.” 

— Tim Sweet, board of trustees, Martha’s Vineyard Hospital, October 2006.

A decade ago, as Partners HealthCare prepared to take over the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital, residents voiced hope that the merger would improve clinical care on the Island and fear that the community would lose its influence.

Both of those hopes and fears have been realized.

By its own bylaws, which give Island trustees 80 per cent of board seats but assert Partners’ overall control at every turn, the hospital is in fact a small cog in a huge Boston-based operation.

As befits a $12 billion enterprise, Partners has adhered to the letter of the Affordable Care Act that requires it to enumerate the community benefit activities it undertakes in order to keep its nonprofit status. Last year, the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital reported it spent $1 million on a range of programs and services identified in a form called Community Health Needs Assessment.

There is no doubt Partners, the hospital and its dedicated, caring employees have improved medical care on Martha’s Vineyard. But what’s absent is something more elemental, the sense that the hospital as an institution wants to be an active participant in the broader life of the Island.

That appeared to be changing with the hiring of president and chief executive officer Joe Woodin, who during his short tenure seemed to be everywhere, attending community forums, meeting with church leaders and civic groups, greeting patients, families and staff as he walked the halls of the hospital. Twelve-step groups were welcomed to the hospital and a Facebook page even made a brief debut.

What the board of trustees missed, and continues to miss, in its ham-handed firing of Mr. Woodin, was that the outrage it provoked was only partly about Joe himself and mostly about the door being slammed shut on a fleeting period of openness and engagement. Its actions in the two months since have only underscored the sense that Island trustees, many of whom have been on the board for 12 or more years, have lost touch with the community they are supposed to represent.

The board has acknowledged its poor handling of Mr. Woodin’s removal in a series of careful statements, but there has been no real explanation, no apparent consequences for those who botched the process and no clear efforts to address shortcomings in the board’s governance and public relations, which as this newspaper has reported diverge from that of similar hospitals, even within the Partners network.

There have been no changes in board leadership, no public meetings, no news posted on the hospital’s website since May. There have been sporadic interactions with an ad hoc group of concerned citizens and individual communications with selected people about a strategic planning effort, but no attempt to reach out more broadly to Islanders. In one of the more ironic turns, community members have reported receiving form letters from the hospital signed by Joe Woodin and dated a month after he was ousted.

One statement from the hospital board said it wanted to wait to address issues until the summer was over and the Island quiets down. Or perhaps when all the people go away.

This week, apparently after a board meeting, the roster of trustees on the website was quietly updated to remove the names of seasonal resident Warren Spector and Brent Henry, a Partners appointee, whose terms had expired, and attorney Ron Rappaport, who resigned last month in a split over board governance, and to add two new members, Dr. O’Neill Britton, a Partners appointee, and Bill Roman, manager of the Edgartown Yacht Club.

Martha’s Vineyard Hospital relies in part on donations from Islanders, and it is important that the hospital continue to receive generous local backing. But community support is a two-way street.

Beyond donors, every Island resident has an interest in what happens at the hospital, whether and how it plans to address the lack of access to primary care, the complicated and critical needs of our significant senior population, the lack of affordable housing for year-round workers, the opioid crisis and the high incidence of tick-borne illnesses, to name just a few pressing community concerns.

It is now abundantly clear that the Island ceded control of its hospital more than 10 years ago. New Island leadership is needed on the hospital board of trustees — leaders who will really represent Island interests and press for open communication among Partners, the hospital and the community it serves.

Residents of Martha’s Vineyard deserve that much, and Partners should want that too.