A new urgent care facility operated by Berkshire Health Services (BHS) opened on Adams Road in Williamstown in late December, following the closure of North Adams Urgent Care last August. The new facility addresses the need for health care in the rural community and provides a nearby option for College students.
The new urgent care, located at 197 Adams Road, is open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays and from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. on weekends for walk-ins and scheduled appointments.
In an interview with the Record, State Representative and former North Adams Mayor John Barrett conveyed the difficulty of accessing health care in the area over the last few years. “North Adams and the northern Berkshire area went through some very tough times when the regional hospital closed,” he said, referring to the decade-long closure of North Adams Regional Hospital (NARH).
BHS stepped in to help fill this gap. According to Robert Shearer, administrative director at BHS, the Massachusetts Governor and the Department of Public Health asked the company to help provide emergency services in the area. BHS then purchased the NARH hospital from bankruptcy, eventually re-opening it for in-patient care in 2024 following guidelines that allowed the facility to operate as a critical access hospital, enabling it to receive extra federal funding.
Devan Bartels, chair of the Williamstown Board of Health, hopes that the facility will improve convenience and reduce costs by allowing patients to seek immediate medical care. “I see it as a win for improving access to care for the community,” Bartels said in an email to the Record. The urgent care will also reduce the burden on primary care physicians in the area, Bartels noted.
Director of Student Medical Services Keri Noel said that the urgent care will not affect the operation of the Health Center on campus, which is open five days a week for students with appointments and walk-ins.
“The Health Center will often utilize or recommend a student to consider evaluation at an urgent care facility if their evaluation suggests additional testing we cannot provide,” she wrote in an email to the Record. Noel noted that the campus health services are free of charge, whereas urgent care facilities will bill a student’s insurance.
Members of the College and Town community alike commended BHS for providing continued health care and addressing an urgent need in the community. “The Town of Williamstown welcomes BHS Urgent Care facilities to the northern Berkshires,” Town Communications Director Laura Christensen wrote in an email to the Record. “It is important to have geographically close medical care for our residents.”
According to Associate Vice President for Student Affairs Jeff Malanson, the College and BHS maintain a strong partnership. “BHS understood the impact that the closure of the old North Adams urgent care had on the college and its students,” Malanson wrote in an email to the Record .
Town Community Development Director Andrew Groff also commended BHS for the urgent care opening. “It’s a great thing to see BHS committing to expanded health care access and coverage in northern Berkshire County, especially in the wake of the hospital in North Adams closing in 2014,” he said.
Rep. Barrett noted that the opening of new medical facilities could attract younger families with children or senior citizens looking for retirement communities to the area. “We want to make sure that health care facilities are adequate … those kinds of things are very important to growing an economy and keeping people here,” Barrett said.
