It took almost 10 years and a lot of changes, but Dartmouth-Hitchcock and the owner of Catholic Medical Center are merging. Nine months after signing a letter of intent in January 2019, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health and GraniteOne Health made it to the definitive agreement stage. The not-for-profits made it official on September 30 and announced the deal on October 2.
Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health, based in Lebanon, is New Hampshire’s only academic health system. It operates Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center and includes the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Norris Cotton Cancer Center, the Children’s Hospital at Dartmouth-Hitchcock, four affiliate hospitals, home health services and ambulatory surgery centers.
GraniteOne Health (GOH), based in Manchester, is a network of New Hampshire hospitals anchored by Catholic Medical Center (330 licensed beds) and two critical access hospitals, Huggins Hospital (25 beds) in Wolfeboro and Monadnock Community Hospital (25 beds) in Peterborough.
This deal almost took place in 2009, before GraniteOne was formed. On July 22 of that year, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center agreed to merge with Catholic Medical Center, then a 222-bed hospital in Manchester. The deal was terminated in April 2011.
Now a new agreement has been reached. The Bishop of Manchester issued a declaration of no objection. The combined system will be called Dartmouth-Hitchcock GraniteOne. This deal goes to the New Hampshire Attorney General and other offices for regulatory approval.
