Milford Regional and UMass Memorial Health Reach Affiliation Agreement

Agreement will enable Milford Regional to advance community-focused mission

Milford Regional Medical Center, inclusive of Milford Regional Physician Group, and UMass Memorial Health have signed a definitive agreement for a corporate affiliation. The organizations will now seek regulatory approval.

The definitive agreement follows a period of due diligence that began with the September 2023 signing of a non-binding letter of intent that made it possible to explore the potential corporate affiliation.

“Agreeing upon the key terms of our corporate affiliation moves us closer to the growth and expansion necessary for Milford Regional to advance its community-focused mission,” said Milford Regional Medical Center President and CEO Edward J. Kelly. “This is the right time, UMass Memorial Health is the right partner, and we have the right deal to pave the path for our promising future,” added Kelly.

A full-service, community and regional teaching hospital, Milford Regional is a 148-bed, nonprofit, acute care facility serving a region of 20-plus towns with more than 300 primary care and specialty physicians. Milford Regional has a long history of investing in community health needs; in 2015, it opened a 78,000 square-foot building that houses a new emergency department, intensive care unit and private patient rooms.

UMass Memorial Health and Milford Regional have long enjoyed a strong collaboration since 1991 when Milford Regional Medical Center became the first hospital to clinically affiliate with UMass Memorial Medical Center. Since then, many additional clinical and educational programs have been created with UMass Memorial Health to bolster the level of care offered to the greater Milford community.

Key tenets of the newly approved definitive affiliation agreement include:

• Preserving Milford Regional Medical Center as an acute care hospital offering inpatient and outpatient services, ensuring access to high quality, local care for the Milford community;
• Supporting strategic capital investment in facilities, equipment and other infrastructure to support clinical care and the local community;
• Integrating Milford Regional into the Epic electronic medical record system;
• Maintaining Milford Regional’s role as an employer of choice in the local/regional market, and enhancing Milford’s ability to address ongoing workforce challenges; and
• Retaining a local community board of trustees, with Milford Regional having representation on the UMass Memorial parent board.

“We are excited to take this step forward in the process to form a corporate affiliation with Milford Regional, which will build upon UMass Memorial’s longstanding collaboration with this exceptional organization,” said UMass Memorial Health President and Chief Executive Officer Eric Dickson, MD. “Together, UMMH and Milford Regional will be better positioned to provide outstanding care to patients and support the health and wellbeing of communities across Central Massachusetts,” he added.

“Health care organizations across the state and nation continue to face extreme financial, staffing and operational challenges, and these issues are most acute for community hospitals,” said UMass Memorial Community Hospitals President Douglas Brown. “We are confident that a corporate affiliation is the best way to ensure local access to high quality care for patients and ongoing investment in technology and workforce development in support of the Milford Regional community.” 

Milford Regional and UMass Memorial Health leaders expect the regulatory approval process for this corporate affiliation to take up to nine months. With regulatory approval, Milford Regional Medical Center and Milford Regional Physician Group will formally become a member of the UMass Memorial Health system. 

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Milford Regional Medical Center is a full-service, community and regional teaching hospital located in Milford, Mass. Together with its affiliated physician group, Milford Regional Physician Group, it serves patients from more than 20 towns in Central Massachusetts. The 148-bed medical center is a nonprofit, acute-care facility, where more than 300 primary care and specialty physicians are committed to providing exceptional healthcare services to our community with dignity, compassion and respect.

UMass Memorial Health is the largest not-for-profit health care system in Central Massachusetts with more than 15,500 employees and 2,100 physicians, many of whom are members of UMass Memorial Medical Group and Harrington Physician Services. We are the clinical partner of UMass Chan Medical School. Our comprehensive system includes UMass Memorial Medical Center, UMass Memorial Health – Harrington, UMass Memorial Health – HealthAlliance-Clinton Hospital, UMass Memorial Health – Marlborough Hospital, and UMass Memorial Health – Community Healthlink. Together, we impact every aspect of life in the region by making health and wellness services available to everyone, at the bedside, in the clinic or community, or even at home, advocating for social equality and providing economic stability and opportunity. There are many ways to heal. We pursue them all. Relentlessly. Visit www.ummhealth.org.