Effective Monday, April 10, 2023, North Country Healthcare (NCH) no longer requires masks within its facilities, with limited exceptions (employees within the quarantine timeframe, and employees with mild COVID symptoms who may be required to work.)
Citing a decline in COVID-19 transmission and increasing population immunity, the New Hampshire Hospital Association recently reasserted that hospitals and health care facilities remain “safe places for patients to receive both routine and emergency care.”
Although the wearing of masks is no longer required within its facilities, NCH and its affiliates will continue to make masks available for those who feel more comfortable wearing one. Furthermore, NCH providers, employees and volunteers will wear masks when within close contact of anyone requesting that one be worn.
“From the pandemic’s beginning, NCH has continued to follow best practices through data and guidance from the Centers for Disease Control,” commented Ed Laverty, PA-C, Incident Command Chair. “The safety and comfort of our patients, providers, employees and volunteers will continue to remain the highest of priorities.”
North Country Healthcare thanks all providers, employees, volunteers and visitors who adhered to the mask mandate during more than three years of the pandemic.
About North Country Healthcare
North Country Healthcare (NCH) is a non-profit affiliation of four medical facilities focused on the health and well-being of dozens of communities in the White Mountains Region of New Hampshire, as well as Vermont, Maine, and Southern Canada. Mission-driven to improve lives by assuring consistently excellent, integrated healthcare, NCH employs hundreds of highly trained individuals who deliver integrated patient care through three community hospitals, medical laboratories, and home health and hospice services.
This leading comprehensive healthcare network is comprised of Androscoggin Valley Hospital in Berlin, North Country Home Health & Hospice Agency in Littleton, Upper Connecticut Valley
Hospital in Colebrook, and Weeks Medical Center in Lancaster. And at more than 1,000 employees strong, NCH is proud to be the largest employer in the North Country.