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State pauses plan to relocate Pappas Rehabilitation Hospital for Children; working group to evaluate options
Summary
The administration paused a plan to relocate Pappas Rehabilitation Hospital for Children and will convene a working group to evaluate facility and program options while the hospital continues limited operations, DPH Commissioner Margret Goldstein told the Joint Committee on Ways and Means.
Commissioner Margret Goldstein of the Department of Public Health told the Joint Committee on Ways and Means that the administration has paused a House 1 plan to relocate Pappas Rehabilitation Hospital for Children and will convene a working group to assess options.
Goldstein said the pause means returning operations to the status quo as of December 2024: Pappas remains open, referrals continue, and clinicians continue admitting and discharging patients. "I think to put it really plainly, a pause to me means we go back to where we were in December of 2024. The facility continues to operate exactly the way it was operating in December," Goldstein said.
Why the pause: The department had determined the hospital’s older campus could only safely support a reduced in‑house census and that recent years had seen shifts in the facility’s role and patient mix, including more medically complex children and patients with behavioral health needs. Goldstein described that Pappas had consolidated services to a single Nelson Unit with capacity for about 45 children; the hospital has continued admitting and discharging patients under those operational constraints.
Family, education and community concerns: Lawmakers and family members pressed the commissioner over reports that operations and supports (for example, educational services, therapeutic programs and continuity of care) had already been scaled back and expressed concern that program changes could become self‑fulfilling. Goldstein said DPH will work with the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education on education continuity for students at Pappas and with hospitals that commonly refer patients to ensure referral pathways remain open.
Next steps: The governor requested a pause and the creation of a working group that will include stakeholders and legislators to review facility needs, the patient population, and possible facility alternatives on other DPH campuses (including Western Mass and Tewksbury). Goldstein said the working group would begin shortly and that DPH would not preemptively stop admissions or indefinitely discharge staff pending the group’s work. "We have gone out to do the work to engage with people to let them know that campus is open, referrals can continue to exist," she said.
What to watch: The working group’s recommendations, staffing decisions by DESE (which operates the Pappas school) and whether state capital or operating investments will be proposed to preserve pediatric rehabilitative capacity in Massachusetts.
