This story was originally produced by the Valley News. NHPR is republishing it in partnership with the Granite State News Collaborative.
Dartmouth Health has signed a letter of intent to bring a Littleton, N.H., critical access hospital under its umbrella, marking one of the health system’s first major ventures into New Hampshire’s North Country.
Leadership at Littleton Regional Healthcare, or LRH, and DH signed the letter Friday, according to a news release.
LRH is a 25-bed critical access hospital that serves about 60,000 patients a year and has over 500 employees. For its part, DH has over 13,000 employees across eight member hospitals and medical centers with locations in New Hampshire, Vermont, New York and Massachusetts, and more than 30 clinics.
The Littleton hospital’s leaders began looking into affiliating with a larger health network in 2023. DH already provides clinical services such as cardiology, dermatology, oncology and sleep medicine at the Littleton hospital.
The timeline for the Littleton merger is not yet clear. DH and Valley Regional Hospital, the most recent hospital to join the health network, signed a letter of intent in 2022 and completed their affiliation in 2024.
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Next steps for the Littleton partnership include a review by the New Hampshire Office of the Attorney General.
