The State of New Hampshire is ending its contract with the organization that ran its Doorway program in Manchester and Nashua.
Granite Pathways will no longer run the Doorway - instead, those contracts will be moved to Catholic Medical Center and Southern New Hampshire Health.
The Department of Health and Human Services found that Granite Pathways struggled to connect with other community service providers and did not follow up on client referrals, among other reporting issues.
The review of the organization was prompted after at least two youths had non-lethal overdoses at the Sununu Youth Center.
Lori Shibinette, the new DHHS commissioner, says while each of the nine hubs around the state had issues in getting the Doorway program started, Granite Pathways did not make satisfactory progress in addressing those issues.
"Especially in Manchester and Nashua, that are considered the high utilized areas, areas just not being able to forge those relationships even when we were bringing people to the table,” she said.
The review consisted of record reviews, internal and external interviews with Granite Pathways staff and community partners.
DHHS did make recommendations in its review for Granite Pathways to address these issues, including making sure staff engage in weekly case management to track clients' needs and provide real-time local level data whenever possible to assess community response with community stakeholders.
“We’re hoping that they undertake those ASAP,” said Governor Sununu. “They’re also, obviously, recommendations for the existing Doorways as well as for the new partners coming on.”
The Executive Council will decide whether to approve the new Doorway contract with Catholic Medical Center in Manchester and Southern New Hampshire Health in March.
Once the contracts are approved, Shibinette said, the two hospitals will have a 60-day ramp up period. There would be a 30 day overlap between Granite Pathways and the new hub providers.
When the Doorways program was first introduced in 2018, no hospitals in Manchester or Nashua chose to participate in the program.
Read DHHS' review of the Doorway contract with Granite Pathways.
