Concord Hospital-Laconia to move orthopedics in house, separate from Concord Orthopaedics

LACONIA — Concord Orthopaedics, PA and Concord Hospital–Laconia will dissolve their partnership at the end of September, according to a release put out by the hospital. COPA is set to add a permanent location in the Lakes Region and the hospital will relaunch in-house orthopedic services.

“We launched, in collaboration with Concord Orthopedics, a local orthopedics plan in May of 2021 as part of the acquisition of the former LRGHealthcare,” said Bill Dooley, vice president of operations and chief administrative officer of Concord Hospital Medical Group. Now reaching the end of what was “originally meant to be a two-year plan,” he continued, “we've made the decision to move forward with hiring a local group of physicians that would be resident physicians who work in the community full-time and operate at the hospital in Laconia.”

Concord Hospital–Laconia has already hired two surgeons toward this endeavor and has a goal of a total of four, according to Dooley. The contract with Concord Orthopaedics, PA closes at the end of September, and these new surgeons will start Oct. 1.

COPA has a “unique” and “synergistic relationship” with Concord Hospital, said Dr. Jeffrey Wiley, COPA president. “This adventure that we've had over the last few years is just another example of that [relationship] really. Concord Hospital, the administration came to the rescue of the hospital that had gone into bankruptcy, and turned to us as their partner to help them in a time of need. We were really happy to be able to do that.

“We all think that the patients in the Lakes Region have been great to care for and the staff that we worked with at Laconia hospital have been great and, just as time has passed over the last couple years, things evolve. Differing visions have occurred over time.”

COPA will move to a temporary office at 178 Daniel Webster Highway in Meredith, the site of a new urgent care center operated by Speare Memorial Hospital, until its new permanent location at 614 Laconia Road in Tilton is complete, according to Chief Executive Officer Jennifer White. COPA, in its 50th year, has long served members of the Lakes Region, White said, and looks forward to having a permanent location to make that more convenient.

“Patients can continue to see us at whatever office that they would like to and we’ll continue to provide the standard of care that patients have come to expect,” Wiley said. “Our mission is really to provide local orthopedic care and we're really excited to continue to be able to provide that.”

Dooley framed the change as part of a larger trajectory at the Laconia hospital wherein its new owners are looking to rehabilitate the range of services offered in-house.

“It's an exciting next step in, frankly, the rebuild for clinical services in the community,” Dooley said. Dooley added that the hospital's hopes for this development are to provide “stability of care” and to minimize the number of patients who need to travel to Concord for certain specialty services.

Hiring to support that rebuild trajectory, Dooley said, has been highly successful. 

“We've been recruiting for lots of different specialties back into the into the market up there and had a great deal of success,” Dooley said. “We're continuing to invest in stabilizing and returning high quality care to the community in a way that keeps care local.”