Visiting Nurse Home & Hospice announces plans to sell Portsmouth headquarters
The altered healthcare environment is leading to a significant change in how an Aquidneck Island provider of services is operating.
Visiting Nurse Home & Hospice, a non-profit home health agency with over 70 years of serving Aquidneck Island, has placed its 21,858 square foot Portsmouth headquarters on the market with Kirby Properties.
“The contemporary model for home health requires a much smaller footprint than it did twenty-eight years ago when we bought this building,” said Chief Executive Office Jennifer Fairbank in a statement. “For example, a lot of our space was once used for medical supply storage and housing thousands of paper medical records. Today, most supplies are shipped directly to patients and all of our records are electronic. We simply don’t need to be heating and maintaining a building of this size.”
As part of the agency’s comprehensive strategic plan, the VNH&H Board of Directors voted to sell the building and seek more appropriately sized office space on Aquidneck Island.
“To continue our legacy of serving all who need us, we are focusing on strategic growth within a challenging healthcare environment,” Board Chair Mark Hough said in a statement.
The agency will seek leased space on Aquidneck Island after the sale is complete as well as keeping their small branch office in North Kingstown and a supply station in Swansea, Massachusetts.
How much is the property listed for?
The 1184 East Main Road building is situated within an industrial park on one and a half acres. It was originally built for an electronics company and the property includes two parking lots and a large lawn with East Main Road frontage.
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“It is very rare for a light industrial zoned property of this size to come open on Aquidneck Island, especially in Portsmouth,” listing agent Steve Kirby of Kirby Properties said.
The property is available for $3.2 million according to the listing.
How Visiting Nurse Home & Hospice started
The agency provides home healthcare and hospice services as well as offering community health and wellness services like flu clinics and maternal child health visits. VNH&H began on Newport’s Clarke Street in 1950 when a public health crisis of tuberculosis and polio was raging. That year, local citizens banded together to form The Newport Public Health Nursing Association which would send nurses into patients’ homes. What started as six nurses has grown into an agency that employs in excess of 200 people and serves patients in most of Rhode Island and Southeastern Massachusetts.
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“We are so grateful to serve this island. For the past 73 years, you have welcomed us into your homes at some of the most difficult times imaginable," Fairbank said. "We want to assure everyone that our mission and vision have not changed, and patient care will not be impacted during this exciting transition. We are confident that our community will continue to support our mission for years to come.”
Previous changes at Visiting Nurse Home & Hospice
The decision to sell the building follows an August 2022 announcement that the agency had undertaken a "robust reorganization plan" that included downsizing, outsourcing and other cost-reduction measures. At that time it was announced that 15 positions were eliminated while "a few newly created roles" were added.
Previous coverage:Financial challenges force Visiting Nurse Home & Hospice to take cost-cutting measures
Fairbanks said at that time the vast majority of the 250-plus employees would remain with the organization and patient care would not be interrupted by the changes.
This article originally appeared on Newport Daily News: Visiting Nurse Home & Hospice selling Portsmouth headquarters
