Residents critique care at Rochester's Frisbie Hospital under HCA

If you wanted to know how things have gone at Frisbie Memorial Hospital since for-profit HCA Healthcare, the world's largest hospital conglomerate, took over in 2020, Wednesday's public meeting in Rochester told two stories.
Corporate leaders and hospital staff marched in lockstep to the podium and offered their own positive self-assessments. Residents came not to praise HCA, but to plead with the state's Health Care Consumer Protection Advisory Commission and Attorney General John Formella to help make their community hospital better.
The meeting was 2½ hours long so everyone who signed up could speak. The first 88 minutes of input, however, was almost entirely HCA and Frisbie officials talking about the strides they've made. State Sen. Tom McGough and state Rep. Julie Miles, both Merrimack Republicans who are on the commission, prodded doctors, nurses and officials to speak in unscripted terms, answer questions and be accountable to patients.
'That's a great testimonial from the CMO. I'm thrilled to hear that things have come back — ortho, neuro, partial hospital psych services. That's fantastic. We've got a room full of folks. What are we about to hear? What are you still missing?' McGough asked Dr. Trevor Eide, the chief medical officer.
Eide said Frisbie's goal is to take care of as many patients as possible in Rochester and send only the sickest patients to Portsmouth Regional Hospital, which is also owned by HCA.
'If I had to say there's one thing that I'd like to have back, one service line, I think nephrology to provide dialysis for our dialysis patients.' Eide said when pressed.
Hospital officials listed several areas of improvement, including faster turnaround to transfer critically ill patients to other hospitals and better access to outpatient services, primary care and specialists. Frisbie has also decreased the time it takes a patient coming into the emergency room to be evaluated by a provider, which is now less than six minutes, according to Dr. Carly Shiembob, the medical director for Frisbie's emergency department.
Yvonne Goldsberry, a member of the commission, suggested HCA provide a community benefit report like nonprofit hospitals are required to share with the public. Goldsberry, Formella, McGough and Miles all suggested better communication and community outreach.
Merger fallout
Residents focused mostly on services they lost after HCA saved Frisbie from closing just before COVID-19 hit. Commission members also made note of services Frisbie no longer provides, such as discontinuing labor and baby delivery services. In 2022, Formella's office investigated why HCA, which had agreed as part of the merger in 2020 to continue several services for at least five years, reneged on its promise and began sending expectant mothers 21 miles down the Spaulding Turnpike to Portsmouth.
Ultimately, HCA and the AG's Office worked out a deal in 2023 for HCA to provide $2.75 million to the Greater Rochester Community Health Foundation to improve health and well-being for Rochester-area residents.
'How would you have us spend the $2.75 million, which is not much to a big company like HCA. But that money came from HCA and, let's face it, it's got to be part of the cost of business. How would you have this commission spend it?' McGough asked Rochester Mayor Paul Callaghan, one of the speakers who praised Frisbie.
Callaghan suggested using the money to improve mental health and drug addiction services.
Sharp criticism
Dr. Mike Metzger, who worked at Frisbie as a cardiologist from 2005 to 2023 and now works at Wentworth-Douglass Hospital in Dover, said the most seasoned doctors and nurses have left Frisbie.
'I feel like HCA does have a playbook, and it knows how to harvest its profit,' Metzger said. 'I say this with great sadness. I was one of the biggest cheerleaders of Frisbie, but I feel like this has to be said. While there may be some services there, they're nominally there. Most patients are being transported to Portsmouth Hospital.'
Sharon Croft, who was born at Frisbie and was a school nurse for almost 30 years, said she and others lost their doctors and received little or no notification. Others said the bad communication about doctor departures put some of them in a bind when it came time to renew the medications they relied on or couldn't find where their doctors moved to. Incidents like those eroded trust in the hospital and HCA, they said.
'Even though we hear all of these good things, people that I deal with, people in my neighborhood, they don't want to go to Frisbie,' Croft said. 'They want to go someplace else. It's not the people, it's what's available to them, and whether they are actually going to get the things they need. Or are they going to end up going someplace else anyway?'
Roberta Goodrich, who lived in Rochester for 22 years before moving to Wakefield and previously worked at Frisbee, was disappointed when HCA closed the White Mountain Medical Center, the Barrington Walk-In Care and Seacoast Readicare in Somersworth. HCA officials said they had to close their clinics because they were losing money and didn't have enough patients to justify staying open.
Goodrich said the reduction in services makes it clear that HCA values profits over patients.
'Since the HCA acquisition, Frisbie Hospital no longer has labor and delivery maternity care. How many women want to have prenatal care and then find out they have to go somewhere else to deliver,' Goodrich said. 'Delivery doesn't really generate much money for the company unless it's a complicated delivery or involves a C section.'
Marsha Miller, who lives across the street from Frisbie, said she goes to Wentworth-Douglass because her husband can't get the care he needs in their home city.
'No matter what stories we hear today, and they are awesome, the reality is that people in Rochester that have touched the hospital before these changes, have that negative image,' Miller said.
She said Frisbie can overcome the negative perception with better care and better communication.
Putting patients first
Formella was asked why so many people from HCA took up the majority of time during public comments and why residents didn't get to speak until the meeting was more than half-way over.
'We're going to think hard about that going forward as to how to make sure that these forums are true community forums, and we hear mostly from community members,' Formella said. 'Obviously, we don't' want to tell people they can't speak, but we also need to make sure that we're setting this up in a way that we hear from the community. I think we heard a lot from the community tonight, but I think in forums going forward, we're going to work to make sure we're hearing even more from community members and less from representatives from corporations.'
Goldsberry agreed, saying HCA knows how to stay on message.
'The hospital has a lot of resources, and when they come to public events, they come with all their resources,' she said. 'Community members don't have those kinds of resources.'
She said the commission will balance the testimony during the public meeting with a large amount of feedback its received from residents who email in their concerns.
To submit a question for the Health Care Consumer Protection Advisory Commission, email Christine Rioux at Christine.L.Rioux@doj.nh.gov.
dpierce@unionleader.com

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We did reach out to Carl Paladino to get his reaction on being brought into the campaign as a talking point. Carl Paladino says he has no comment right now on the ad and asked that we contact him after the primary. Early voting in the Primary Election is already underway. The primary is just days away on June 24. Since Scanlon became acting mayor Date Name Amount To 1/10/2025 William Paladino $5,200 Friends Of Christopher P Scanlon 1/10/2025 Paladino Development Group Inc $5,000 Friends Of Christopher P Scanlon 12/6/2024 William Paladino $2,500 Friends Of Christopher P Scanlon 1/10/2025 Ellicott Construction Company II $2,500 Friends Of Christopher P Scanlon 1/10/2025 4628 Group, Inc $2,500 Friends Of Christopher P Scanlon 5/19/2025 727 Elmwood Ave LLC $500 Friends Of Christopher P Scanlon 4/8/2025 Joseph Hannon $500 Friends Of Christopher P Scanlon 1/7/2025 727 Elmwood Ave LLC $250 Friends Of Christopher P Scanlon 1/7/2025 Joseph Hannon $150 Friends Of Christopher P Scanlon Jeff Preval is an award-winning anchor and reporter who joined the News 4 team in December 2021. See more of his work here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.