In 1880, a bequest made by Mary Elizabeth Elliot, in memory of her husband, Dr. John Seaver Elliot, made possible the purchase of the land on which Elliot Hospital is located. Ten years later, the construction of the hospital was complete and the 25 bed facility opened.
Elliot Health System has always had a positive impact on the community from its inception, as Elliot Hospital. As the first acute care hospital in the state, Elliot has been meeting the needs of people in need of medical care, treatment and healing and the hospital has grown to a 296 bed facility. Over more than a century, Elliot has studied the changing needs of the community and we have grown to meet those needs.
In 1909, a maternity department was built by the Elliot Hospital Associates, a group of fundraising volunteers who are still active over a century later, supporting the needs of Elliot. The following year, the Emily Smith Nurses’ Home was established as a nursing school. In 1918, a children’s ward was also added to the growing services offered at Elliot Hospital.
Cancer treatment began in New Hampshire in 1966, when Elliot Hospital purchased the state’s first radiation equipment and opened the Elliot Regional Cancer Center. The cancer center has expanded and today, it is located in both Manchester and Londonderry. Elliot has forged a relationship with world-class providers from Dana Farber to ensure patients access to clinical trials not otherwise available locally.
In 1980, Elliot has emerged as the only Level II Trauma Center in the state and is equipped to handle the highest level of critically ill or injured patients locally. Nine years later, the Newborn Intensive Care Unit (NICU) was opened to care for the premature and critically ill newborn population.
The demands of mental healthcare have been ever increasing. Elliot has been ranked nationally as a leader in mental healthcare offering both in-patient geriatric psych for the aging population while also offering community mental healthcare as part of our primary care delivery model. Today, Elliot is the only designated receiving facility in the state, outside of the New Hampshire Hospital, who is accepting patients (of all ages) in need of mental healthcare because they are either a danger to themselves or others.
In the late 1990’s, as Elliot continued to look at the needs of the community, the need for primary care services became evident. People were not able to access a doctor locally and were using the emergency department as a source for care. Over many years, Elliot initiated the Elliot Physician Network, placing family medicine, internal medicine, pediatricians, and geriatricians out in the community. Today, Elliot has offices throughout southern New Hampshire and over 110,000 people look to Elliot for their primary care needs.
Elliot studied the demographics of the state and learned that the population was aging and thus, the need for healthcare geared toward the needs of this unique population was necessary. In 2001, Elliot opened one of the first in the nation, Senior Health Centers and provided a single location for patients over the age of 65 to receive primary care from specialty trained Geriatricians, behavioral healthcare, lab and imaging, rehab services, mammography, physical fitness (with a specially equipped gym), and educational opportunities through the Elliot Senior Health Center’s Computer Center.
In 2008 and again in 2010, Elliot opened Ambulatory Care Centers in Londonderry and in Manchester (The Elliot at River’s Edge) to meet the demands of the community who were increasingly seeking out-patient care. Services such as Lab, Imaging, Breast Healthcare, Orthopaedics, 1-Day Surgery, Neurology, Gastroenterology, Endoscopy, Pain Management, Wound and Hyperbaric Medicine, Rehabilitation, Dermatology, Sleep Studies, Pulmonary Medicine, Cardiac Rehab and more were established in these state-of-the-art facilities. Every day, Elliot is now managing the health of the community in an ideal setting that keeps people from entering the hospital and provides the highest quality care locally.
As a part of both ambulatory care centers, Elliot introduced Urgent Care to southern New Hampshire to meet the needs of patients who did not need the heightened level of care offered in an emergency department, but who had accidents, illnesses or injuries that required urgent medical attention. These centers are seeing over 50,000 patients each year allowing the trauma center to truly focus on the needs of our most critical patients.
In 2011, Elliot established Elliot Pediatrics and Elliot Pediatric Specialists to meet the needs of the pediatric population. This division includes our pediatricians in the community, designated Pediatric Emergency Department, Pediatric Surgery, Pediatric Neurology, Pediatric Pulmonary Medicine, Pediatric Gastroenterology, Pediatric Integrative Medicine, Pediatric Behavioral Health, Pediatric Rehabilitation, Pediatric Orthopaedics, and Pediatric Critical Care (ICU).
Finally, Elliot has a first rate Visiting Nurse Association offering this community home care, hospice and personal services. The VNA of Manchester and Sothern New Hampshire is delivering Elliot’s high quality care in people’s homes and is having a wonderful impact on readmissions to the hospital as well as improving quality of life for those facing terminal illnesses.