Four long years

Robert H. Minton

When Don McLean arrived in Boston in 1965 to take responsibility as President of the Lahey Clinic Foundation, the Clinic was operating in crowded quarters in a variety of buildings on Commonwealth Avenue not far from Fenway Park. Moreover, lacking its own hospital beds, it hospitalized patients through arrangement with the Deaconess and New England Baptist Hospitals. One major change would have to be the Clinics location - a site to provide adequate space for expansion and modernization, for inclusion of its own hospital, and with with reasonably easy access for patients.

Commencing in the latter part of 1966, the search for went on for four years concluding in January 1971 when the Burlington, Massachusetts town meeting voted one Thousand 1,622 to 375 in favor of zoning changes to meet Lahey’s needs. The final step was taken in July of the same year when the forty acre Burlington site was purchased.

Those were four long years!

The first location to be examined was in Boston on Parker Hill, close by the New England Baptist Hospital. Negotiations were protracted. But once it became evident that the Baptist Hospital wanted to retain both his own identity and independence, the search move beyond Boston. This decision to move away from Boston was a major one and loaded with emotional content. The physicians pretty much split down the middle, with the older ones mostly against the move and the younger ones generally for it. Not only would it be departure from a location familiar to everyone, but it also meant moving some distance away from other major medical centers in Boston, and the presence of a large number of high-quality centers had given the city worldwide renown. So the move away from Boston would be a truly major uprooting.

To assist in the site search, Don McLean engaged the well-respected firm of Sasaki, Dawson and DeMay Associates. The looking was on! Suggestions poured in, or were discovered. The geography was widespread: from Topsfield to the north of Boston, west to Framingham, south to Canton, and east to Quincy. Close to one hundred possibilities were investigated. By all odds, the most unique was the proposal to purchase the SS Queen Elizabeth which would be permanently docked in Boston and converted to a clinic hospital!

Other sites which were most seriously considered included the following:

• Weston, with a possible location was close to both groups nine and 128.
• Westwood, where an option was taken on one hundred nineteen acres of land, but after an endless series of meetings and coffee hours, it was clear that the necessary rezoning articles would not be passed. So The option was sold at a profit of close to $1 million.
• The McLean Hospital land and Belmont.
• The site now occupied in Burlington.

Throughout the myriad of meetings, planning sessions, and negotiations, Don McLean led the way. He held to the dream of a campus site for an all inclusive medical center. He had the ability to analyze, to state and restate the goals and objectives, to assemble all the facts that led to a reasonable conclusion, and to pursue that conclusion with determination, patience, and deep understanding of human nature.

The Lahey Clinic today bears witness to the wisdom of his work. At a time when all aspects of  health care are under public and governmental cost containment pressure, when advanced technology has sharply reduced the average length of hospitalization, and when many many hospitals are being forced to close or to merge… the Lahey Clinic stands tall. With the occupancy rate often in excess of 100% and a growing demand for expansion, is is fast becoming a medical landmark whose stature reflects the wisdom and vision which its leader put forward two decades ago.

Robert H Minton was director of administrative services Philly clinic during the four year search for site. During the late administration in 1962 he worked closely with Don McLean throughout that chapter of his career.