Vineyard Medical Care’s looming closure prompts growing waitlist concerns

Michael and Melinda Loberg have run Vineyard Medical Care since the center opened its doors over a decade ago in Tisbury, serving thousands of Islanders and visitors over the years. 

Now the clock is ticking to find a new tenant to run a medical practice at 364 State Road, with the Tisbury residents announcing they will not renew the lease, which ends in May.

If nobody takes over, another thousand Vineyarders will be scrambling to find a primary care provider on an Island already struggling to meet patient demand, with more than 1,000 already on local waitlists.

James Butterick, medical director at Vineyard Medical Care, said the closure would be problematic for Islanders. “This’ll be a public health disaster for the Island,” he said, if a replacement wasn’t found in time.

Butterick said the practice currently serves 1,000 primary care patients. The practice has 400 patients on the primary care waitlist, resulting from when a nurse practitioner retired nearly two years ago.

While the Lobergs love the center, and formed a dedicated staff, Melinda Loberg said her husband, Michael, has a serious medical condition that is making it impossible to run the center any longer. She noted that it wouldn’t be fair for the staff and patients if she took over the reins.

“[Michael] brought a great sense of camaraderie to this group of people and the wonderful staff,” Melinda Loberg said. “They have been the reason this clinic has been so loved by this community. We hope this will continue under new leadership.” 

Loberg said they’ve undergone an “intense” search for a new tenant, which has been ongoing for the past six months, but so far haven’t had any luck. 

The State Road property has had a long history of serving Islanders’ medical needs, with past physicians running their own practices. That includes Michael Jacobs, the retired doctor who is leasing the building to the Lobergs. 

Jacobs came to the Island in 1976, and initially rented office space from Martha’s Vineyard Hospital in Oak Bluffs. He later established a primary care and internal medicine practice called Vineyard Medical Services in 1985 in Tisbury, which later became Vineyard Medical Care in 2014, when he sold the business to the Lobergs. 

“I’d like to see it continue to serve the community as a medical office,” Jacobs said. “That’s my goal.”

Vineyard Medical Care isn’t the only Island medical provider with a primary care waitlist. Island Health Care in Edgartown has 169 people on its waitlist, and Martha’s Vineyard Hospital, the largest on-Island medical institution, has around 1,000 people on the primary care waitlist. 

The hospital, aware of the difficulties of finding primary care doctors, is trying to address the growing problem.

“We’ll be adding new providers this spring to accommodate additional patients,” Claire Seguin, chief nurse and vice president of operations at Martha’s Vineyard Hospital, told The Times in a statement.

Butterick said while the hospital has been supportive of Vineyard Medical Care, he was doubtful whether they could absorb the displaced patients into their system.

“Could they take a thousand primary care [patients] overnight? No, they can’t. Their waitlist will continue to be large,” he said. 

Butterick said some of their patients have also started asking questions about the medical practice’s status. 

“We will answer their questions as we are able,” he said. “We’re not planning to just turn off the lights and lock the doors.”

Patients are wondering what their next steps should be if a medical service doesn’t continue at the Tisbury location. 

“That’s a thousand people, me included, who’ll have to find a doctor,” Frederick Rundlet, a patient, and the acting health director for the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah), said. 

Rundlet said 50 members of the tribe utilize Vineyard Medical Care, and he would need to help them find a new primary care provider. And a doctor from the practice has been serving in the tribe’s weekly clinic — which primarily serves older individuals from the tribe — for the past several years. Before, a physician from Cambridge was hired to come to Aquinnah. “It’s kind of a community issue,” he said. 

Rundlet highlighted that many residents already travel off-Island for medical care because of the limited availability on the Vineyard — a struggle also faced by Cape Cod residents. His wife is on the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital waitlist. He underscored that the population increase Martha’s Vineyard experienced, particularly during COVID years, has put a strain on Island resources. 

“It’s a crazy situation,” he said. 

He also pointed out the absence of Vineyard Medical Care would slash the availability of urgent care services on the Island. 

The Island, and the rest of the country, is already facing an ongoing shortage of medical practitioners, one that never fully recovered after the COVID-19 pandemic. The Association of American Medical Colleges projected in a report last year that there may be a nationwide shortage of up to 40,400 primary care physicians by 2036. The Massachusetts Health Policy Commission found in a survey released last month that 41 percent of residents in the state had difficulty accessing medical care in 2023. On Martha’s Vineyard, the housing crisis has made recruiting nurses and doctors challenging. 

The limited number of primary care personnel on the Island is driving the search for another medical provider to take over the Vineyard Medical Care location. 

Jacobs said talks are underway with several organizations, between Vineyard Health Care and parties on the Vineyard and Cape Cod. He also plans to advertise the property to be rented or sold to a medical organization or physician. 

“I’ve spoken to people, and they’d like to see it continue,” he said. “Everything has come to a crunch time.” 

Whether an on-Island organization can take on the services is uncertain. 

Island Health Care is evaluating the possibility of integrating Vineyard Medical Care’s services and patients into their system. Island Health Care CEO Cynthia Mitchell told The Times on Wednesday that her organization was looking into whether their current licenses would allow them to run the medical service at the Tisbury building. 

“It’s entirely up in the air,” Mitchell said. 

Vineyard Health Care’s team is hoping to find a solution before May.

“We’ve got several irons in the fire, but no one of them is popping up as the one that will be the way out of this,” Butterick said. 

Butterick said an organization would need a clinic license to operate at the State Road location, unless a physician operated it as his or her own office practice, which was the case for Jacobs and later for Vineyard Medical Care through one of its doctors, Gerald Yukevich. It can take around six months to complete the clinic license process with the state. 

And the building would also need to undergo renovations to meet state accessibility standards for a clinic license. 

While there are licensed doctors currently at the center qualified to take over the practice, Butterick said, they are all over 70, and not at the stage in life where they wanted to take on the challenges of running the center. Two of them already work part-time hours, and another recently reduced their work schedule. 

“They’re highly regarded physicians, but … that is not something you want to start at that age,” Butterick said. He also said several physicians at Martha’s Vineyard Hospital looked at the center, but decided to stay with their employer due to the challenges associated with the building. 

The practice’s staff has also been anxious for answers, since they may need to prepare to find new jobs to support their families, according to Butterick. “They have hung in with us and we really appreciate that,” Butterick said.

Jacobs also emphasized the importance of having a medical practice in an area that is easily accessible to many people. Vineyard Health Care is located in a bustling part of Tisbury, across from Cronig’s Market, surrounded by numerous businesses and near residential neighborhoods. 

“It’d be a tragedy for the community to lose that resource,” Jacobs said. 

Jacobs said if a replacement can’t be found by the May date, he would welcome the Lobergs entering into a new lease for 364 State Road if they change their minds.