Hayes, who has remained employed by LBMC since Sandy, said that the goal of the petition is to ensure that, regardless of whether hospital management changes or the facility is downsized, it retains a “full-service, 911-receiving emergency department.”

“Because of the concentration of healthcare and housing facilities for the elderly, summertime surges in population, recreational and boating facilities, geographic isolation and dependence on drawbridges to access the mainland,” Hayes wrote in the petition, which in less than two weeks garnered 13,000 signatures, “LBMC, despite its size and unstable financial situation, must remain open so that the community has appropriate access to emergency services and acute care.”

Player said that restoring the emergency department is the top priority, but that the hospital board is facing resistance from the Health Department. The state’s plan, Player said, is to maintain an urgent-care center that would not be open at all hours and would not receive ambulances.

According to Player, emergency rooms typically operate at a loss, so the hospital would need to offer some revenue-generating services to support it. Hospital officials developed a plan that reduces the number of beds to 80, to cut costs while still providing enough revenue to support an emergency room.

While officials continue to squabble, however, residents say they are the ones who feel the impact of the hospital’s closure. “It doesn’t matter who the administrators are,” said Daniela Lemm, a former emergency department nurse who helped gather signatures. “They should open up an emergency room, a few beds, and then hash out their differences.”

Lemm explained that in the event of a heart attack or stroke, there is a very small window of time in which to administer live-saving treatment, and the additional half-hour it takes to transport a patient to another hospital can be the difference between life and death. “I would like for people, in a true emergency, to have a fighting chance,” she said.