Our Story
Family-Owned, Values-Driven: The Story of Whittier Health Network
Over the last few decades, healthcare has changed. A lot of local hospitals and rehab centers have been bought up by massive, out-of-state corporate networks where patients—and staff—can easily start to feel like numbers on a spreadsheet.
Whittier Health Network deliberately chose a different path.
Our story started in 1982, when Dr. Alfred L. Arcidi and his sons set out to build a healthcare system rooted in traditional family values. Dr. Arcidi believed that high-level medical and rehabilitative care shouldn't feel cold or institutional. He wanted to build places where patients were treated with the same dignity, patience, and warmth you would give your own family.
A Seamless Continuum of Care
More than forty years later, Whittier is still proudly owned and operated by the Arcidi family—now spanning multiple generations working right alongside our clinical and administrative teams. What started as a single vision in 1982 has grown into a specialized care network in Bradford and Westborough, built around four distinct levels of care:
- Long-Term Acute Care Hospital (LTACH): Hospital-level medical care and rehabilitation for patients with complex, critical, or chronic conditions who need an extended stay to heal.
- Inpatient Rehabilitation Facility (IRF): Intensive, specialized inpatient therapy and medical management designed to help patients regain independence after a stroke, trauma, brain injury, or major surgery.
- Transitional Care Units (TCU): Hospital-based skilled nursing and subacute rehabilitation that bridges the gap between an acute hospital stay and returning safely home.
- Outpatient Rehabilitation: Ongoing physical, occupational, and speech therapy clinics—along with specialized wellness and conditioning programs—to keep recovery moving forward once patients are back in their communities.
Because we offer these levels of care under one family roof, our patients don't get lost in the shuffle. Someone recovering from a serious illness or injury can step down seamlessly from LTACH or IRF to a Transitional Care Unit, and eventually walk through the doors of our Outpatient clinic, knowing their doctors and therapists are all communicating on the same page.
Old-Fashioned Care, Modern Medicine
While our medical technology, surgical recovery protocols, and specialty programs are constantly evolving, the heartbeat of the organization hasn't changed since 1982. We still believe in one-on-one therapy. We still believe that patients and their families should have a real voice in their recovery goals—whether that goal is getting back on a bicycle, returning to work, or walking a daughter down the aisle.