Dartmouth Health to Open Addiction Treatment Center at Claremont Hospital

Dartmouth Health announced in mid-March 2026 that it will launch an outpatient addiction treatment program at Valley Regional Hospital in Claremont, bringing dedicated substance-use disorder services to Sullivan County as part of a broader integration between the two health systems.

The new program follows terms set by the New Hampshire Attorney General's Office, which cleared the path for Valley Regional to formally join the Dartmouth Health network. That regulatory approval, announced April 1, 2026, came despite an earlier ruling by the Consumer Protection and Antitrust Bureau (CPAB) that the proposed partnership would create a "monopoly for inpatient general acute care services" in Sullivan County. Dartmouth Health had begun working to acquire Valley Regional as far back as the fall of 2022 before running into those antitrust concerns.

Valley Regional is a 25-bed critical access hospital with 350 employees serving Claremont and surrounding communities. Its integration with Dartmouth Health connects it to a network of more than 13,000 employees that includes Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, five additional hospitals, a visiting nurse and hospice program, and clinics across New Hampshire and Vermont.

Jocelyn Caple, interim CEO of Valley Regional, framed the merger as a natural alignment of priorities. "Both Valley Regional and Dartmouth Health share a deep commitment to expanding access to care throughout our region's rural communities and believe that combining our resources will allow us to better meet the needs of patients in Sullivan County and the Upper Valley region, now and in the future," she said.

In a joint statement issued after the Attorney General's decision, Valley Regional and Dartmouth Health said "regulatory clearance by the Attorney General is a testament to the fact that this arrangement promises to improve healthcare delivery for the greater Claremont community and residents in Sullivan County."

The outpatient addiction program is one of the concrete early steps under that arrangement, targeting a region where access to substance-use disorder treatment has historically been limited. The specific terms the Attorney General's Office attached to its approval, and the precise services the new program will offer, have not been publicly detailed.