Lawrence + Memorial Hospital can end its era of independence with satisfaction for all it has meant as a community anchor and, we hope, with enough autonomy to ensure that, affiliation with Yale-New Haven notwithstanding, it remains the face of health care from the Connecticut River to Westerly.

L+M sought affiliation with Yale — sometimes referred to as "ownership" by Yale in documents from the approval agency, the state Office of Health care Access — in response to the overwhelming pressure on hospitals, like banks and utilities before them, to blend into larger institutions.

The decision announced last week by OHCA signals the end of an era but not the worst that might have happened. If the plan to affiliate had not won state approval, uglier alternatives would have emerged, including purchase by a for-profit hospital corporation, dropping of services or eventually an unsustainable operation.

Those options would have truly hurt the region, because Lawrence + Memorial has delivered more than just health care in its century of service.

Almost every local family has used its in-patient and out-patient services and come away with stories of compassionate, capable nurses and physicians. It has been there day and night for emergencies. Most of the region's babies arrive in its delivery rooms.

Yet as the only hospital in that 35-mile stretch of shoreline, the non-profit L+M also developed cadres of volunteers and an assortment of community and social events that inspired even more loyalty. Its auxiliary has for decades been among the largest and most effective fundraising groups in the region.

This is not the time for a eulogy, but it is a good time to express appreciation for an institution with a tradition of bringing the city and the suburbs and the countryside together in common interest. The centrality of Lawrence + Memorial has shaped the shoreline in ways that neither an out-of-town mega-hospital nor a bottom-line operation ever could.

The Day has supported the affiliation and recognizes that the conditions imposed by the regulators are prudent. Tough and perhaps painful business decisions need to be made. But when the transition is complete, L+M needs to emerge still as the region's hospital, still as a primary anchor of the community.