Martha’s Vineyard Hospital chief executive officer Denise Schepici held a wide-ranging conversation with about 150 Islanders Tuesday evening at her first public forum since taking the post in January. With moderator Peter Brown fielding questions from the audience and hospital medical staff weighing in with specifics, she deftly navigated issues ranging from long-term care for seniors to abortion to parking at the hospital.

The format was more talk show than news conference, with Ms. Schepici and Mr. Brown, a Boston-based hospital public relations consultant, sitting in comfortable chairs on the high school auditorium stage. Several members of the hospital board were in the audience but did not participate.

And if the meeting seemed carefully designed to introduce Ms. Schepici as a down-to-earth and accessible leader, it achieved its objective as she described the lessons taught her by her grandparents and returned repeatedly to the theme of compassionate care.

But she also described the challenges faced by the Island’s only hospital, including outdated and inadequate space in the building, heavy reliance on nonresident staff and a community with a range of medical issues not all of which a small hospital can afford to address itself.

“I think about two things: scale and resources,” Ms. Schepici said in response to a question about whether the hospital would provide abortion services. “Do we have enough volume to do it well? And do we have enough resources to do it consistently and well?”

She said that calculation made providing abortions untenable. But on that and other medical needs, she said, the hospital is focused on helping patients get the counseling and treatment they need by a variety of means including tapping other community resources and using the Partners Healthcare network, of which the hospital is a part.

Responding to a question, Ms. Schepici and Dr. Pieter Pil, hospital medical director, said there is no quota system requiring the Vineyard hospital to send patients to its parent Massachusetts General Hospital or other Partners facilities. But using the Partners’ network has advantages for patients, they said, including a sophisticated electronic medical record sharing system that allows specialists to read scans and test results remotely.

“We share the medical record,” Ms. Schepici said. “We promote the continuum of care between us and our partners because we think it’s better quality.”

She said she has made it a priority since taking the job to address the Island’s aging population and elder care. “It’s not just my problem at the hospital. It’s all of our problem,” she said.

She said there are no plans to expand Windemere, the 60-bed nursing care facility that shares the hospital campus. The nursing home is expensive to run and difficult to staff, Ms. Schepici said, adding that she has had conversations with community leaders and the secretary of elder affairs in Boston about possible new models of providing care for seniors.

Her assessment was blunt. “Windemere’s the past. It’s not the future of elder care. It really isn’t,” she said.

But she also added: “We will not close Windemere until we have a solution and a plan going forward, so I want to be very clear with people.”

Throughout the meeting, Ms. Schepici repeatedly assured community members that she would welcome comments and suggestions, and that the community would be consulted on major decisions.

“When I first got here, all I kept hearing was that the hospital is not transparent, they don’t collaborate with the community, there are not enough primary care doctors, and the hospital seemed closed,” she said. “So I made a point in my first few weeks and months to let everyone know I have an open door policy.”

She opened the session with her own background story, beginning with her childhood in East Boston living with a large Italian American extended family. She said her grandparents’ values of compassion and hard work continue to inform her leadership style.

“They were all about giving, giving back, and being compassionate,” she said.

She plans to begin a formal assessment of Island medical needs in the fall to begin planning for long-term changes.

“Health care is radically changing,” she said. “Most care is now shifting to outpatient, and the demand for outpatient services is greater.”

She acknowledged that the current layout of the hospital is difficult to navigate, especially for those who have trouble walking.

Doug Ruskin and several others said they were comforted by Ms. Schepici’s message and thanked her for holding the forum. In a reference to the tumultuous events of a year ago, Mr. Ruskin wanted to know whether her job was secure.

“I’m concerned, from a governance perspective, will you be here a year from now?” he asked.

“I feel full support of my board,” she replied. “They are looking to me and to us to create a strategic plan. They are not dictating me; they are advising me.”

The hospital forum can be viewed in its entirety here.