The American Hospital Association’s Hospitals Against Violence initiative joins the National Human Trafficking Training and Technical Assistance Center (NHTTAC) and HEAL Trafficking to provide key resources and information on how hospitals and health systems can combat human trafficking in their communities.
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Kudos to Southcoast Health for Supporting Great Local Organizations!
This is community healthcare in action.
NEW BEDFORD — Southcoast Health has announced the recipients of its Community Benefits Impact Opportunity program grants for Fiscal Year 2019. These annual, competitive grants address unmet health needs in communities on the SouthCoast, according to a press release.
“We are passionate about improving the health of our patients and our communities, and mitigating the social conditions that contribute to poor health. As a leading healthcare provider, Southcoast Health plays a critical leadership role in our community,” said Keith A. Hovan, president & CEO of Southcoast Health. “One of the greatest attributes of our region is a unique spirit of collaboration. We are fortunate to have this opportunity to support and collaborate with so many worthy organizations across our region that are making a positive difference for individuals and families here in the South Coast.”
Sturdy Memorial Awards Winner from American Heart Association & Stroke Association
MHA applauds and are proud of Sturdy Memorial Hospital to have been recognized by the American Heart Association and American Stroke Association for meeting the latest research-based standards for stroke care. We’re a dual-award winner, receiving both the STEMI Referring Center Gold Achievement and Stroke Honor Roll Elite Plus/Gold awards for our high quality and timely care of stroke patients!
Eight Relaxation Techniques for Stress Relief
For many of us, relaxation means zoning out in front of the TV at the end of a stressful day. But this does little to reduce the damaging effects of stress. To effectively combat stress, we need to activate the body’s natural relaxation response. You can do this by practicing relaxation techniques such as deep breathing, meditation, rhythmic exercise, and yoga. Fitting these activities into your life can help reduce everyday stress, boost your energy and mood, and improve your mental and physical health. Find the relaxation technique that’s best for you.
MHA Joins Congressman Richard Neal in Supporting the Opioid Workforce Act
MHA and our colleagues throughout the state thank Congressman Richard Neal for his tireless advocacy in making sure we have the clinicians we need to address the #opioid crisis.
We join Congressman Neal in supporting the Opioid Workforce Act. #mapoli
MHA – They Come to Us
In our patients’ greatest time of need, in times of joy and celebration, they come to us.
WELL-BEING PLAYBOOK: A Guide for Hospital & Health System Leaders
At its core, addressing burnout is about helping care teams recapture the joy and purpose. The goal is not simply an absence of burnout; but to cultivate a culture of well-being so clinicians can best care for their patients. Burnout and well-being are complex cultural issues with no off-the-shelf fix. Hospital and health system leadership must believe in the importance of clinician well-being and commit to making it a
strategic imperative.
The Massachusetts Consultation Service for Treatment of Addiction and Pain (MCSTAP)
The Massachusetts Consultation Service for Treatment of Addiction and Pain (MCSTAP) offers real-time, telephonic professional consultation to primary care providers and emergency department clinicians on safe prescribing and managing care for patients with chronic pain and/or substance use disorder (SUD). It also provides resource and referral information about community-based providers, programs, and services to support patients with chronic pain and/or SUD.
Task Force Issues 17-Step Guidance to Reduce Sepsis in EDs
The Massachusetts Sepsis Consortium, led by the Betsy Lehman Center for Patient Safety, has released a report — Advancing Sepsis Care in Emergency Medicine — containing 17 recommendations that hospitals and emergency departments can undertake to reduce incidences of sepsis.
Sepsis – the body’s extreme response to an infection that can lead to rapid tissue damage, organ failure and death if not treated quickly – is among the top causes of 30-day hospital readmissions in Massachusetts and is the third leading cause of the state’s hospital inpatient deaths.
Combatting sepsis is difficult. The symptoms of it are vague and easily confused with other conditions. There’s no definitive blood test to determine if a patient has sepsis. And there is no definite guidance from specialty societies on how to treat or report it. For example, most hospitals follow CMS’s “SEP-1” guidelines, which require extensive reporting. But many large insurance companies are now requiring international Sepsis-3 guidelines that mandate an entirely different form of reporting.
The Consortium’s report notes, “Despite these challenges, there are best practices on which most experts agree and for which there is well-established peer reviewed evidence.” The Sepsis Consortium, of which MHA is a founding member, decided that since most patients with sepsis enter the health system through the hospital ED, it would launch a special task force to develop ED protocols. That task force was chaired by Thomas Amoroso, M.D., medical director for utilization management at Commonwealth Care Alliance, and John J. Walsh, M.D., an emergency medicine physician at South Shore Hospital and the task force’s Mass. Medical Society representative. Every hospital in the state sat for interviews to help inform the task force’s work.
The task force recommendations focus on seven areas: adult screening and treatment; pediatric screening and treatment, patient management, appropriate antibiotic use, staff education and feedback, and patient education.
The Coalition says the focus on sepsis in the ED is “only one piece of the larger puzzle” and that in coming reports it would address sepsis in other care settings.
CARE ACT: Implementation of Chapter 332 of the Acts of 2016, Discharge Planning
In an effort to support caregivers and those they care for, Governor Charlie Baker signed into law chapter 332 of the acts of 2016, an act authorizing the disclosure of medical information to certain designated caregivers, which authorizes all acute care hospital patients 18 years of age or older receiving inpatient services to designate a caregiver and requires hospitals to discuss with the patient and caregiver the patient’s known aftercare needs and provide a demonstration of the aftercare tasks.