Category: Uncategorized

Medical professionals care. They also experience higher rates of burnout and depressive symptoms than the general population.

In fact, suicide is estimated to be the second leading cause of death for medical residents, and American doctors take their lives at twice the rate of the general population. Samaritans, Inc. is here for you – and for your patients.

The mission of Samaritans is to reduce the incidence of suicide by alleviating despair, isolation, distress and suicidal feelings among individuals in the community, 24 hours a day; to educate the public about suicide prevention; to help those who have lost a loved one to suicide; and to reduce the stigma associated with suicide. Samaritans accomplishes this through services that emphasize confidential, nonjudgmental, and compassionate listening.

24/7 Crisis Services

Each day, people who are struggling turn to Samaritans in search of compassionate support. If you or anyone you know are feeling sad, lonely, hopeless, or uncertain about anything in your life, you can call or text Samaritans’ 24/7, free, confidential Helpline at 877-870-4673.

Grief Support Services

Losing a loved one to suicide is a uniquely painful experience. If you or someone you know or care for has lost someone to suicide, Samaritans offer several programs to support you in your grieving including peer support groups and individual home visits.

Community Education & Outreach

Samaritans also offers suicide prevention workshops. For health care professionals, workshops are geared toward helping both providers and patients. You and your team can learn:
•Risk factors and warning signs for suicide
•How to evaluate patients who may be suicidal and how to help them
•Coping skills and resources for patients, loved ones, and yourself

Visit Samaritans website to learn more about these programs and services, for yourself and/or your patients.

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Milford Regional Medical Center adopted Project SEARCH, a national transitional program to teach valuable life and job skills.  Designed for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities entering their last year of high school, Project SEARCH provides internship placement based on the student’s experiences, strengths and skills, with the end goal being competitive employment within the community.

Read more…

The Betsy Lehman Center for Patient Safety is a Massachusetts state agency that works with providers, patients and policymakers to advance the safety and quality of health care. Visit its website for actionable toolkits to improve safety in areas such as emergency medicine, sepsis, cataract surgery and more. Sign up for the Center’s monthly newsletter, Patient Safety Beat, for updates on local patient safety news and research.

The Center is also working with hospitals and outpatient practices across Massachusetts to help each develop its own sustainable peer support programs. This is part of a larger effort by the Center to ensure that all individuals – patients, family members, health care professionals and staff – affected by medical harm or a difficult outcome get the support they need.

Through this report, the National Quality Forum (NQF) offers the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and other stakeholders a review of healthcare quality measures (QM) relevant to addressing America’s opioid crisis. The report considers issues related to acute and chronic pain management and substance use disorders (SUD). It answers two guiding questions: (1) What are the priority gaps in QM science that need to be filled in order to reduce opioid use disorders (OUD) and opioid overdose deaths without undermining effective pain management? (2) What existing and conceptual measures should be deployed in the following types of federal medical payment programs to best address the opioid crisis moving forward: Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS), alternative payment models (APMs), the Medicare Shared Savings Program (SSP), the Hospital Inpatient Quality Reporting Program (IQR), and the Hospital Value-Based Purchasing Program (VBP)?

The conclusions of this report emerged from an NQF-facilitated consensus development process engaging a 28-member Technical Expert Panel (TEP). The TEP was composed of physicians, nurses, patients, pharmacists, and others with expertise and experience in pain management and OUD. CMS funded this work pursuant to enabling legislation from the U.S. Congress, the 2018 Substance Use-Disorder Prevention that Promotes Opioid Recovery and Treatment for Patients and Communities (SUPPORT) Act Section 6093. Ultimately, the guidance proffered here aims to achieve the application of the proper healthcare quality metrics across the U.S. healthcare system. Using the best metrics, in turn, aims both to continue to reduce opioid deaths verifiably, to encourage the implementation of best practices of pain management, to decrease the incidence of other SUDs, and to decrease illegal drug use by those unable to obtain prescription pain medication.

Read report here…

Based on the Coalition’s public messaging research, we have developed the Good Talk Toolkit to be a resource that supplements your organization’s capacity to build awareness and understanding for advance care planning. The messaging and campaign included here are intended to shift the frame of advance care planning away from end of life and life-sustaining treatment choices towards goals of care, quality of life and shared decision making thus also bringing it into closer alignment with palliative care principles.

Additional Information and Resources for Good Talk Campaign

Interested hospital-affiliated clinicians are invited to participate in one or more free, CME-credit-bearing webinars sponsored by Partners in Contraceptive Choice and Knowledge (PICCK). PICCK is the state-funded clinical and public health program designed to promote contraceptive choice and effective contraceptive counseling in Massachusetts.

Enacted in partnership with the state’s birth hospitals, the PICCK program provides education, training, and technical assistance to expand and sustain the capacity of hospitals statewide to provide contraceptive access. MHA supports this multi-year program, which launched in early 2019 and is housed at Boston Medical Center/Boston University School of Medicine.

PICCK is currently offering medical professionals a series of webinars on a variety of contraception-related topics. All webinars are free and offer CME credits. They run from now through May. The program’s next webinar is entitled, “What’s New in Contraception,” and will take place on Thursday, February 13, from noon to 1 p.m. Click here for a complete listing of all available PICCK webinars, as well as registration information.

In addition to the webinars and an annual meeting open to healthcare providers, Massachusetts hospitals and their affiliated practices and health centers are invited to partner with PICCK to receive a customized program that meets their facility’s needs. PICCK offers medical practices provider education and technical assistance related to workflow, billing, and materials. Visit www.PICCK.org for resources and materials, the program’s bi-annual newsletter, and more information.

Caregivers, let’s talk about keeping you and your family safe and active.
It seems like common sense — everybody falls, no matter what age. However, for many older adults, an unexpected fall can result in a serious and costly injury. The good news is that most falls can be prevented. As the caregiver, you have the power to reduce your loved one’s risk of falling, and your own fall risk as well.

You can be a partner and a participant in falls prevention. This conversation guide has many purposes. Use this guide as a tool of empowerment in your role as a caregiver. Use it if you or the person you are caring for has had a fall, is experiencing decreased mobility, is unsteady on their feet, or is fearful of falling. When needed, use it to talk with other members of your family or health care professionals about
creating a falls prevention action plan.

Read more….

Healthcare leaders around the country recognize that engaging patients through collaborative and personalized care is a key to reducing costs and improving outcomes.

To advance this cause, Massachusetts Health Quality Partners (MHQP), with the help of its Consumer Health Council (CHC), has created a new section on the MHQP website dedicated to supporting patients who wish to become more actively involved in their care and more engaged consumers of healthcare services.

The experienced patient advocates and activists on MHQP’s CHC took more than two years to research and compile the most helpful tools, guidelines and information related to patient engagement, and have now assembled and organized them for easy access for consumers on MHQP’s website.

“Finally, all of the best resources to help patients be more engaged and more empowered are available in one single place,” said Nancy Finn, a healthcare journalist and member of the CHC who helped lead the effort.

Among the specific categories in the resource are:

• What It Measures to Be an Engaged Patient
• Your Health Insurance Coverage and Options
• Talking About Healthcare Costs
• Communicating with Your Clinicians and Other Healthcare Providers
• Collaborating with Your Clinician to Plan Your Care

And many more…

“Our healthcare system is unduly complicated and extremely difficult to navigate,” said MHQP President and CEO Barbra Rabson. “This is an essential roadmap to help patients interact with their providers and with the healthcare system at large. We are so grateful to the volunteers on our CHC for dedicating so much time and effort to create this resource to benefit patients everywhere.”

MHQP sees this resource as an important element in shared decision-making and care planning. It was developed primarily to target patients who would most benefit from being more engaged in their care, such as those with chronic and/or high-cost conditions, and those with a new diagnosis who may be unfamiliar with navigating a new part of the healthcare system.

“We hope healthcare providers refer their patients to this resource and recommend that patients use it on their own, as a way to encourage them to become more actively involved,” said Rabson.

Read more…