By Jim Kinney | Springfield Republican   September 23, 2015

PITTSFIELD - Berkshire Medical Center will be the first member of the new Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women's Cancer Care Collaborative, according to a statement issued Tuesday by Berkshire Medical Center.

This means that Berkshire Medical Center is agreeing to meet standards and practices set by the Boston hospitals in a number of facets of Berkshire's cancer programs. Berkshire Medical Center will also face annual reviews of its standards and practices. Berkshire Medical Center staff will have access to educational opportunities and medical specialists at Dana-Farber/ Brigham and Women's Cancer Center.

By Sandy Quadros Bowles | The Standard-Times  September 21, 2015

DARTMOUTH — One building cannot solve the entire need for mental health services in the community.
But Southcoast Behavioral, a newly opened inpatient behavioral health hospital on Faunce Corner Road, serves as a “great first step," said William A. Parsons Jr., chief executive officer of the facility.

The 77,000-square-foot hospital opened Aug. 31 but is awaiting accreditation from The Joint Commission before hosting an official grand opening, likely in early November, he said. The facility is a joint effort of Southcoast Health and Acadia Healthcare of Franklin, Tennessee.
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But weeks before the ribbon is cut, patients have already been hospitalized at the facility, which has 120 beds and five units, Parsons said. “The need is great," he said. “We’ve been inundated with referrals."

Wicked Local Falmouth  September 20, 2015

FALMOUTH

Cape Cod Healthcare announces that Falmouth Hospital has once again earned the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association Get With The Guidelines Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award. This award recognizes the hospital’s commitment and success in implementing excellence in stroke care for patients, according to evidence-based guidelines.
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The award is given to hospitals for their strict adherence to all achievement indicators for two or more consecutive 12-month intervals and for their compliance with program measures. These measures include aggressive use of medications, such as tPA, antithrombotics, anticoagulation therapy, DVT prophylaxis, cholesterol-reducing drugs and smoking cessation. All are aimed at reducing death and disability, and improving the lives of stroke patients.

By Rich Harbert | Wicked Local Plymouth   September 17, 2015

PLYMOUTH – State legislators, town officials and business leaders interrupted their meeting about the health and wellbeing of local students last week and pretended to march in a band while beating a drum.
When they finished, the civic leaders hopped around like popcorn kernels in a hot pan.

The energy burst came courtesy of Build Our kids Success (BOKS), a program of physical activity and nutrition that will be available in local elementary and middle schools this year.

The pilot program, run in partnership with Plymouth Public Schools, Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital, Reebok and researchers from teaching hospitals in Boston and Philadelphia, seeks to stimulate children’s minds with before-school activities like push-ups, sit-ups and pretending to pop like a kernel of corn.
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The program is voluntary for students and starts Monday, Sept. 28, in all eight elementary schools and both middle schools.

By Jim Levulis | WAMC Northeast Public Radio   September 15, 2015

Berkshire Health Systems continues to expand services at the former North Adams Regional Hospital. A dialysis center will open next summer supported by a nearly $2 million investment from the healthcare provider. 

Since North Adams Regional Hospital closed in March 2014, roughly 30 people in northern Berkshire County requiring dialysis have been traveling 20 miles or so to Berkshire Medical Center in Pittsfield. Medical Director of BMC’s Dialysis Centers Dr. David Henner says most patients spend four hours, three times a week being treated.  

“A good portion of their day is spent on dialysis three times a week and having access to care closer to home is just going to improve their quality of life,” said Henner.

Henner says the nine-chair North Adams site is expected to be open Monday through Saturday.

By Cynthia McCormick | Cape Cod Times   September 12, 2015

HYANNIS — Cape Cod Healthcare’s new bloodmobile is hitting the road today with a stop at the Seaside Le Mans at Mashpee Commons.

With four collection beds and two interview rooms, the $326,000 coach will be making the rounds of area businesses and organizations “five days a week, maybe more,” said Constance Patten, supervisor of the health care organization’s blood transfusion bank.

Cape Cod and Falmouth hospitals already hold blood drives in the community by setting up shop at fixed locations such as schools and churches, but the new bloodmobile will make hosting the drives more convenient, health care officials said.

“This vehicle is giving us the opportunity to go to smaller places that don’t have room to hold our equipment,” Patten said Friday during a media tour of the new bloodmobile.​

By Dyke Hendrickson | Newburyport Daily News  September 11, 2015

NEWBURYPORT — The Newburyport Five Cents Savings bank has donated $250,000 to the Birth Center patient room renovation program at Anna Jaques Hospital, in an act of philanthropy that might be traced back all the way to 1854.

Janice Morse, CEO and president of the bank, said that the bank was actually started in part to help children in that founding year.

“We feel that helping with the Birth Center goes back to our roots,” said Morse, who was born at Anna Jaques. “Going back to our opening, it was started as a bank to help children.

The Valley Dispatch   September 8, 2015

$425,000: The 20th annual Lowell General Hospital Challenge Golf Tournament, held Monday, Aug. 24, at The International golf resort in Bolton, raised $425,0000 to support expansion of the hospital's Intensive Care Unit on the main campus. The project will renovate former emergency room space in the hospital's Hanchett Building into an expanded ICU unit with 11-12 beds, providing improved access and the latest technology to help critically ill patients. The tournament drew 244 golfers and featured breakfast, an on-course BBQ lunch and beverage service, cocktail hour and a sit-down dinner for sponsors. The event also featured a raffle for an Apple Smartwatch, a silent auction that included a clambake for 25 people donated by Lenzi's Catering, and six live auction items that included two Maine getaways. From left are golf committee vice chairman Bryan Shanley, Lowell General Hospital President Jody White and golf committee chairman Michael Dubuque.

For information about the Lowell General Hospital Golf Challenge and a full list of sponsors, visit lowellgeneral.org/golf.

Wicked Local Milton   September 4, 2015

MILTON – Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital-Milton has opened a behavioral health-sensitive extension within its emergency department.

There are four beds in the newly renovated space, which has been designed specifically for care of acute mental health patients and people with substance abuse problems.

As a result, the hospital says, patients who are waiting to be placed in an inpatient mental health facility will have better, more specialized care while they wait.

The new space was designed to address a lack of coordinated behavioral health care locally.

In a statement, Dr. Ashley Yeats, the hospital’s chief operating officer and vice president of healthcare quality, said the new area “will improve the response to behavioral health crises in the community.”

She also said it will reduce the length of time patients “may spend in the emergency department awaiting assessment and referral to treatment.”

The new behavioral health area was made possible by a $2 million grant awarded to the hospital through the state Health Policy Commission. The Community Hospital Acceleration, Rehabilitation and Transformation grant was given to fund the development of an integrated mental health program with South Shore Mental Health.
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South Shore Mental Health will staff the new area with crisis assessment clinicians, a behavioral health navigator and certified peer specialists.