AS THE POPULATION of Massachusetts ages, assisted living is becoming an increasingly popular option – safer and more supportive than being home alone, but not as intensive as a nursing home’s round-the-clock, medically-focused care. With a COVID-19 emergency order set to expire on March 31, state leaders are facing a choice about whether to permanently […]
Health
Posted inHealth, Health Care, Opinion
What we need to meet the next public health crisis
THE THIRD ANNIVERSARY of the COVID-19 pandemic is on the horizon and we are still faced with lingering challenges. Back in 2020, the nation watched as federal, state, and local governments sought to understand the impacts of what was then a new and evolving virus. Rapidly enhancing the nation’s ability to mobilize and respond to […]
Posted inHealth, Health Care
Health care systems pricier, but not necessarily better
IT’S BEEN A common claim that integrating health care services into a consolidated system would yield better outcomes for patients and be able deliver that care more efficiently at lower cost. But a new study says it just isn’t so. In one of the first large-scale analyses of both Medicare and commercially-insured patients in US […]
Posted inHealth, State Government, State House News Service
Source: Healey picks BMC chief to head health and human services
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE GOV. MAURA HEALEY has tapped Kate Walsh, president and CEO of Boston Medical Center, to lead the state’s sprawling health and human services secretariat, the largest department in state government that manages everything from MassHealth to the child welfare system and the opioid epidemic, according to a source familiar with the […]
Posted inEnvironment
Pollution inequality must stop; enforce roadmap law
MASSACHUSETTS IS HOME to some of the greatest inequalities in pollution in the nation. According to Northeastern Professor Daniel Faber, Boston ranks fourth for disparities in air pollution and Massachusetts ranks in the top three states in the country for locating hazardous waste facilities next to the elderly and people living in poverty. Moreover, he […]
Posted inOpinion
3 steps for addressing health equity in Mass.
MAURA HEALEY made history when she was sworn in as the 73rd governor of Massachusetts. She will have no shortage of challenges to tackle in the early days of her administration—but it is critical that she places health equity at the top of her list. For generations, marginalized communities in Massachusetts and across the nation […]
Posted inGovernment, Health
Boston employee vaccine mandate heads to SJC
COVID VACCINE MANDATES for customers of private businesses were short-lived. Gov. Charlie Baker’s administration, which had a strict vaccine mandate for executive branch workers, has been quietly hiring back some terminated workers. But litigation over vaccine mandates is still ongoing. The Supreme Judicial Court on January 6 will hear oral arguments in a case about the […]
Posted inOpinion
What’s causing the boarding crisis in hospitals?
“THEY’RE COMING in quiet,” the announcement said. They were the emergency medical technicians aboard the ambulance bringing Justice Thompson* from a hospital psychiatric unit to his first day at The Guild School. Though the ambulance siren was muted, there was nothing quiet about Justice’s arrival at The Guild. Two EMTs wheeled in a gurney holding […]
Posted inOpinion
Take pregnant people seriously, support birth centers
I RECENTLY RECEIVED a call from a pregnant friend. She felt that her prenatal visits with her obstetrician were a waste of her time. In the last visit, the OB had rattled off a series of dire complications that “had never occurred to her” but were possible. Seeking a different approach, she asked her obstetrician […]
Posted inOpinion
Hospital pediatric beds in short supply
After a long hiatus, Dr. Jarone Lee, an emergency and ICU physician at Massachusetts General Hospital and associate professor at Harvard Medical School, resumes his conversation about frontline critical care with Dr. Paul Hattis, a fellow at the Lown Institute who participates in CommonWealth’s Health or Consequences Codcast. PAUL HATTIS: It has been awhile since we […]