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UMass Memorial Reaches Hospital-at-Home Milestone; Alper Reflects on Program’s Keys to Success
At a time when health systems are under increasing pressure to improve care delivery models, UMass Memorial Health has reached a significant milestone in its Hospital-at-Home program, admitting its 3,000th patient. This initiative, spearheaded by Dr.
We were at a point where our hospitals didn’t have enough space for the people that needed to be there. By moving acute-level care into the home, we believed we could provide safe, effective treatment while reducing the burden on our facilities.
Eric Alper, MD | Senior Vice President, Chief Quality Officer, and Chief Clinical Informatics Officer
The Challenges of Chronic Cough
Chronic cough remains a persistent challenge for clinicians and patients, given the wide range of potential causes and confusion regarding symptoms, according to experts.
Nicholas Smyrnios Named Chief Quality Officer of UMass Memorial Medical Center/Medical Group
Nicholas Smyrnios, MD, professor of medicine in the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care Medicine, has been named Chief Quality Officer (CQO) of UMass Memorial Medical Center and Medical Group.
UMass Memorial chooses site in Groton for planned emergency care facility
UMass Memorial Health has chosen a site for the emergency care facility it says it will build to replace the emergency department at Nashoba Valley Medical Center, shuttered when the hospital closed last August.

'We had to:' UMass Memorial Health President and CEO says changes to healthcare were a 'must' to fight off COVID pandemic
COVID-19 brought on a lot of new challenges for people both in and out of healthcare. Things like mask wearing and social distancing became the norm. But surprising enough, the virus resulted in some positive changes. Changes to healthcare some never even imagined.
Now we use video interpreters all the time. But we also now became much more comfortable delivering care through video. So now, we can have a paramedic go into the home through our mobile integrated health program, do labs, do a physical exam on the patient, put an iv in, deliver fluid, deliver medication.
Dr. Eric Dickson | President and CEO, UMass Memorial Health
Managing Mental Illness in Pregnancy and Postpartum: What to Know
For women with, or at a risk for, depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, or other psychiatric conditions, managing mental health during pregnancy and postpartum presents unique challenges.
We have very clear data that tells us that if a pregnant or postpartum individual doesn’t get the treatment that they need, if they’re experiencing a mood or anxiety disorder, that can have a negative impact on themselves and on their babies.
Nancy Byatt, DO | Perinatal psychiatrist with the Women’s Mental Health at UMass Memorial Medical Center

UMass ALS Cellucci Fund Boston Marathon Team racing for a cure
John Kelly is no stranger to endurance events. The 53-year-old Worcester resident said he’s run “probably 20” marathons, most as part of multisport Ironman triathlons.

Four concrete ways Massachusetts can lower health care costs
Massachusetts’ skyrocketing health care costs are an urgent problem for every resident. Every one of us will need medical care. And every one of us will pay for medical care, through doctors’ bills, health insurance, or taxes that fund Medicare and Medicaid.
Physician assistants say they could help the primary care crisis. Will Mass. lawmakers agree?
The Massachusetts Association of PAs wants state legislators to make permanent COVID-era accommodations that eliminate the legal requirement for physician assistants to register a specific supervising physician with the state.
There’s more camaraderie between physicians and PAs, and less of that historical hierarchy. More and more, physicians are recognizing our value as partners in care and that has been incredibly validating.
Thea Nolan, Physician Assistant, Interventional Radiology
New Tablet-Based Tool Enhances Cognitive Screening in Primary Care
Primary care settings are witnessing a significant advancement in cognitive health screening with the introduction of Linus Health’s Core Cognitive Evaluation (CCE).

Hospital at Home program assists new mothers, patients in need
Imagine recovering from a medical condition in the comfort of your own bed—no noisy beeping, no buzzing machines, no hospital roommates, and no midnight interruptions.
It is not uncommon for our medical centers to have up to 70 patients boarding in our ER department waiting for a bed. It’s not an experience we want for our loved ones or ourselves.
Constantinos Michaelidis | Medical Director of the Hospital at Home program

UMass digital hub provides peek into future of remote patient management
When the University of Massachusetts Memorial Health in Worcester opened its digital hub last fall, it provided a glimpse of what the future of remote care management could look like.
When we think about a digital hub, it’s a setting that locates clinical caregivers and digital medicine capabilities to provide better care for patients, whether they’re in the inpatient setting, the ambulatory setting, or at home. We’ve been trying to use digital strategies to help drive some of the more important system-level strategies that we have.
Eric Alper | M.D., Chief Quality Officer and Chief Informatics Officer