The three-year designation is the longest accreditation offered by CARF

[Worcester, MA, February 28, 2022] – UMass Memorial Health – Community Healthlink has received accreditation from the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF). The three-year accreditation is the longest offered by CARF and signifies that CHL meets CARF standards for services and business practices.

This is CHL’s second consecutive three-year accreditation.

Two years of wearing masks, avoiding crowds, and trying not to catch COVID-19 had a welcome, if unplanned, byproduct: many people caught fewer colds and stomach bugs. But that could soon change. At the end of the month, Massachusetts will no longer require masks in schools and has dropped its recommendation that healthy vaccinated people wear masks indoors. Doctors say that means we should brace ourselves for the return of common infections many people have blissfully dodged for the past two years.

To have a drug like that on hand would be a “game-changer,” said Lawrence Rhein, MD, MPH, chair of the Department of Pediatrics at UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester and a specialist in pediatric pulmonology.

A phase 1 clinical trial for the Moderna vaccine recently kicked off, said Dr. Katherine Luzuriaga, the study's principal investigator and chair of biomedical research for UMass Memorial Health Care in Worcester, Mass.

Above all, Dr. Shlomit Schaal considers her greatest strength to be her fierce curiosity; she finds beauty in grappling with scientific questions, learning the stories of her patients and approaching the mentorship of her students always with curiosity.

Mothers inspire daughters in untold ways, including choice of profession. However, that dynamic takes on special meaning when the profession is nursing during a pandemic – and when the mother and daughter work at the same organization.

Such is the case with Jonna Dube, MBA, BSN, RN and her daughter Alex Dube, BSN, RN.

The early days of the COVID-19 pandemic could very well have spelled the end of the nonprofit human services agency that I run. Thrive has some of the largest residential programs in the state. We needed PPE, testing and medical care for the individuals with developmental disabilities that we serve and our employees. Our community hospital, UMass Memorial Health-Marlborough Hospital, stepped up in unexpected ways.

MARLBOROUGH, MA — Thrive Support & Advocacy, a nonprofit empowering youth and adults with developmental disabilities, today announced that this year's Standing Ovation Award has been presented to UMass Memorial's Marlborough Hospital, a longtime community partner.

The Standing Ovation Awards are a celebratory initiative created to recognize outstanding and supportive stakeholders. Marlborough Hospital is being recognized for working collaboratively with the Thrive community since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hospitals throughout Massachusetts may receive additional federal funding over the next five years, thanks to a proposed change to how the state collects fees from hospitals.

The new measure, included in Governor Charlie Baker’s 2023 budget, allows the state to assess hospitals at higher rates to earn more matching funds from the federal government.