Page 55 - Healthcare News July/August 2022

Baystate Wing Hospital, Quaboag Connector Partner on Transportation
PALMER — Baystate Wing Hospital and Quaboag Valley Community Devel- opment Corp. (QVCDC) announced the funding of a new Quaboag Connector van dedicated to providing transporta- tion to convenient-care and primary-care services for residents living in the towns currently served by the Quaboag Connec- tor. The curb-to-curb service will provide non-emergency medical transportation, allowing patients to request rides to and from medical appointments at Baystate Wing Hospital facilities.
“We are proud to continue to partner with the QVCDC and transportation experts in our region to create solutions that address transportation barriers to healthcare for our community members served by Baystate Wing Hospital,” said Molly Gray, president and chief adminis- trative officer of Baystate Wing Hospital. “Transportation issues are not unique to our region, but our collaborative work to find solutions to help meet these needs has led to creative and successful local solutions.”
Transportation challenges affect both rural and urban communities. According to the American Hospital Assoc., each year, 3.6 million people in the U.S. do not obtain medical care due to transportation issues.
Since 2017, Baystate Wing Hospital and medical staff have invested $210,000 in the Quaboag Connector in response to regional needs for safe and reliable trans- portation services in the Quaboag Hills region. This service provides community members transportation to employment, education, healthcare, workforce training, shopping, and benefit services within and
From left: Jan Mayforth, chief financial officer, Baystate Wing Hospital; Molly Gray, president and chief administrative officer, Baystate Wing Hospital; Stuart Beckley, Ware town manager; and Melissa Fales, Quaboag Valley Community Development Corp.
outside the region. This newest addition to the connector fleet reflects Baystate Wing Hospital’s investment of $65,000 for the purchase of the Convenient Care van, and an additional $155,000 annu- ally to cover operational costs of the new van service, all with a focus on access to healthcare in the region.
Convenient Care, an extension of Bay-
state Primary Care in Palmer, is dedicated to meeting the same-day urgent-care needs of community members through a collaboration with primary-care, specialty- care, and ancillary providers.
The Quaboag Connector Convenient Care van will serve the communities of Ware and Warren; additionally, services will be made available to patients living in
the communities of the Quaboag region, which include Belchertown, Hardwick, Palmer, Monson, West Brookfield, Brook- field, and East Brookfield. The Quaboag Connector Convenient Care van will operate Monday through Saturday. All ride requests must to be made by calling (413) 544-3401. For more information, visit www.rideconnector.org.
Baystate, Roca Springfield Create Violence-intervention Program
SPRINGFIELD — Baystate Medical Center and Roca Springfield are launch- ing a first-in-the-region hospital-based violence-intervention program called Better Tomorrow to serve as a vital public-health response to violence in local communities.
Funded with a $1 million U.S. Depart- ment of Justice grant through the Byrne Criminal Justice Innovation Program, the joint effort will combine medical staff and community-based service providers to in- tervene with victims of violence in hospital settings, connect them with community services, and reduce further victimization and violent behaviors.
“Our mission is to decrease violence related to firearms and other forms of intentional injury in our community by increasing access to violence-prevention
initiatives,” said Dr. Kristina Kramer, a trauma and acute-care surgeon at Baystate Medical Center who is serving as medi- cal director of Better Tomorrow. “Our collaboration with Roca will enable us to work toward a common goal of reducing preventable injuries and death resulting from firearm violence.”
For the past 11 years, Roca Springfield has been supporting young men and women in Greater Springfield with its internationally recognized violence-inter- vention effort directed at those most likely to be involved with community violence.
“Roca transforms communities plagued by violence in two ways,” said Chris Judd, vice president of Roca Springfield and Holyoke. “First, we work long-term with young people to teach life-saving emo- tional skills to overcome their hurt and
anger and see a future where they’re not in a casket or serving a life sentence by age 20. And second, we work with institutions to change how they think about helping young people who are traumatized. It takes relentlessness, seeing hope when all hope seems lost, and never giving up.”
Hospital-based violence intervention programs are multi-disciplinary teams designed to identify patients who are at risk of repeat violent injury and connect them with hospital- and community- based resources to help address underly- ing risk factors for violence. Research shows that these programs reduce repeat victimization and criminal-justice involve- ment while also decreasing healthcare and other costs associated with violence. They improve quality of life for patients by ad- dressing disparities in access to healthcare,
transportation, case management, and a range of other social determinants of health.
Kramer noted that trauma centers play an important role in reducing the impact of injury by participating in prevention efforts. These efforts are based on identify- ing specific injuries and risk factors in patients, families, and the community.
“Baystate is the only level-1 trauma center in Western Massachusetts with an obligation to aid injury-prevention efforts in our community,” she said. “Better To- morrow is an example of a program that will serve people who are at increased/ higher risk for intentional injury and interpersonal violence.”
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