VAHHS Update
Vermont's Relapse: Efforts to Address Opiod Addiction Were Starting to Work. Then Potent New Street Drugs Arrived.
Amanda Bean's longtime opioid addiction took a turn last summer. The drugs she bought on the street were noticeably stronger but wore off faster — so she shot up more often each day.
Promising Jobs: Paths to nursing can be direct or winding
Our series highlights how people join what a Vermont Department of Labor survey found are the four most in-demand professions that pay a higher-than-average wage.
Esketamine, offered at Retreat, expands options for treatment-resistant depression
Recently, Dr. Lance Thigpen administered esketamine treatment to a man who said he had experienced near-constant suicidal thoughts for 30 years.
New American Medical Association president says "we have a health care system in crisis"
Dr. Jesse Ehrenfeld — an anesthesiologist, Navy veteran and father — made history this week when he was inaugurated as the new president of the American Medical Association, becoming the first openly gay leader of the nation's largest group of physicians and medical students.
UVM Health Network proposes $18 million program to address mental health crisis in Vermont
The University of Vermont Health Network wants to build a mental health urgent care clinic to take some of the heat off of its emergency departments, which often act as de facto shelters for patients suffering mental health crises.
Green Mountain Care Board seeks input from health care providers during listening tour
A dozen health care providers gathered at a roundtable Wednesday to tackle some of their biggest challenges, including rising costs and ongoing labor shortages.
How Vermont providers are working to remove barriers for their LGBTQ+ patients
Around the country, at least 17 states have banned or limited gender-affirming care. In Vermont, the health care for transgender adults and children is protected.
Red Cross: Blood supply facing stress, donors needed
A concerning shortfall in blood donations last month could stress the American Red Cross blood supply. The Red Cross collected over 26,000 fewer blood donations than needed in May to meet the needs of patients.
Nearly 100 mental health patients use new Retreat transportation program
As of the start of June, 96 people had used a pilot transportation program launched in March that brings mental health patients from emergency rooms in Vermont and New Hampshire to inpatient treatment at the Brattleboro Retreat.
Hospitals are carbon bombs. Some are trying to change
The University of California San Diego is switching its anesthesia delivery system from leaky pipes to tanks and canisters.
UVM Health Network releases plan for $18M in mental health upgrades
After years of back and forth with Vermont health care regulators, The University of Vermont Health Network now says it has a plan to spend $18 million earmarked for mental health care.
Message From the CEO
My daughter, Jillian, will graduate from high school in a week. We’ll be “sort-of” empty nesters then. She’ll head to Quinnipiac in the fall with the ultimate goal of being a dentist.
Diversity in rural hospitals: Going beyond matching the community
Rural hospital executives acknowledge that it’s difficult to attract clinicians and other critical workers who may prefer to live in more urban settings.
It also becomes more challenging to bring workers from minority communities to areas where most of the residents are white.
New laws make changes at the intersection of criminal justice and health care
Two of the seven bills that Gov. Phil Scott signed into law Tuesday set out specific law enforcement roles in supporting emergency and mental health care providers. Two others create changes in the treatment of criminal defendants with severe mental illness or deficits and where they will be treated.
State regulators stand their ground on hospital budgets
Regulators voted Wednesday not to change their expectations for the revenue side of the states’ hospital budgets for fiscal year 2024, despite sustained and ongoing cost increases that led to big reported operating losses in 2022.
Rural hospitals struggle with staffing shortage, and not just doctors
While hardly any hospitals are having an easy time these days, rural health systems are facing profound difficulties.
HCRS opens facility for youth stabilization program
Formerly home to Brattleboro Pharmacy, a Canal Street building is now hosting a youth stabilization program for those between the ages of 12 and 18 to help support clinical, peer and case management supports as an alternative to hospitalization and a diversion from the emergency room.
Vermont Medicaid expected to start paying dentists more
Every week, hygienist Joanne Puente sees patients at the People’s Health & Wellness Clinic in Barre who have not seen a dentist in years and come to her with severe tooth decay.
Stop the Bleed program celebrates 5 years
The University of Vermont Medical Center is celebrating five years of teaching Stop the Bleed.
New mental health treatment facility opens, and others are in early stages
Several Vermonters with complex mental health needs were transferred to a new locked residential facility in Essex last week, officials from the state Department of Mental Health told legislators.