Each year throughout our regional healthcare system there is a highly coordinated effort to identify new areas of need, innovate new ways to deliver quality care and procure the resources needed to assure our community has access to the most advanced and conveniently located healthcare. Here are a few examples of exciting new initiatives that have made a difference in the lives of patients this year.
Urgent Care Where You Are
In FY 2017, Milford Regional partnered with Tri-County Medical Associates (now Milford Regional Physician Group) to open three urgent care centers in Hopkinton, Northbridge and Milford. Strategically positioned throughout our service area, patients are now able to receive same-day treatment for non-emergent illness or injury without an appointment. A team of highly qualified physicians and advanced practitioners are available at the three urgent care sites to see patients seven days a week. In addition, Milford Regional laboratory and radiology services are also available at each urgent care center for necessary lab tests and X-rays. This initiative has been designed to make care more accessible where and when our patients need it.
Pictured: Dr. Thomas Evans greets a patient at Milford Regional Urgent Care in Milford.
Blood Donation Center Opens
Milford Regional and the American Red Cross celebrated the opening of a new Blood Donation Center at the hospital in 2017. Situated off the new Imaging Center’s waiting room (the previous emergency department location), the dedicated Blood Donation Center allows Milford Regional to run regularly scheduled blood drives to address the need for all blood types in our community.
Pictured (left to right): Milford Regional’s Judy Barron, Admin. Lab Director; Peggy Novick, VP, Clinical & Support Services; Camille Williams, Blood Bank Manager; Kamala Murali, MD, Chief of Pathology; Edward Kelly, President & CEO along with American Red Cross officials Nancy Sullivan, Senior Account Manager; Ana Parrelli, District Manager of Donor Recruitment and Kaity Lawler, Account Executive.
An Additional Layer of Critical Care Support
Known for combining the best of human expertise and technology, Milford Regional partnered with UMass Memorial Medical Center this year to implement an eICU Program to provide an additional layer of support to critically ill and injured patients at Milford Regional. Milford Regional has six intensivists who provide ICU coverage from 7AM to 7PM every day of the year. Now, at the end of that 12-hour shift, Milford Regional intensivists update the UMass Memorial eICU team on every patient and their approved plan of care. If an emergency arises between 7PM and 7AM, the UMass Memorial eICU team can view the patient in real-time via a video camera that exists in the patient’s room. The eICU team can operate the camera remotely, not only to observe the patient, but also to zoom in on monitors and other equipment, listen to the patient via audio and review lab reports. The eICU system functions similarly to Facetime, not only allowing the intensivists to monitor the patient, but also providing a video link so that Milford Regional ICU nurses can see and discuss treatment with the doctors via video. Staff has reported that the eICU implementation has been very successful building a seamless continuum of care between Milford Regional and UMass Memorial.
Breakthrough Technology in Prostate Cancer
In 2017, Milford Regional was the first in the region to offer two, new breakthrough technologies for detecting prostate cancers that may have been previously missed using standard ultrasound-guided biopsies. This targeted, leading-edge approach to the detection and management of prostate cancer uses multiparametric MRI and 3D MRI/Ultrasound Fusion Biopsy. Historically, finding the exact location of cancer in a prostate gland has been a challenge. Conventional prostate biopsy techniques are referred to as “blind” biopsies, since physicians typically cannot easily view the specific location of any abnormal tissue. Now, using the revolutionary Artemis 3D imaging and navigation system, Milford Regional physicians are able to better identify and more accurately biopsy suspicious prostate cancer areas.
Pictured: Urologist Jeffrey Steinberg, MD, performs a prostate biopsy with new, leading edge technology that can detect cancer which may have been previously missed using standard biopsy methods.
Milford Regional 2017 Report to the Community 