Devon Green, VP of Government Relations
It was a relief to witness a relatively smooth opening to the legislative session here in Vermont. As with anything, there were one or two bumps in the road, including a discussion about how mental health should not be differentiated from health. As legislators came together to address the issue, I appreciated Rep. Brian Cina’s words:
"For the new members, this happens sometimes. Part of the beauty of the process is that it’s deliberative and there are many ways that we can correct things as they go along. We’re humans. None of us are perfect. We all are flawed. We all make mistakes."
I love this about the legislative process in Vermont. It is never going to be perfect because it consists of inherently flawed humans. Despite this, we come back year after year in a collective effort to move our communities and our state forward.
This year, VAHHS is putting forward initiatives to keep health care providers safe, strengthen mental health and long term care, and preserve regulatory flexibilities so our hospitals can better serve their communities. Health care everywhere is at a breaking point, and addressing these areas can help stabilize the system so we can better provide care to all Vermonters. VAHHS looks forward to engaging with community members, policy makers, and providers throughout this imperfect effort towards progress we call the legislative session.
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The Vermont legislative session begins today. Here's what we're watching |
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Vermont Public
Today marks the beginning of the 2023 legislative session, and over the next five months or so, elected officials in Montpelier will decide how to spend about $8 billion in taxpayer money.
Their choices could affect access to child care, the availability of affordable housing, and other economic and social issues that touch households and businesses across the state.
With 51 newly elected members entering the House of Representatives and 11 first-year senators, House Speaker Jill Krowinski says it’ll take the new Legislature some time to find its bearings.
“I do think that we will have and we should have a slower pace in the beginning to make sure that everyone is understanding their role, getting all of the background work, doing all of our 101 and 201 trainings to really get a sense of their committees, of their jurisdictions, and what that means,” Krowinski told Vermont Public.
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Legislative health committees plan to look back to move forward |
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VTDigger
With the Covid-19 crisis perhaps finally in Vermont’s rearview mirror, the state’s health-focused legislative committees plan to gather information this winter and spring, before the pandemic’s lessons for the still struggling health system recede too far down the road.
Legislators established new initiatives at a rapid pace during the last biennium in trying to meet evolving pandemic needs. Now it’s time to look back at how well those policies were carried out and think about their future, according to Rep. Lori Houghton, D-Essex Junction, the returning ranking member of the House Health Care Committee, and Sen. Ginny Lyons, D-Chittenden, who is likely to return as chair of the Senate Health and Welfare Committee.
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With eyes and ears open, Sunny Eappen takes the helm at UVM Health Network |
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VTDigger
Dr. Sunil “Sunny” Eappen spent his first weeks on the job as the UVM Health Network’s new leader criss-crossing Lake Champlain from Vermont to New York and back, touring all six hospitals under the network’s umbrella. He expects to make the trip frequently, having made a commitment to visit each hospital on “a very, very regular basis,” Eappen told VTDigger last month.
The visits will not be as hands-on as what he did during his 14 years as a hospital administrator in Boston. An obstetric anesthesiologist, Eappen scheduled himself each month for one work day and one day on call in the busy maternity center at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. But the purpose is the same: to get a direct and immediate sense of what a regular day is like for staff and patients.
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UVM Medical Center to end COVID screening at hospital entrance |
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WCAX
The UVM Medical Center will soon stop screening people for COVID at the entrance to the hospital.
Screeners have worked at the hospital entrance since the beginning of the pandemic. Now, those temporary staff positions will be eliminated on Jan. 23.
Masking will still be required throughout the hospital for everyone over the age of 2.
The Vermont Association of Hospitals and Health Systems says people should expect changing policies as the pandemic moves toward a more endemic phase.
“The screening process might be different, the screening process might be at the time of registration, those questions might come at that time as opposed to when they walk through the door. I think they’ll also see masking will continue to be required in the medical setting, so please bring a mask if you have one,” said Michael Del Treco, the president of the Vermont Association of Hospitals and Health Systems.
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Area hospitals still require masks, most ditching health screeners at entrances |
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NBC5
Some area hospitals in Vermont and New York will no longer have employees screening visitors before entering for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic started.
Across the country, medical institutions have been requiring patients, visitors and staff to wear masks ever since COVID became prevalent back in 2020.
Some hospitals used to take people’s temperatures and ask questions to find out if visitors exhibited COVID-19-like symptoms, even as the rest of the world started relaxing precautions.
“We do a different kind of work here, and we have a responsibility to keep patients and families safe, as well as make sure that we have a staff that is here to provide safe medical care,” said Dr. Todd Gregory, the chief medical officer at Rutland Regional Medical Center.
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Vermont’s walk-in Covid vaccination clinics to close by end of month |
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VTDigger
The state Department of Health plans to end walk-in Covid and flu vaccine clinics by Jan. 31.
The clinics have given out between 500,000 and 1 million Covid vaccine doses over the course of the pandemic, through multiple rounds of campaigns for different age groups and boosters, according to health department data.
But in an announcement on the health department website last month, officials said there hasn’t been enough attendance in recent months to keep clinics going during the most recent iteration of the vaccine, the bivalent booster dose, which targets the Omicron variant.
“Demand is starting to peter off. We gave out about 20,000 doses of vaccine in the month of December, which is real, real low,” said Monica Ogelby, immunization program chief for the health department.
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Health Watch: Avoiding injuries on ice and snow |
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WCAX
More seasonable temperatures are on their way, but that can mean icing and slippery conditions, which can lead to serious falls.
Kevin Gaiss spoke with Troy Stratton, a physical therapist, at Gifford Medical Center about avoiding injury on the ice and when shoveling.
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vt. health officials release previously unidentified COVID deaths |
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WCAX
Vermont health officials Friday said a new analysis of data has resulted in the reporting of 86 additional COVID-associated deaths not previously reported.
The Vermont Department of Health says most of the deaths occurred in 2022 and bring the total pandemic death toll to 877 as of January 6.
Officials say deaths are reported by the state’s medical examiner and must be manually entered. They say an analyst late last year found several reports that had not been entered. They say a combination of reduction in staffing and human error resulted in the reporting discrepancy.
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AHA Rural Health Services Committee names 2023 leaders |
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AHA
Joseph Perras, M.D., president and CEO of Mt. Ascutney Hospital and Health Center, Dartmouth Health (Vermont), will serve as 2023 chair of the AHA Rural Health Services Committee. Sean Fadale, president and CEO of Nathan Littauer Hospital and Nursing Home (New York), is chair-elect. Philip Pandolph, president and CEO, Meadville Medical Center (Pennsylvania), has transitioned to past-chair. Christina Freese Decker, president and CEO of Corewell Health (Michigan), will serve as liaison to the AHA Board of Trustees.
New committee members for 2023 include: Mary N. Mannix, president and CEO of Augusta Health (Virginia); Zachary Miller, CEO of Community Hospital, Banner Health (Wyoming);
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Brattleboro Retreat | Dr. Karl Jeffries: The power of hope |
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Many people use the changing of one calendar year to the next as an opportunity to reflect on the year we leave behind, as well as to contemplate what the coming 12 months have in store.
The New Year occurs very soon after the Winter Solstice, so those of us in the northern hemisphere get to look forward to progressively longer days, while anticipating warmer temperatures on the horizon. This period of brighter-days-ahead is a fitting setting for us to start anew, with a clean slate, full of potential, while putting any challenges of the recent past behind us. Various cultures around the world navigate this with their own unique flavor, with a broad array of different traditions that they engage as they welcome a new year. Some examples include wearing white, carrying empty suitcases with beans in your pocket, setting off fireworks, and, of course, watching a ball drop.
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As an emergency doctor and the director of a small Vermont emergency department, I am glad to see some of Vermont’s health policy thinkers embracing investment in outpatient services like primary care, mental health, home health, and in the social determinants of health.
The hallways of emergency departments nationwide, including here in Vermont, are a vivid, gut-punch tutorial in the social determinants of health and the paucity of outpatient care. These investments are desperately needed, as are major investments in nursing home care.
Worth questioning, though, is the notion that any of these investments can be made simply by reallocating money from emergency and hospital care, which is often characterized as “avoidable” and “low-value.” Although there is data to suggest the magnitude of the so-called avoidable care problem, supposedly on the order of 30% of emergency and inpatient stays, this data is startlingly divorced from the following realities on the ground:
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