This is such an exciting week for our state. As I reflect on the year to come, it’s overwhelming just how much things will change right out of the starting gate in 2023. In just a few days, the legislature will convene and swear in dozens of new lawmakers—the most turnover in our history—and welcome back those who were reelected. Our governor will be sworn in for a fourth term and we’ll also swear in a new lieutenant governor, state treasurer, attorney general and secretary of state. We’ll receive the governor’s Inaugural Address where he will outline his vision for Vermont in the year to come and we’ll hear speeches from senate and house leadership setting their priorities. And that’s just here at home.
In Washington, D.C., U.S. Representative-elect Becca Balint will be sworn in as the first woman and the first openly gay person to represent Vermont in Congress. It took us far too long to get here, but I am happy that it’s finally happening. As state senator, Becca was accessible and knowledgeable on our issues, and we look forward to continuing to work with her. Senator-elect Peter Welch will be sworn in as our new junior senator. In Congress, Peter fought for our nurses and was an integral partner throughout the pandemic. We are so fortunate to have a congressional delegation that understands the challenges we face in health care and works diligently to support hospitals.
That’s a lot of change and a lot of opportunity for Vermont.
Once the session begins, the pace really picks up. Stress levels elevate and the stakes get higher. None of us has all the answers when it comes to making health care better, but all of us have something to offer that will make a difference in the lives of Vermonters. So, let’s be kind and collaborative and keep the needs of Vermonters front and center. If we do that, we’ll make progress for sure.
On behalf of all hospitals, I just want to take a moment to say thank you to all of our elected officials and public servants for their service. We know the work is hard and can feel thankless at times, but this work matters to every single Vermonter. We are grateful you stepped up and we look forward to being a partner as we work to realize our shared goal of a health care system that is stronger and more affordable.
Happy New Year!
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Creative ways hospital HR leaders plan to attract talent in 2023 |
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Beckers Hospital Review
Northwestern Medical Center is launching a new training program aimed at supporting people through the process of becoming a licensed nursing assistant and strengthening our pipeline of nursing staff. The program will consist of a 10-week class taught by an NMC instructor. NMC will pay students for the training hours and also offer additional work hours to trainees at NMC as a patient sitter. Classes start in January and at the program’s completion, the trainees will be offered full-time LNA positions at NMC.
NMC also provides a bridge program in partnership with Vermont state colleges to make it easy and affordable for LNAs to earn their LPN and further connect them with scholarship funds to support the development of new nurses.
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2022 was the worst for many US hospitals. The aftershocks will last for years. |
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VOX
Terry Scoggin, CEO of Titus Regional Medical Center in Mount Pleasant, Texas, saw his first Covid-19 surge in May 2020, when an outbreak at a meat processing plant filled almost all of his small hospital’s ICU beds.
But the worst of the pandemic didn’t come until 2022. By January, the hospital, the last independent rural hospital in northeast Texas, had lived through four separate surges in 18 months. They had reopened their building’s third floor, closed eight years ago, and relied on traveling nurses to staff their beds. Then, at the end of 2021, the government funding that had paid for that extra help ran out.
For the first two months of 2022, as patients lined the building’s hallways and his staff struggled to find anywhere else to send them, Scoggin said his hospital experienced its most traumatic trial yet.
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Opioid overdose deaths among Vermonters remain on upward trajectory |
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VTDigger
The latest state data shows that from January to September, 168 Vermonters fatally overdosed — nine more than in the first nine months of last year. If the numbers stay on that upward trajectory, Vermont could surpass the record it set for resident opioid deaths in 2021.
The details show the continued pervasiveness of fentanyl. The synthetic opioid, which has fueled fatal overdoses among Vermonters since 2016, was involved in 93% of deaths so far this year.
Authorities say the drug, which is a hundred times stronger than morphine, is not only potent but relatively inexpensive to produce and widely available. Those factors have led illicit drug manufacturers to mix fentanyl with other substances, often without the knowledge of users.
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Mental health-related emergency room visits on the rise among children, study finds |
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WCAX
Emergency rooms in children’s hospitals are seeing more visits and revisits related to mental health, according to a new study.
The study published Tuesday in the journal JAMA Pediatrics found that, starting in 2015, mental health visits in pediatric emergency departments increased 8% every year for five years.
About 13% of those patients revisited the hospital within six months.
Researchers say the number of mental health visits that led to a revisit remained stable among patients of all ages, but pediatric mental health revisits increased 6.3% annually.
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It's not too late to get a COVID booster -especially for older adults |
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Vermont Public
The U.S. has come a long way from two years ago when COVID-19 vaccines first became available and people were cutting the line to get their shots.
Now, many have shrugged off the need to get updated boosters. Only 15% of people eligible for the COVID booster shot that targets the omicron variant have gotten it — a rate that is even lower than the perennially disappointing rates for flu vaccine uptake. Vaccine fatigue seems to have spread to other shots, too — including those to prevent measles and polio — according to a recent poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
"That is very concerning," says Claire Hannan, who helps immunization officials from all 50 states run vaccination programs as the executive director of the Association of Immunization Managers.
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A Christmas miracle': Brattleboro Memorial staff rescue owl stuck in car grill |
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VTDigger
The night before Christmas, half a dozen Brattleboro Memorial Hospital staff members crowded around a car parked in the hospital’s ambulance bay, racking their brains on how to release a barred owl stuck in the grill of their coworker’s car.
Todd Perry, a critical care floating nurse at the Brattleboro hospital and critical care paramedic for Rescue Inc. ambulance service, said he was driving to the hospital for the night shift on Dec. 24 when he saw an owl “swoop” in front of his car and he heard a loud thump.
Assuming the owl had died, he continued driving to work. But when he parked his car and locked it, he noticed the owl’s wing move.
“I called into the emergency department — and I have some friends in there — and said I have a critter I have to see what we can do something about,” Perry told VTDigger.
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