May 26, 2006

Making a difference at the MGH

Among the many MGH employees who continually are finding new and creative ways of improving the comfort and care provided to patients at the hospital every day are the recipients of the 2006 Making a Difference grants. The Making a Difference grant program — which is sponsored by the MGH and the Massachusetts General Physicians Organization — offers up to $5,000 in support of employee initiatives to improve the quality of care at the hospital for patients, their families and employees. The teams of Heather E. Peach, MS, CCLS, and Suzanne A. Rose, RN, BSN, both of the MassGeneral Hospital for Children's Pediatric Hematology-Oncology Unit; Susan Stengrevics, RN, MSN, and Aileen Tubridy, RN, MSN, both of Ellison 10; and Peggy Carolan-Bolognese and Claire Conlan, both of the MGH Charlestown HealthCare Center, are three of this year's 21 grant recipients.

After working with teenagers diagnosed with cancer and witnessing the unique challenges the disease can pose to those already undergoing the normal trials of adolescence, Peach and Rose started a teen oncology support group with the help of the grant. The group meets monthly, alternating between community and self-esteem-building sessions at the hospital and social outings — including a recent trip to see a performance of the Blue Man Group. Teenagers receiving treatment in both the Pediatric Hematology-Oncology Unit and the Francis H. Burr Proton Therapy Center participate.

"Getting back into the norm of things after being in the hospital for half a year has been difficult for me, especially socially," says one group participant. "It really helped to have a group of teens who understand what I've been through."

Stengrevics' and Tubridy's project stemmed from their experiences working with patients with heart failure, who often face high mortality rates and multiple hospital readmissions. With the belief that actively involving patients in their own care would help prevent such problems, the two worked with clinicians and staff from other disciplines — including Nursing, Physical Therapy, Social Services, Case Management and Nutrition and Food Services — to create special notebooks as a disease management tool. Each notebook is tailored to the needs of the individual patient and contains a provider contact list, diet instructions, an exercise plan, questions for health care providers and a section for journaling. Patients are encouraged to bring the notebooks to all of their doctor's appointments, allowing physicians to more closely monitor the patient's progress and making the road to recovery truly a team effort.

While the internet has made it easy and convenient for many people to find health information, Conlan (seen at far left with Carolan-Bolognese, center, and McAdams) observed that the patients of MGH Charlestown sometimes struggle with this technology. "Health information is just a click away, but it still can be a complex proposition to navigate and gain access to good health information on the web," she says. With the help of the grant, MGH Charlestown staff developed a health learning center — the Roger H. Sweet Patient and Family Learning Center — which offers English and Spanish language books, videos and pamphlets and internet-accessible computer workstations. Eileen McAdams, FNP, serves as the director of the new learning center, which will be formally dedicated June 10.

All MGHers are invited to the 2006 Making a Difference grant program reception June 6, from 3 to 4:30 pm in the Trustees Room. Applications for the 2007 grants will be available at the reception. For more information, contact Melanie Cassamas at (617) 726-1816 or mcassamas@partners.org.