Category: General News
Our Safe Care Commitment
UPDATE: As of May 2023, the Safe Care Commitment is no longer in place at Nantucket Cottage Hospital.
Mass General Brigham is here to deliver the care you deserve. Our Safe Care Commitment is in effect across our system, including at Nantucket Cottage Hospital. We strive to provide the safest possible environment for our patients, visitors and staff.
We screen to protect you, your families, and our staff
- We screen all employees daily for symptoms. Anyone with symptoms consistent with COVID-19 or other infectious illness is not permitted to work until they are evaluated.
- We screen visitors and encourage the use of our pre-screen tool to our facilities for symptoms consistent with COVID-19.
- We test and screen patients for COVID-19.
- Admitted patients to our hospitals are tested for COVID-19 before admission. Patients are tested again over of the course of their admission.
- Admitted patients are screened daily for symptoms.
- Patients visiting our facilities are screened for symptoms.
- When providing care in the home, we screen patients for symptoms before the visit.
We clean our hands and spaces and make it easy for you to do the same
- We have hand sanitizer stations throughout our facilities so patients, visitors, and staff can clean their hands easily and frequently.
- We follow CDC recommendations for cleaning of our facilities.
We protect everyone in our environment
- We require everyone — employees, patients, and visitors — at our facilities to wear a facility-issued facemask.
- We wear masks when providing care in the home.
- All Mass General Brigham employees are required to be vaccinated for COVID-19 and influenza.
COVID-19 Update from the Swim Across America Infusion Center at NCH
Ugne Aleknaite and Gretchen Buchmann from the Swim Across America Nantucket Infusion Center at NCH provide an update on how their department has continued to provide care and services to some of our most vulnerable patients during the coronavirus pandemic.
NCH President & CEO Gary Shaw on “Nantucket Pulse” Program
Nantucket Cottage Hospital President & CEO Gary Shaw appears on the latest edition of Nantucket Community Television‘s “Nantucket Pulse” program.
Understanding Links Between COVID-19 and Obesity
Key Takeaways
- Obesity is a disease that affects the body in multiple ways
- Patients that are hospitalized for COVID-19 are more likely to need ICU care if they also have obesity
- Mitigate the risk by limiting exposure to other people who may have coronavirus
Obesity is not a risk factor for becoming infected with COVID-19 that we are aware of today. However, new data suggests that patients who have obesity are more likely to require intensive care for COVID-19.
“Once you have the virus, we’re seeing patients with obesity need more ICU care,” says Angela Fitch, MD, FACP, FOMA, associate director of the Massachusetts General Hospital Weight Center.
“While obesity has not always been considered a disease in the U.S., it is, and we are seeing it as a common comorbidity among COVID-19 patients with the severe form,” says Matthew Hutter, MD, director of the Weight Center and president of the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery (ASMBS).
Dr. Fitch and Dr. Hutter share four specific risk factors that link obesity with severe COVID-19 and how to mitigate risks.
6 Tips for Keeping Relationships (Romantic or Platonic) On Track in Close Quarters
As couples, roommates and family members continue to be confined under the same roof, many people are facing new challenges in relationships. Being cooped up, and under higher levels of stress, can amplify underlying problems in many relationships.
Married couple Jacqueline Olds, MD, consulting psychiatrist in the Massachusetts General Hospital Department of Psychiatry and associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School (HMS), and Richard Schwartz, MD, senior consultant in residency training at McLean Hospital and also an associate professor of psychiatry at HMS, provide tips to keep relationships on track while quarantined.