Colleen Quinn, State House News Service, January 25, 2012



Boston - Nurses from around the state, joined by a slew of legislators, urged passage of a nurse staffing law, saying they have battled too long for a bill they say would save patients’ lives.



Nurses say they are overworked, understaffed. Christine Lee, WWLP, January 25, 2012 Boston - Nurses and hospitals are battling over legislation on Beacon Hill. Nurses say that they are understaffed and overworked. They're supporting legislation that creates a procedure for set patient-to-nurse ratios, which would be established to preserve the health and safety of patients and nurses alike. But hospitals are fighting back, saying that providers shouldn't be restricted to "one-size-fits-all ratios or limits" on patient to nurse care. They are encouraging collaboration between hospitals, physicians and nurses to develop best practices that reward quality of care ... Fight

Kyle Cheney, State House News Service, January 25, 2012

Taunton - A state senator from Taunton vowed Tuesday to fight the Patrick administration's move to close Taunton Hospital, a 169-bed mental health facility, by the end of the year and transfer its patients to other facilities.

Kyle Cheney, State House News Service, January 25, 2012

Taunton - Taunton Hospital, a 169-bed state mental health facility, will be shuttered by the end of the year and its patients transferred to facilities in Worcester and Tewksbury, the Patrick administration announced Tuesday, describing the decision as an effort to cut costs in the mental health system and maintain the state's 626 beds.

John J. Monahan, Worcester Telegram & Gazette, January 24, 2012 Boston - Taunton State Hospital will close by the end of the year and most of its 169 patients will be transferred to the new Worcester Recovery Center and Hospital, a Department of Mental Health official said today. The closure of the hospital, slated to be completed by December 31, will not result in any reductions in the overall number of inpatient beds or Taunton State Hospital's 410 employees, all of whom will be offered job opportunities at the new Worcester facility, the DMH said. Paulette Song, spokeswoman for DMH, confirmed this afternoon that Taunton State Hospital will close by December 31 ... Taunton

David Abel, Boston Globe, January 24, 2012 After more than 150 years of housing mentally ill patients, Taunton State Hospital will close its doors, and its remaining patients will be sent to other facilities by the end of the year, state officials said yesterday. The closing will help pay for a new hospital for the mentally ill in Worcester, which is scheduled to open this summer and may house some of the 169 patients still in Taunton, state mental health officials said. Other patients will move into their own apartments or the equivalent of group homes linked to an array of support services ... State

Associated Press, January 24, 2012

The Patrick administration is planning to close Taunton State Hospital, citing budget constraints and the opening of a new psychiatric facility in Worcester.

Department of Mental Health Commissioner Barbara Leadholm informed workers and other staffers at the psychiatric hospital today of the decision to shutter the 169-bed facility by year’s end.

Paulette Song, spokeswoman for the Executive Office of Health and Human Services, confirmed the decision. The administration said the hospital is antiquated compared to the state of the art Worcester Recovery Center and Hospital. Some of the patients will be transferred to Worcester.

Carey Goldberg, WBUR, January 24, 2012 The Department of Mental Health plans to close Taunton State Hospital, one of the six state-run psychiatric hospitals in Massachusetts, by the end of this year. The move is part of a plan to redistribute the placement of patients with chronic and severe mental illness as a large new state hospital opens in Worcester this summer. Department of Mental Health spokeswoman Anna Chinappi said that department staffers, including Commissioner Barbara Leadholm, were in Taunton today to announce the plans for closure to the hospital staff. ... Massachusetts

Frontline Caregivers Say State’s Mental Health System is Already in Shambles.
Shortage of Beds & Lack of Funding Jeopardize Patient Safety.
Proposed Closing Will Be Devastating for the State’s Most Vulnerable Residents. Massachusetts Nurses Association/National Nurses United, January 24, 2012 Taunton – The Massachusetts Department of Mental Health (DMH) informed members of the Massachusetts Nurses Association/National Nurses United (MNA/NNU) of their plan to close Taunton State Hospital, one of only six state operated mental health facilities in the state to care for people suffering from acute and chronic mental illness. ... State

Nurses and Patient Safety Advocates Will Testify in Support of the Measures that Will Save Thousands of Lives and Millions of Valuable Health Care Dollars. Massachusetts Nurses Association, January 23, 2012 The legislature’s Joint Committee on Health Care Finance will hold a public hearing on legislation that will improve the quality of patient care, save millions of health care dollars and prevent thousands of preventable infections and medical errors caused by poor RN staffing in the state’s acute care hospitals. The Patient Safety Act calls upon the Massachusetts Department of Public Health to set safe limits on the number of hospital patients a nurse is forced to care for at one time. ... Health

Massachusetts Nurses Association, January 19, 2012 The nurses of UMass Memorial Medical Center who  are represented by the MNA at the UMass University and UMass Memorial, Hahnemannn, Home Health and Hospice campuses cast an overwhelming vote tonight in favor of pursuing the formation of a single MNA local bargaining unit comprised of the 2,000 UMMMC  nurses.

Anika Clark, Fall River Standard-Times, January 19, 2012 Steward Health Care System has taken one step closer to expanding its footprint in New England medical care. The Rhode Island Department of Health, with the state's Office of the Attorney General, announced Wednesday that a hospital conversion application Steward submitted with Landmark Medical Center in Woonsocket has been determined to be complete. This follows an October determination that the application was incomplete and kicks off the state's formal review, according to a news release, which said this process must be finished within 180 days. ... Steward

Robert Weisman, Boston Globe, January 19, 2012 A new contract struck between Partners HealthCare System Inc. and Tufts Health Plan will help control health care costs in Massachusetts by limiting payment increases to Partners’ hospitals and doctors to the rate of inflation, both sides said yesterday. Partners, the state’s largest hospital and physicians organization, tore up the last two years of its existing contract with the health insurer, replacing the pact with a new four-year agreement that, while still giving Partners more money each year, will lower Tufts’ reimbursements ... Partners

Julie M. Donnelly, Boston Business Journal, January 18, 2012

Partners HealthCare, the parent of Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, has agreed to receive lower reimbursements from Tufts Health Plan than previously negotiated. The two sides re-opened an existing contract in response to calls from business and government leaders to rein in the cost of health care for employers and consumers.

This new agreement will not reduce anyone’s health care premiums, but will reduce annual increases to the rate of overall inflation, at 2 percent to 3 percent, in each of the next two years. The two sides say this results in a savings of $45 million over two years over what would have been paid by Tufts Health Plan members.

Partners: Rethinking care delivery to control costs. Martha Bebinger, WBUR, January 18, 2012 The state’s largest hospital network, Partners Health Care, has signed a second contract that trims health care spending. A deal out today with Tufts Health Plan is expected to reduce payments over four years by $105 million dollars: Partners opened an existing contract with Tufts to re-negotiated a lower payment rate. For Tufts members that means roughly 1% off premium increase they might otherwise see. Partners CEO Gary Gotlieb says Partners doctors and hospitals realize that rising health care costs are a burden on families, businesses and the government. ... Tufts