For a glimpse of the future of Massachusetts health care as Gov. Deval Patrick envisions it, consider Phyllis Minsky.
CommonHealth’s interview with Phyllis Minsky, whose story suggests big potential savings in health care costs in Massachusetts.
Luckily, Phyllis has a secret weapon these days: Wendy Atamian. A nurse with 35 years of experience, Wendy is Phyllis’s “nurse care manager,” which means that she stays on top of Phyllis’s health: She helps coordinate her doctors’ visits and medications; sets up home-based services after hospital stays; advises her if she’s in pain or can’t sleep. Wendy even suggested a simulator test to help determine whether Phyllis should still be driving.
“Wendy is always there when I need her,” Phyllis said. Together with Phyllis’s primary care physician, Dr. Michael Bierer, “I think they’ve saved me many trips to the emergency room and urgent care” — “which is a blessing.”
Multiply Phyllis Minsky by 3,200. That’s the number of patients in the five-year-old pilot project that she’s part of, the Mass General Care Management Program. Begun at Mass General, the care management program has now expanded to Brigham & Women’s Hospital and the North Shore Medical Center, for a six-year total of more than 8,000 patients.
And that may be only the beginning.
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