It is a long trip to the South Pacific Ocean. I met my son in California, and we then flew to Australia to meet our team. After a night of organizing our medical supplies, we flew from Australia to Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands, which is near Papua New Guinea.

The city of Guadalcanal has an interesting history, as the United States occupied this area during World War II. We were surprised to find ourselves there with so many older American men,

According to a report released in 2012 by the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC), almost 60 percent of emergency room visits and 25 percent of hospital admissions of Medicare patients were potentially preventable.

As part of Atrius Health’s efforts to reduce healthcare costs and provide high quality ambulatory care for our Medicare population, programs have been implemented to help reduce unnecessary hospitalization and emergency room (ER) visits by patients.

One of these programs being piloted by Granite Medical Group is the Intensive Home Based (IHB) program.

At one point or another – maybe at the age of two or five or even older – many children get scared to go for a visit to their pediatrician.  There’s lots of reasons for their anxiety, and many of them come from not knowing what to expect:  what will they see when they look in my ears?  will it hurt when they tighten that band around my arm?  and what about shots (okay,

When Atrius Health learned about Medicare’s Pioneer Accountable Care Organization (ACO) program, it saw an opportunity to provide better and more coordinated care to the traditional Medicare population.

A Geriatric Care Model Workgroup was developed to focus on improving care for the most vulnerable tier of Medicare patients, including reducing unnecessary hospitalization and emergency department (ED) visits. The group set standards and developed decision support tools for improving performance on quality measures. These measures became part of a geriatric patient checklist which includes assessing falls risk,

October is breast cancer awareness month, a time when many women and men come together – on fundraising walks or by simply wearing a pink ribbon on a lapel – to rally and fight for a cure for breast cancer.

Whatever you choose to do publicly, this month is also a good time to take a private moment for yourself and answer the question, “What can I do to reduce my risk?”  If you’re not quite sure how to answer that question,

Now that school, sports and activities are in full swing, a healthy breakfast is more important than ever.

At this month’s SMArt kids shared medical appointment, we highlighted the need for a daily, healthy breakfast. The general consensus in the medical community is that children should eat breakfast every day. The old adage does hold true: breakfast really is the most important meal of the day. Studies have shown that children who eat breakfast actually perform better in school.

Atrius Health recently announced that it is a participating provider in the One Care plan offered by Commonwealth Care Alliance. Please see the press release below that explains the collaboration and the One Care plan.

Commonwealth Care Alliance (CCA) recently announced Atrius Health is a participating provider in the CCA One Care plan which provides high quality, coordinated care to patients who qualify as “dual eligible” under the state’s One Care: MassHealth plus Medicare program.

One of the foundational elements of health care reform is the safe and secure exchange of electronic health information between organizations. The goal is to improve care coordination for patients by enabling organizations to work together to achieve the best possible outcome. At Atrius Health, our ability to be accountable for the financial and quality outcomes of our patients relies on sharing information with our hospital partners. While we continue to work with the MA HIWway (our state Health Information Exchange effort),

At our recent September SMA, which kicked off our fourth SMArt kids series, we had many new SMArt Kids plus a great showing of recent graduates. The returning patients reported on their summer successes and did a stellar job showing our new participants the ropes. We reviewed our SMArt Kids objectives for 2013-14:

Atrius Health is pleased to announce that VNA Boston & Affiliates recently joined the VNA Care Network Foundation.  Please see the announcement below:

Atrius Health, an alliance of six community-based medical groups and a home health care and hospice agency, today announced the merger of VNA of Boston & Affiliates with VNA Care Network Foundation. VNA Care Network Foundation is the parent organization for VNA Care Network, VNA Care Hospice, and VNA Care Advantage and now VNA of Boston &