NSMC in the News

The president of Salem Hospital turned to football for an analogy that describes where the region is in the fight against coronavirus. 

More than 4,000 front-line medical workers at local hospitals and related facilities have now been vaccinated against COVID-19, and still many more staff members wait to receive their shots.

The presence of a COVID-19 vaccine will go a long way toward alleviating the scourge that has turned our lives upside down since last March, but there are a lot of other things that have to happen as well.

As hospitals on the North Shore near capacity, health care workers and local officials are pleading with residents to stay home this holiday season— even if they test negative for the virus.

North Shore Medical Center (NSMC) has been awarded an ‘A’ grade for patient safety by the Leapfrog Group, an independent national watchdog organization committed to health care quality and safety.  

Coronavirus vaccinations began at North Shore Hospital on Wednesday, while Beverly Hospital is expected to start its vaccinations of front-line workers on Thursday.

Registered Nurse Michele Hnath became the first member of North Shore Medical Center staff to receive the first dose of the vaccine on Wednesday. 

Michele Hnath, a 42-year-old ICU nurse, was the first of 15 frontline healthcare workers from the North Shore Medical Center to receive the initial round of the two-part COVID-19 vaccine Wednesday afternoon. 

Today, the North Shore Medical Center in Salem received their shipment of the covid-19 vaccines. 

Joseph Previtera has seen up close what COVID-19 does.

Yesterday, front-line workers at BMC, MGH, Brigham and Women’s and North Shore Medical Center all handed out their first shots. 

Before Thanksgiving, health workers warned people not to travel or gather with family and friends.

Today, the data is showing that people did not heed that warning.

As someone who routinely wears out erasers on pencils, I’m preconditioned to being wrong. But to my happy surprise once every century or so it turns out that I’m wrong in a nice way — as was the case with Salem Hospital recently.

Local medical centers are preparing for how they will be distributing the two potential COVID-19 vaccines that are up for Food and Drug Administration approval this month. 

While the five healthcare professionals who took part in Lynn’s second COVID-19 Tele-Town Hall Monday night said they would be among the first in line when a vaccine becomes available, residents were a bit more cautious. 

SALEM — There’s one thing the head of North Shore Medical Center wants people to do when planning to visit family this Thanksgiving: don’t.

Rising coronavirus cases in Salem, and across the North Shore and the state, have officials worried that younger residents contracting the virus in recent weeks — the majority of whom do not develop severe symptoms — will soon begin transmitting the virus to older, more vulnerable relatives during the holiday season.

Our partnership with North Shore Community College enables us to help our employees with limited English proficiency build fluency in reading, writing, listening and speaking English, becoming more effective in their current roles and position themselves for advancement. We are celebrating two years of our in-house English as a Second Language (ESL) program. The program runs through our partnership with North Shore Community College and a grant from the state's Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

North Shore Medical Center CEO Dr. David Roberts and Beverly Hospital CEO Phil Cormier said in separate interviews that their staffs learned many lessons about the novel coronavirus during the harrowing months after the pandemic first struck in March.

As health experts continue to be concerned with the risk of a “double viral infection” during the upcoming flu season, the city’s public health director Michele Desmarais, Mayor Thomas M. McGee, and a panel of three local doctors also urged Lynn residents to get a flu vaccine this year.  “The flu vaccine is extremely safe,” said Dr. Mitchell Rein, chief medical officer of North Shore Medical Center, who acknowledged that some individuals are concerned about vaccinations in general.  “It really is the best way to prevent the flu. This year it is exceptionally important we do everything we can to keep the risk of flu at a minimum. The risk of having both COVID and flu at the same time could be devastating for (people).” 

City Councilor-at-Large Brian Field considers himself lucky to be alive after suffering a heart attack with such a low survival rate that it is referred to in the medical community as a widow maker. After reaching Salem Hospital, he was taken to the ER, with an "awesome" team that quickly diagnosed what type of heart attack he was having, he said. 

Community health organizations have been teaming up to fight Lynn’s stubbornly high rates of COVID-19.The North Shore Medical Center has partnered with the Lynn Community Health Center, the city of Lynn and Mass General Brigham to launch “Keep Cases Down,” an education initiative focused on Lynn and several other struggling cities throughout the Commonwealth. Lynn remains a hot spot for COVID-19, with 578 active cases as of Sept. 22.

A team from North Shore Medical Center has raised more than $5,500 for the North Shore Cancer Center Walk by planting pinwheel "gardens" on front lawns throughout the North Shore.

In support of Massachusetts Opioid Screening and Awareness Day, North Shore Medical Center is looking to be a part of saving lives affected by the epidemic.

Peabody resident Kathie Mitchell hosted several fundraisers, including a clothing drive, for the 30th annual North Shore Cancer WALK. 

A meeting between Congressman Seth Moulton and a group of doctors and nurses at North Shore Medical Center on Wednesday provided a glimpse of what has gone on inside the walls of the hospital since the arrival of the pandemic in March.

When the headlines were announced last week that the state was entering Phase 3 of reopening, my reaction was not the one I had imagined. Instead I am filled with dread.

The COVID-19 crisis has changed the practice of medicine in many ways and ushered in the age of virtual visits. Recently, we set up a virtual visit with a 91-year-old patient, who would be at very high risk for complications from COVID-19 if he were exposed to it. The visit was done during the height of the pandemic when we really were trying to keep patients away from our medical facilities. Through video, we were able to evaluate his condition, diagnose him, and start a treatment plan for a difficult rash he was experiencing. He was able to receive safe and appropriate care, in a timely fashion, and all from the comfort of his home.

A month ago, it wasn’t looking like the Glixman-Padulsky family would have much to celebrate on Father’s Day this year. What a difference a month can make. On Friday, Stacey Padulsky could barely hold back tears as she shared her family’s joyful news. Her husband, Phil, and father, Joseph Glixman, have recovered from severe COVID-19 illness after they both spent weeks on a ventilator in Salem Hospital.

10 weeks after telling people to stay away from the hospital unless it was an emergency, officials are trying to convince the public that hospitals are again a safe place to get treatment. "We want to get the message out that there's a consequence to waiting," North Shore Medical Center President Dr. David Roberts said. He also wants the public to know that North Shore Medical Center has taken several steps to insure safety, including testing every patient for COVID-19 and keeping those who have tested positive separate.

When Feed the Frontlines North Shore made their first delivery of 100 meals to Beverly Hospital on April 3, it was a family effort.

For those on the front lines at Massachusetts nursing homes, the job stresses have grown. And the public cheering for health care workers is barely audible.

Victoria "Vicki" Mori of Beverly was hoping to raise $2,020 for her sixth year walking in the North Shore Cancer Walk in honor of her mother, Carol, who receives regular treatments at the Mass General/North Shore Cancer Center, which benefits from the proceeds of the event.

When it comes to battling the coronavirus on the front lines, it’s all in the family for the D’Ursos of Peabody, who count three emergency medicine physicians and a medical technician among them.

Peabody-based mixed media artist Leon Dodds has created a one-of-a-kind artwork to honor the heroic nurses, physicians and staff of North Shore Medical Center (NSMC).

Feed the Frontlines North Shore thanked the staff at Salem Hospital for their hard work during the COVID-19 pandemic with some cookies and chocolate milk Thursday afternoon.

When doctors and nurses decide to become medical professionals, they’re never led to believe they won’t be able to treat a person’s ailments. “You’re taught that your goal is to heal, your goal is to make people better, in simple terms,” said Mitch Jacobson, chief of the Department of Nephrology at North Shore Medical Center.

While health care professionals work around the clock to care for patients during the COVID-19 pandemic, Marblehead restaurants have been helping to take care of them.

More than 5,000 meals have been donated and delivered to the staff at Salem Hospital over the past several weeks as they work round the clock to care for patients during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Union Hospital respiratory clinic opened two weeks ago to screen people referred by their doctors is screening more than 30 people a day and has the capacity, if needed, to double that number.

NSMC hospitalist Jessica Benedetto, M.D., gives an in-depth look at her experience working on the frontlines during the COVID-19 pandemic. Even in this time of uncertainty and change, Dr. Benedetto and her colleagues come to work everyday more vigilant and committed to care for patients and fight the Coronavirus. 

While health care professionals work around the clock to care for patients during the COVID-19 pandemic, the North Shore community is taking care of them. The hospital has received an overwhelming volume of food donations to feed the local frontline and the meals and sweet treats keep coming.

Salem News interviews North Shore Medical Center President David Roberts

A parade of first responder vehicles showed their support for North Shore hospitals Thursday.

In honor of One Boston Day, the Martin Richard Foundation and nonprofit Sailing Heals is providing 350 boxed meals to the overnight staff at North Shore Medical Center in Salem.

As is the case throughout Massachusetts, the number of COVID-19 cases in Lynn and surrounding communities have risen sharply over the past week and is expected to rise through at least the middle of April. As everyday life is on hold, the fo­cus on health and well-being has never been greater.

Dr. Elizabeth "Ellie" Wallace, an emergency medicine physician for Salem Hospital's Emergency Department, created this video as a reminder that not all heroes wear capes — some wear masks. North Shore Medical Center, which shared this video with The Salem News, also noted that as of April 7, they had 82 inpatients who tested positive for COVID-19, 27 inpatients requiring ICU/critical care and 43 inpatients who are suspected to have the novel coronavirus but awaiting test results.

A few days after Swampscott schools shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic, eighth-grade civics teacher Kevin Rogers remembered something: Swampscott Middle School was filled with cleaning and sanitizing supplies brought in by students at the beginning of the school year.

On St. Patrick's Day, Jillian Harvey and her husband Paul Carelis, of Bradford, welcomed their daughter, Maeve, their fourth child. Because visitors aren't allowed in the hospital, Maeve’s three siblings, Rory, Cormac, and Paloma met their little sister through the window into their mother’s Birthplace room from the garden outside.

First-time grandparents Deb and Keith Barker of Amherst NH meet their new granddaughter through the hospital window.

Gordon Hall has been a lover of the outdoors since he was a young child, when he would go fly fishing with his father on Moosehead Lake in Maine. Now at age 89, with three artificial joints and having undergone several cardiac procedures, Hall is still able to get outside and cross country ski, and he credits North Shore Medical Center for his continued vitality. 

Students in Salem are being asked to participate in a vape pen and e-cigarette buyback program on Monday.

The city of Salem says it will pay $50 to high schoolers who give up vaping.

The city of Salem says it will pay $50 to high schoolers who give up vaping. The city says it’s working in partnership with North Shore Community Health and North Shore Medical Center to launch the one-year pilot program.

On a bright, cold Friday morning, a handful of nurses huddle around a pair of portraits in Salem’s Peabody Essex Museum. The portraits depict Mr. and Mrs. Fitch, a pair of wealthy Salem residents of the eighteenth century. When directed to describe the pictures with adjectives, the nurses call him “stoic” and “elegant” and her “opulent” and “soft.”

The new Jacob Lawrence exhibit at Peabody Essex Museum depicts the earliest decades of struggles connected to life in a growing America, with works covering the American Revolution, the empire of slave trade that ran before and after it, and more.

North Shore Medical Center in Salem next month will launch the region’s first program to connect sexual assault victims with nurses specially trained to both tend to their physical and emotional wounds, and collect evidence in time so that it can be admissible in the prosecution of their perpetrators if they choose to press charges.

North Shore Medical Center on Wednesday announced a new treatment program for victims of sexual assault that will connect them by video with specially trained nurses.

Olivia Buckley has the distinction of being the first baby born on the North Shore in the 2020s.

Some of North Shore Medical Center's tiniest patients were reunited Sunday with the doctors and nurses who cared for them in the weeks after they were born. 

Caregivers at North Shore Medical Center were reunited with some of their tiniest patients Sunday, as families who had premature babies joined staff members to celebrate their children’s health.

North Shore Medical Center in Salem was recently awarded an English Works Campaign Certificate of Recognition for their leadership in supporting English classes for their immigrant employees. The award was presented as part of English for New Bostonian’s Raising Our Voices Breakfast at Northeastern University, an event that highlights the imperative for English learning opportunities and honors the businesses and individuals that support and elevate them.

Salem Hospital’s new emergency department is set to open on Sunday at 6 a.m.

Three years after the state approved the consolidation of hospitals in Lynn and Salem, North Shore Medical Center's revised campus is ready to open.

Caila Kelley, a registered nurse at North Shore Medical Center, is the first of eight pregnant staff members in her department to welcome the arrival of her newborn son on Oct. 19, says Birthplace Director Lisa Cavallaro.

There’s a baby boom at North Shore Medical Center.

Six nurses, one obstetrician, and one unit secretary, who all work together in the NSMC Birthplace are expecting. The first addition to the North Shore family is due at the end of this month. The youngest of the bunch is due in February.

A hospital in Salem is experiencing a baby boom among its staff.

Eight co-workers at the North Shore Medical Center Birthplace are all expecting around the same time. Six nurses, one obstetrician and one unit secretary are all due within the next five months.

It's a baby boom at North Shore Medical Center's Birthplace unit.

Six nurses, one obstetrician and one unit secretary, who all work together in the NSMC Birthplace are expecting, the hospital said. 

“I just think it’s so important to make a difference – people don’t know how good they’ll feel until they give back,” said Arthur Epstein, a businessman, philanthropist, and former Marblehead resident about his $5 million gift to North Shore Medical Center.

Christian* was fourteen when he broke his back in a sledding accident in the mid-1990’s. Only able to partially recover, his doctors prescribed pain medication – opioids – to help manage his ongoing symptoms. When he aged out of his health insurance at eighteen, he realized he couldn’t get by without the pills. “I was addicted to something and didn’t even really know what addiction was,” he says. “I didn’t just decide to pick up heroin one day; I worked up to it.”

NSMC’s new model of care improves the efficiency of, and access to, quality health care north of Boston.

The number of patients treated at the Salem Hospital emergency room is on the rise, as more people are being transported from Lynn due to the impending closure of Union Hospital.

On Sunday, June 23, the 29th annual North Shore Cancer WALK was held at Salem Willows Park. Thousands of walkers came out on a beautiful summer day for this annual celebration of life, hope and courage in honor of all those who have been touched by this disease.

DANVERS — While replacing the engine of his boat last month, Keith Martin was struck in the neck with a broken cable puller.

SALEM — Maureen Kidney was discharged from North Shore Medical Center Tuesday morning with a second shot at life. Now, her first mission is to meet her two angels.

To the editor:

It’s so easy to take for granted all that exists in Salem, a city that my wife grew up in and we gravitated to 13 years ago. (I recently moved to Brooksby Village in Peabody.) 

Recent articles have questioned whether North Shore Medical Center’s future emergency facilities will be able to meet the demands of the communities we serve, including those of Lynn-area residents impacted by the consolidation of Salem and Union hospitals.

On Friday, May 3, more than 350 people gathered at Acura of Peabody for North Shore Medical Center’s 10th anniversary Gourmet Gala. It was a wonderful evening of delicious food and a lively auction in support of a great cause. Billy Costa of Kiss 108’s “Matty in the Morning” show and NECN’s “Dining Playbook” served as auctioneer, helping to raise funds for cancer care on the North Shore.

A North Shore Medical Center employee has been selected a co-chair of the 29th annual North Shore Cancer WALK, to be held Sunday, June 23 at Salem Willows.

Castle Connolly Medical Ltd. is a healthcare research and information company founded in 1991 by a former medical college board chairman and president to help guide consumers to America’s top doctors and top hospitals.

Joel. H. Schwartz, MD, FACP, will be honored with the Boston North Cancer Association, Inc.'s Hope Begins Here Award, for his deep commitment to the care of patients and families facing cancer throughout the communities north of Boston. For 15 years Dr. Schwartz has been the director of Oncology Services at Mass General/North Shore Cancer Center in Danvers.

Coleen Reid, MD. Chief of Palliative Care at North Shore Medical Center and Castle Connolly 2019 Top Doctor Recipient.

North Shore Medical Center and Bridgewell recently began offering recovery coaches at the center’s Salem Hospital for patients who are being treated for drug overdoses.

North Shore Medical Center (NSMC) honored Donna Barrett, R.N., B.S.N., and Roxanne Worob with the 2019 Robert G. Norton Leadership Award. NSMC President, David Roberts, M.D., presented the awards in January.

As a frequent patient, I would like to give a big thank you to to Dr. Smita B. Kolli at Union Hospital and the staff in urgent care, the infusion clinic and the emergency room.

North Shore Medical Center honored Peabody resident Joseph P. Karpicz, MD, MPH, and Swampscott resident Howard M. Waldman, MD, Ph.D., with the 2018 NSMC Department of Medicine Excellence in Medicine Award.

Drs. Joseph P. Karpicz of Peabody and Howard M. Waldman of Swampscott have been honored by North Shore Medical Center with the 2018 NSMC Department of Medicine Excellence in Medicine Award, which recognizes physicians who have made a significant contribution to patient care within the Department of Medicine. 

North Shore Medical Center (NSMC) honored Joseph P. Karpicz, M.D., M.P.H., and Howard M. Waldman, M.D., Ph.D., with the 2018 NSMC Department of Medicine Excellence in Medicine Award. NSMC Hospitalist Joseph Miaskiewicz, M.D., and NSMC President David J. Roberts, M.D, presented the awards at the 12th annual NSMC Department of Medicine Excellence in Medicine Awards annual dinner meeting and lecture in November.

North Shore Medical Center has honored several staff members with excellence awards. Physicians Mark Anderson and Wilfred Lewis the Physician of Excellence Award, the highest honor presented by the medical staff. Suzanne Nevins, R.N., was given the Dr. E. Augustus Holyoke Memorial Award. And physicians Mona Hinrichsen and Adolfo Pena Salazar received the Outstanding New Physician Award.

Salem, Mass.-based North Shore Medical Center bestowed its Physician of Excellence award on anesthesiologist Wilfred Lewis, MD.

Connor Danh was born New Year's Day at 7:32 a.m., officially making Connor the first baby born at North Shore Medical Center in 2019. Connor was born to Ratha Sun and Thai Danh, residents of Lynn.

The medical village, housed in a new two-story building, would offer urgent care, basic lab and radiology services, outpatient psychiatry services, and an expanded home for the North Shore Physicians Group Lynn primary and specialty care practice currently located in the West Medical Building on the Union Hospital campus.

NSMC has nine recovery coaches available to respond immediately when someone comes into the emergency room with a drug overdose, with another soon to be hired. The coaches are on call 24/7 to go to the emergency room and meet with the overdose patients in hopes of getting them connected to the services they need.

Stacey Regal-O’Hare has a serious illness. Dr. Rebecca Lee, of North Shore Physicians Group, wants to document her patient’s preferences before there’s a crisis moment in an emergency room or ICU.

"I like to do that when folks are actually feeling well. Do you feel comfortable with that?" asks Lee. "Yeah," replies Regal-O'Hare, softly.

Increasingly, medical care goes beyond the examination room or the surgical ward. Through initiatives ranging from mentoring programs to smartphone apps to mindfulness groups, hospitals are finding innovative ways to put the “health” in health care, not only making patients well but helping them to stay that way and providing support for patients far beyond their primary mode of treatment.

For Dr. Neelima Singh, an endocrinologist at North Shore Medical Center, helping patients stay on track between office visits meant designing a special e-mail system to stay in touch with them.