Health Matters

SOLUTION NEEDED: Susan E. Enck, a licensed clinical psychologist at Brown Medicine’s Warwick Primary Care, says the mental health system was near its breaking point before the COVID-19 pandemic. Now it’s in crisis. / PBN PHOTO/ELIZABETH GRAHAM

Pleas to fix R.I.’s ‘broken’ behavioral health system

Health Matters 04/15/2022

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, treatment providers, advocates and lawmakers are calling for Rhode Island to confront its problems with access to...

AID AVAILABLE: Pawtucket Emergency Medical Services Director Lance Dumont and Elizabeth Moreira, the city’s public health and equity leader, hold kits containing naloxone and fentanyl testers at the Newport Avenue fire station, which became a Safe Station for people seeking help with drug addiction. PBN PHOTO/ELIZABETH GRAHAM

Communities create ‘Safe Stations’ in effort to reduce overdose deaths

Health Matters 03/18/2022

Rhode Islanders who are struggling with substance abuse now have places they can go to get immediate attention and support, after fire departments and...

A RELIABLE ASSISTANT: Dr. Jeannine Giovanni uses the da Vinci Xi Surgical System to perform bariatric surgery. Giovanni says the robotic help allows more-precise procedures and quicker recovery times for patients. /  COURTESY CARE NEW ENGLAND HEALTH SYSTEM

Weight loss surgery with the help of a robot

Health Matters 01/21/2022

More precision and smaller incisions. These are the main benefits that modern robot-assisted surgery brings to bariatric surgery, a procedure that helps with weight loss...

PRECHECKS: Dr. Ana Tuya Fulton, right, Care New England Health System executive chief of geriatrics and palliative care, and Ruth Scott, senior director of population health for Integra Community Care Network LLC, review their plans before the hospital-at-home program goes live at Kent Hospital in Warwick. / COURTESY CARE NEW ENGLAND HEALTH SYSTEM/RYAN PICKERING

Kent offers state’s first ‘hospital-at-home’ acute care program

Health Matters 12/24/2021

Call it home sweet hospital. Kent County Memorial Hospital in Warwick recently received a waiver from the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and...

CRUCIAL CHECKUP: Margaret Vargas, right, a dental hygienist with nonprofit CareLink Inc.’s mobile dental clinic, conducts an examination of Sister Anne Kelly at The Villa at Saint Antoine in North Smithfield. The clinic serves 3,000 patients at 53 Rhode Island nursing homes. / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO

Demand for dental care program growing, but funding isn’t

Health Matters 11/26/2021

For more than 13 years, CareLink Inc. has traversed Rhode Island with a mobile dentistry practice, serving elderly, low-income patients in nursing homes who...

EARLY PROTECTION: Mary Norwalk gets her flu shot from Matt Lefebvre, pharmacy manager at the CVS store on Hope Street in Providence, while Art Norwalk, Mary’s husband, looks on. / PBN PHOTO/ELIZABETH GRAHAM

Hospitals start bracing for a busy flu season

Health Matters 10/15/2021

The shot clock is ticking. Now is the time of year to get that flu vaccine for it to be most effective, according to an...

CAMPAIGN WORKER: Jane Barrows, founder of Lyme Newport, says awareness efforts about tick-borne infections have taken on new importance in the COVID-19 era because similar symptoms could lead to misdiagnosis. / PBN PHOTO/KATE WHITNEY LUCEY

Is COVID ‘bias’ hindering Lyme disease detection?

Health Matters 09/17/2021

Jane Barrows’ troubles with Lyme disease began with a strange mark on her thigh. In 2008, she was doing some landscaping while wearing a bathing...

TAKING ACTION: Dr. Olutosin Ojugbele, a pediatrician at Hasbro Children’s Hospital, led the hospital’s application process for the “Accelerating Child Health Care Transformation” initiative. / PBN PHOTO/ELIZABETH GRAHAM

Initiative at Hasbro Children’s Hospital to examine racial biases in pediatrics

Health Matters 08/20/2021

Pediatric health care isn’t immune from racial inequities. That’s the starting point for a new grant-funded program at Hasbro Children’s Hospital in Providence and 11...

TECH SUPPORT: Dr. Subhashini Ayloo sits with the da Vinci surgery system that helps her perform complex liver surgery. Ayloo joined Brown Surgical Associates in February. / COURTESY LIFESPAN CORP./BILL MURPHY

Robot-assisted surgeon performs a first in R.I.

Health Matters 07/23/2021

With the precision of slender robotic tools, Dr. Subhashini Ayloo can look inside someone’s abdomen with three-dimensional accuracy. A small incision can be all she...