Health Providers Employ Innovative Approaches to Expand Access to Care in Worcester, MA 

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Technology is woven into nearly every aspect of daily life and offers real benefits for patients who can now receive care outside the traditional confines of a hospital or other health facility. Worcester-area health care providers are finding innovative ways to use technology to personalize care for patients, enhancing access, satisfaction, safety and outcomes. 

Back to the Future 

“During and since the COVID-19 pandemic, it became not only possible but also desirable to use digital technology to better meet patients’ needs in their homes,” says Dr. Eric Alper, senior vice president, system chief quality officer and chief clinical informatics officer for UMass Memorial Health (UMMH). “We realized there was a lot more we could do, and both doctors and patients were comfortable with it.” 

UMMH launched Hospital at Home in 2021. The program offers patients hospital-level care in the comfort of their own homes. 

“You can be with your family, your pets, your food – whatever it is that keeps you happy and in a healing environment. And the quality outcomes are just as good, if not better,” Alper says. “We monitor them at home 24/7. Nurses do home visits as often as needed, physicians conduct telehealth visits, and we can get them just about whatever they need for medications or diagnostic testing.” 

Participation is voluntary and best suited for patients with chronic and less severe or complicated conditions. 

“We’re getting a little ‘back to the future,’” Alper says. “Back 100 years ago, most patients would get house calls, and now we’re doing that effectively through the use of technology, without necessarily having to drive there.” 

Hospital at Home is one of many remote services managed from UMMH’s new Digital Hub in downtown Worcester. Another is the eICU, which monitors ICU beds at the system’s five hospitals. 

“If something starts to go wrong in the middle of the night, staff on-site can press a button on the wall and an intensivist physician pops right up on the screen,” Alper says. “Or for patients at risk of falling, instead of having someone sit in the room, members of our remote monitoring team can talk to the patient via a monitor in the room or contact the nurse immediately. It’s been a real benefit to preventing falls. In all cases, we’re trying to meet patients wherever they are within our continuum of care.” 

UMass Memorial Health

Keeping Care Personal 

For more than 125 years, Saint Vincent Hospital has been serving Worcester and the Central Massachusetts community with compassionate, award-winning and innovative care close to home. Advanced heart and vascular services, comprehensive orthopedics and rehabilitation programs, women’s and children’s services, and high-tech robotic surgery are all available right here. 

The hospital also offers telehealth services, so patients can choose to see a physician online, staying safely at home and still receiving a diagnosis and care plan. A mobile device with a camera is all that’s needed to access the service. 

One example of how innovation can personalize care is the SpaceOAR technology, which helps prostate cancer patients avoid some of the negative effects of radiation therapy. 

Dr. Bhalchandra Parulkar, a urologist at Saint Vincent, recently received the first SpaceOAR Center of Excellence designation in New England for his use of this technology. 

“The introduction of SpaceOAR Hydrogel as a pretreatment option at Saint Vincent Hospital demonstrates our commitment to providing the best possible care to our patients by offering the latest innovation in treatments,” Parulkar says. “Men diagnosed with prostate cancer have some difficult decisions to make, but knowing that an option like SpaceOAR Hydrogel can potentially limit the risk of damage to other organs during radiation treatment will hopefully make a few of those decisions easier.”