Prescription for Hope

Every weekday, from a big white box truck parked in the vacant lot at 3370 West 25th Street, MetroHealth's Project DAWN Expanded Mobile Unit dispenses sterile syringes, Narcan kits, condoms and other supplies to those living with opioid-use disorder. Perhaps most important, the team also dispenses hope – a light in the darkness, a hand to grab and hold until a user finally can say, “I'm ready.” Join us as we spend a day with this incredible team of caregivers. MetroHealth's Office of Opioid Safety operates the Project DAWN Expanded Mobile Unit, which is open 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. weekdays at 3370 West 25th Street in Cleveland. Anyone can visit, and clients remain anonymous. Find out more about the Office of Opioid Safety by visiting www.metrohealth.org/office-of-opioid-safety

The toll of the COVID-19 pandemic on our relationships is something that doesn’t get talked about enough. And we are witnessing a mental-health crisis as a result. MetroHealth’s Dr. Robert L. Smith – aka “Dr. Bob” – joins us again to offer his trademark voice of comfort and kindness as he shares his thoughts on COVID’s damage to our relationships and how the pandemic just might be the opportunity we all need to focus on love.

The caregivers in MetroHealth’s Mother and Children Dependency Program have always had a wish: a place, a home – with a “mother hen” – where new moms struggling with substance-use disorder could stay to continue their recovery and healing while also caring for their newborns. … Well, sometimes wishes do come true. … This is an UPDATE of an episode from Season 1 titled “I Feel Like a Monster.” Listen to that episode here: https://soundcloud.com/metrohealth/4-i-feel-like-a-monster

The COVID-19 vaccine is safe, it’s been rigorously tested, and it works – really, really well. Still, some people may be hesitant to receive it. To build trust within the community, MetroHealth invited faith leaders from around Greater Cleveland to come in, roll up their sleeves and set a lifesaving example for their flocks. Check out a video version of this extraordinary event here: https://vimeo.com/500569138

The vaccine has arrived, the vaccinations have begun and the prescription for hope is finally being filled. Join us for an up-close look at the historic Wednesday when MetroHealth took the first steps in the beginning of the end of the COVID-19 pandemic.

If all goes according to plan, we are just days away from the arrival of a safe, effective COVID-19 vaccine. Dr. Amy Ray, MetroHealth’s Medical Director of Infection Prevention, leads the system’s Vaccine Preparedness Committee, which has been planning for the arrival of a vaccine for months. She shares some of those plans, some important info on the shots and her thoughts on this historic – and hopeful – moment.

We are exhausted. Caregivers – and everyone else – have been dealing with the coronavirus pandemic for nine long months. We’re not only tired, we’re facing a frightening third wave of COVID-19 infections and a long winter ahead. MetroHealth’s Dr. Robert L. Smith, aka “Dr. Bob,” the caregiver for the caregivers, joins us to provide guidance on how to approach the coming days with hope, gratitude and optimism.

For the first time in our lifetimes, a crisis has affected every person, every family, every street, town, school, church and business in America. It’s important to label the impact of COVID-19 for what it is: trauma. All of us, individually and collectively, have been traumatized by the coronavirus pandemic. Katie Kurtz, Community Resilience Educator with MetroHealth’s Center for Health Resilience, joins us to explain the collective trauma of COVID-19 and how we can heal and find resilience in days to come.

More than four months after the crazy, early days of the coronavirus crisis, MetroHealth President and CEO Akram Boutros looks back and takes stock on what we learned, what we did right, some potential regrets, some silver linings, how we plan to help distribute a vaccine, what we fear going forward and how we are going to continue battling racism and health-care injustice.

The coronavirus crisis put non-urgent health care on hold. Screenings, elective surgeries, tests, well visits and vaccinations were all delayed to keep people from spreading the virus. But the missed, avoided and postponed appointments have created a different potential public health crisis. Dr. Bernie Boulanger, MetroHealth’s Chief Clinical Officer, joined us to discuss “care gaps” and how MetroHealth is trying to close them.

How do you lead an HR department, responsible for 8,000 employees and thousands of front-line workers, through the worst public-health crisis in memory? How do you push a 183-year-old public health system to face, fight and reverse society’s systemic racism and injustice? Just ask Alan Nevel, MetroHealth’s Senior Vice President, Chief Diversity and Human Resources Officer. He’s doing both jobs … at the same time. Watch the video referenced in this episode here: https://vimeo.com/433983547/772b9a3c56

Eight of the nation’s top 10 COVID-19 outbreaks have been in jails or prisons. And back in early March, the beleaguered and chronically overcrowded Cuyahoga County Jail seemed to be the perfect petri dish for infection. But thanks to quick action, teamwork and compassion, the jail avoided a coronavirus catastrophe and became a national model for inmate care during the pandemic. Here’s how it happened.

Dr. Margaret Stager, MetroHealth’s Director of the Division of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine, talks about caring for teens and young adults during the coronavirus lockdown and afterward.

The coronavirus has changed how hospital chaplains do their jobs, but the job itself remains the same: provide emotional and spiritual support to patients and staff, when they need it most. MetroHealth’s Jim Kulma, supervisor of pastoral care, gives us an emotional behind-the-scenes look at what it’s like to be a hospital chaplain in the time of COVID-19.

How do you stay at home if you don’t have one? How do you shelter in place when your only place is a shelter? We follow MetroHealth family medicine Drs. Kelly Manger, Rahul Shenoy and Michael Seidman as they crisscross the city to screen homeless members of our community for COVID-19.

Dr. Dan Kinker is a second-year resident in emergency medicine. In mid-March, he developed a cough and discovered he had COVID-19. He shares his experience and how things in the MetroHealth Emergency Department have changed since the arrival of the coronavirus.

The small army that keeps every part of a hospital clean – the doorknobs, the elevator buttons, the bathrooms, the patient rooms – they are so much more than sweepers, moppers and wipers. They are healers. MetroHealth Environmental Services Aide Janice Longcoy and Director of Environmental Services and Logistics Thomas Jones share with us how our housekeepers are winning the war against the coronavirus.

By reimagining technology that was designed to fight a potential Ebola epidemic, MetroHealth is now able to sterilize up to 50,000 N95 and KN95 medical face masks a day. Dr. Amy Ray, Medical Director of Infection Prevention, gives us a behind-the-scenes look at how it’s done.

A bonus episode for the weekend: The generosity of the community has overwhelmed us. Here's a quick thank you from a few of us for just a small amount of the kindness Greater Cleveland has shown us during the coronavirus crisis. Gracias.

The coronavirus pandemic has revealed, rather starkly, a critical fact: Good health depends on a whole lot more than good medical care. COVID-19 has magnified the social determinants of health and the decades-long disparities in well-being in our society. MetroHealth’s Institute for HOPE is out to change that. Institute President Sue Fuehrer sits down with Director of Community Engagement Rita Andolsen to discuss how the Institute is serving the community during the crisis.

Quality Technical Specialist Alana Clampitt, who helps oversee the immunology lab at MetroHealth Medical Center, lets us follow a coronavirus test, from swab to results, while giving us a behind-the-scenes look at how the system is testing for COVID-19 in-house, with results in about two hours.

The COVID-19 crisis has caused not only physical illness, it’s produced a long list of dark emotions: anxiety, anger, fear, frustration, loneliness and more. And it’s been worse for health care workers on the front lines. Dr. Bob Smith, director of MetroHealth’s Medical Staff Assistance Program, shares some ways we – caregivers and everyone else – can avoid the darkness and maybe, just maybe, come out of the coronavirus crisis better than we were before.

To protect patients and caregivers, MetroHealth has suspended almost all inpatient visitation. Many patients are able to stay connected with family and friends through phone calls, texting and video chat. But what about patients who don’t have devices or who are unable to hold and operate a phone or tablet? That’s where the Compassionate Care Rounding program comes in. Follow MetroHealth’s Rochelle Cannon as she stands in for visitors, chatting with patients by connecting them with family members via video chat and reading them emails and letters – all with remarkable care and compassion.

In less than two weeks, nurses answering MetroHealth’s COVID-19 hotline have talked to over 4,200 callers. More than 2,100 of them have then been connected to doctors for an over-the-phone visit. MetroHealth primary care physician Dr. David Margolius helped launch the hotline and has worked the phones from the beginning. He describes how it works and what it’s meant to not only worried patients but to the scores of doctors and nurses on the other side of the line. Find the Cleveland.com article Dr. Margolius mentions here: https://www.cleveland.com/opinion/2020/03/battling-our-unconfirmed-covid-19-cases-at-home-theresa-gavalya.html Call the MetroHealth COVID-19 hotline at 440-59-COVID. That’s 440-592-6843.

Does MetroHealth have enough supplies for the COVID-19 crisis? Justin Gallo, Vice President of Supply Chain Management, discusses how well the system has prepared. He explains how he keeps doctors and nurses supplied with masks, gowns, gloves and goggles. Want to donate supplies? Email LogisticsSectionHCC@metrohealth.org

Welcome to Season 2 of MetroHealth's "Prescription for Hope." This season, we are focusing on COVID-19. The first episode: the basics ... COVID-19 101. Featuring Dr. Brook Watts, MetroHealth's Vice President and Chief Quality Officer.

How is MetroHealth preparing for a potential flood of COVID-19 patients? Vice President and Chief Quality Officer Brook Watts explains how MetroHealth is using this time of relative calm before a potential storm to train and educate caregivers about what might be ahead. She talks about how we are trying to prevent a shortage in supplies, and how the system is working to support caregivers and the community. “How do we stand together,” she asks, “while standing apart?”

Are the efforts to fight the opioid epidemic working? MetroHealth President and CEO Akram Boutros tells us.

From hands-on simulations to mandatory town halls, MetroHealth is teaching its providers to cut back on opioid prescriptions without ignoring their patients' pain.

Aaron Marks tells the story of his journey from the darkness of addiction into the light of recovery.

Pregnant women addicted to opioids live with guilt, shame, stigma and fear. Thanks to MetroHealth's Mother and Child Dependency Program, they're also living with hope.

Medically Assisted Treatment, or MAT, combines medication and counseling/therapy to treat patients with opioid use disorder. MetroHealth's Dr. Paul Manning gives us details and explains why MAT is such an effective weapon in the battle against opioids.

In the moments after a drug overdose, while still in bed in MetroHealth's Emergency Department, patients now get a visit from a recovering addict. Their title is "peer coach," but "angel" is more accurate. Shawn Pasch and Craig Dunson of Ascent ED share their stories.

The opioid epidemic's staggering body count seems to always grab the headlines, overshadowing the people on the front lines who are working to turn the darkness into dawn. MetroHealth's Dr. Joan Papp shares the scope of the problem and what she's doing to fight it.

The opioid epidemic has been called the worst public health crisis in a century. Amid the darkness, there is light ... and hope. Coming this summer, a new podcast from The MetroHealth System in Cleveland.