Hospital & Community Spotlight

(October 15, 2021) The annual enrollment and change period for Medicare Part D prescription drug plans is now open and runs through December 7.

To get Medicare prescription drug coverage, you must be enrolled in, or join a plan run by an insurance company or other private company approved by Medicare. Each plan varies in cost and coverage.

Nantucket Cottage Hospital’s Social Services Department provides free one-on-one consultations for those Medicare recipients who wish to enroll or review their current prescription plan. Please call 508-825-8196 to make an appointment. Appointments are available through December 7.

Since plans can change yearly, NCH Social Services Manager Sarah Chotkowski advises island residents to look over their plans on an annual basis to ensure it is the best option to meet their needs.

Debbie Dolan thought she had seen it all when after 30 years as a nurse, she was asked to step in to briefly support a hospice program in North Central Pennsylvania.

“I remember being so resistant to the idea of working in hospice, thinking ‘oh no I don’t want to do that!’” said Dolan. “But the first day I was there, I loved it. It was like being hit over the head and realizing I found what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.”

Now, after 15 years working in palliative care and hospice, Dolan has been selected to lead Nantucket’s Palliative Care program supported by PASCON, as the program’s newest director. As the new director, Dolan will lead a team of health care specialists dedicated to providing physical, psychological and spiritual care to individuals on Nantucket with life-threatening illness as well as their families, at no cost to the patient.

“This position really is a gift. It took me 30 years to find this passion, and now I’m here with an opportunity to give back to the community, to hear people’s stories, to protect them, respect them and carry their legacy on. That’s an honor,” said Dolan.

For Dolan, joining the organization in the wake of a global pandemic has presented a number of opportunities she hopes to capitalize on moving forward.

“We’ve seen so much of our lives transition to online platforms over this last year, and it’s provided us with a new avenue to reach patients and families where they’re most comfortable,” said Dolan. “We’ve created virtual cancer support groups, our clinical psychologist holds regular caregiver and bereavement support groups over Zoom and our clinicians have adapted to meeting patients and families virtually.”

While advances made in virtual communication have helped facilitate many of the interactions Palliative Care has become known for throughout the pandemic, Dolan believes that the core work of Palliative Care doesn’t rely on any one medium, but rather the relationships its staff has been able to build throughout the community.

“Palliative care is about serious illness care. It’s about working with a patient, their family and their care team so that they can realize their goals and live the kind of life they’re looking for,” said Dolan. “So much of that work revolves around face-to-face meetings where a patient lets us into their life and we learn about their values, their hopes and the life they want to live, then having the difficult conversations around how to get our patients where they want to be.”

Regardless of the medium, the central role of Palliative Care and PASCON revolves around one major tenet; ensuring patients are able to plan for and live the kind of lives they desire.

“The goal is always to meet people wherever they need us, whether it’s in a clinic, here in the hospital or in their home, and figure out how they want to live their lives,” said Dolan. “Once we can help a patient answer that, we’re on the path to delivering the kind of high-quality, personalized care that everyone in this community deserves.”

Funded by the Palliative & Supportive Care of Nantucket Foundation, the Palliative & Support Care Program is operated as a department of the Nantucket Cottage Hospital. To learn more about PASCON or the Palliative & Supportive Care Program and its free services, please visit pascon.org or call (508) 825-8325.

Most Americans can recall how following the September 11^th attacks, the nation changed overnight. The attacks impacted everything from how we navigated airports, to how Americans conceptualized national security, shaping the 21^st century for the two decades to come.

As Americans reimagined their lives in the face of these new threats, leaders at Nantucket Cottage Hospital were reimagining their role in Nantucket’s emergency preparedness.

“Before 9/11, hospitals used to be isolated organizations, when we thought about emergency management, we planned solely for ourselves, there was no interagency coordination, no system-level thinking for how to respond to a crisis,” said Martha Lake-Greenfield, NCH’s Emergency Department Manager from 1996 to 2020. “In the wake of 9/11 it became evident that we all had a role to play in emergency management, from your government agencies, to local hospitals and even individuals.”

In the years following the attacks, the Department of Homeland Security developed the National Incident Management System (NIMS), a comprehensive approach to coordinating government and private sector partners during disasters and emergencies.

“We had been working to develop a common emergency management language amongst our government partners before 9/11, but after the attacks, as more incidents happened, we began to develop that common language and common mission by using NIMS,” said Lake-Greenfield.

Today, every staff member at NCH undergoes NIMS training through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), to ensure that in the case of an emergency, all staff members understand their role and responsibilities during a worst-case scenario.

“We always build our plans off a worst-case scenario because that’s when we can identify issues like staffing, stress and resource constraints,” said Georges Beckford, a New York firefighting veteran and Nurse Educator at NCH. “During a disaster, some people naturally respond well, and some collapse, that’s why its so important to train and prepare your team so they have that experience to fall back when a disaster strikes.”

In the decades following the September 11^th attacks, NCH has consistently worked with public and private partners to ensure a high degree of preparedness should a disaster ever strike Nantucket.

“When I first came to NCH, the largest emergency incident we had was a porch collapse, after 9/11 we went from preparing for porch collapses to preparing for plane crashes,” said Lake-Greenfield. “We started to run more and more drills, when there was a major event on Nantucket, we would physically take out the supplies we would need and run through how we would use them during a crisis.”

One of the most significant changes since the attacks, according to Beckford, is the level of interest the public has in playing their part during disasters.

“All the knowledge we were developing as first responders or clinicians we would turn around and give it to the public,” said Beckford. “The public began making emergency kits, learning first aid and had an enormous appetite to learn about what they can do to prepare themselves and their families for an emergency. This preparedness meant that patients could be stabilized well before they arrived in our emergency room.”

Two decades after the September 11^th attacks, Americans are more prepared than ever to respond to a disaster, both through individual desires to stay safe during an emergency, but also through the lessons learned over decades of training and responding complex emergencies. Nowhere is this refined preparedness more evident, than in today’s hospitals, as we emerge from one of the most complex crises demanding interagency support, and public understanding.

“COVID-19 has reiterated this need for preparedness, today, everyone from our housekeepers to our labor and delivery nurses are trained in emergency management, because as we’ve seen during these last 18-months, we expect everyone to play their role during a crisis,” said Lake-Greenfield.

Nantucket Cottage Hospital hosted its 110th Annual Meeting virtually on Friday, August 20th, 2021, led by Craig Muhlhauser, Chair of the Board of Trustees, and Gary Shaw, President and CEO, the meeting focused on the future of healthcare on the island through primary care and whole-person health and wellness.

NCH announced five annual awards to staff and community members who have made significant contributions to the mission of NCH over the past year, including:

Seinfeld/Hartmann Award for Compassionate Care:

• Ugne Aleknaite, NP – “Ugne is currently the Program Leader for Hematology-Oncology at Nantucket Cottage Hospital, where she provides direct patients care, ranging from diagnosis to chemotherapy and advance care planning for patients on Nantucket. Aleknaite holds a Master of Science in Nursing from Mass General Hospital Institute of Health Professionals and is a Certified Nurse Practitioner with certifications in Adult Gerontology Primary Care from American Nurses Credentialing Center, Chemotherapy Biotherapy, and Functional Medicine. As a program leader, Ugne was recognized by family members of those in her care for providing exceptional care during their loved ones in their final months of life. One Family member noted, “Ugne has a really special way of being able to deliver devastating news with empathy and true humanity. So many medical professionals could learn from her, how to be empathetic and caring, but also how to be realistic and honest. It is a real balance that I have rarely seen in a caregiver. When my (Family Member’s) condition was deteriorating, she spoke to us with such grace, but also with an understanding that the news she was delivering would change our lives.”

Sandy Craig Leadership Award:

• Dr. Elizabeth Hallett – “When Dr. Elizabeth Hallett became the Superintendent of the Nantucket Public Schools on July 1, 2020 in the midst of the COVID-19 global pandemic she was stepping into an extraordinary leadership challenge. 5 weeks later she presented the community with a 50 page comprehensive plan for safely reopening the Nantucket Public Schools in a new hybrid model of education. Throughout the pandemic Dr. Hallett coordinated closely with NCH and the Nantucket Department of Health to provide for the safety of NPS employees, students and their families.”

Bruce A. Percelay Philanthropy Award:

• Melanie Sabelhaus – “Melanie Sabelhaus has been a member of the Board of Trustees and Chair or co-Chair of the Marketing and Development committee since 2018. Her impact on philanthropy at NCH goes back much further. She has Chaired the Boston Pops on Nantucket twice and her energy and innovations transformed the Pops into Nantucket’s most treasured event. She was also a founding co-chair of the popular annual Women+Wellness event. Most recently, her relentless effort to build support for NCH despite the cancellation of The Pops concert in 2020 and 2021 has been critical to NCH’s financial stability.”

Phil Murray Business Award:

• 97.7 ACK-FM, Nantucket’s ‘True Island Radio’ – “The radio and digital media company is a trusted media partner that was instrumental in communicating NCH’s messages to the community throughout the pandemic. As information during the pandemic was constantly evolving, NCH relied on Executive Vice President, Laura Burnett and her team to quickly relay messages to the community and their efforts contributed significantly to the success of the testing and vaccination programs. In 2021, 97.7 ACK-FM gave additional support to NCH in the form of a gift in memory of Dr. Robert Shapiro. Owned by Jeff Shapiro, the company’s media products include the radio stations 97.7 ACK-FM and 89.5 Quahog Country, and the digital newsletters Daybreak and Mahon About Town.”

Myrt Eldridge Volunteer of the Year:

• Meryl Bralower – “Meryl is one of three women who co-founded Women+Wellness, an annual event that brings likeminded individuals together to learn about health and wellness-related topics from NCH and MGB clinicians. Since founding the event in 2017, Meryl has co-chaired each year’s event and personally recruited leading MGH clinicians as speakers Meryl is the consummate volunteer who is always willing to cheerful address and challenge.”

The NCH Board of Trustees also welcomed one new member, Lisa Clarey-Lawler, and thanked three outgoing members, Jack Burke, Bruce Chabner and Liz Winship.

Gary A. Shaw, President & CEO of Nantucket Cottage Hospital, together with Craig Muhlhauser, Chair of the Board of Trustees, invite you to Nantucket Cottage Hospital’s 110th Annual Meeting.

Friday, August 20th, 2021 from 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 noon
UPDATE: The event will only take place virtually. Register and join at this link: https://partners.zoom.us/j/83214663024 

The annual meeting will include an update on the state of hospital operations as well as strategic plans for the future. We will also recognize several volunteers and staff members who have provided exemplary service and leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic.