Lynn Community Health Center building
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LCHC Staff

By Alice Lee

June 30, 2020

The Lynn Community Health Center (LCHC) demonstrates how one organization with scarce resources can respond to a problem as daunting as a global pandemic using the same know-how and thinking -- lean thinking -- they have used to solve many problems over the years.

“If you truly believe lean is your operating system, then you don’t stop when a pandemic hits.”  – LEI coach Alice Lee’s respectful challenge to Dr. Kiame Mahaniah, CEO LCHC, March 2020 It is easy to quit thinking and doing lean on any given day but easiest of all when disaster strikes. Who would blame you? As an emergent crisis descends, many organizations activate an incident command center and appoint a leader most suited for the particular disaster. In the case of a global pandemic with many unknowns, healthcare organizations around the world appointed their Chief Medical Officer, a trained physician. At the Lynn Community Health Center (LCHC), the CEO appointed Kimberly Eng, the COO, former chief of staff, and a trained industrial engineer and lean thinking leader. What guided the CEO’s decision?

https://www.lean.org/the-lean-post/articles/using-lean-thinking-to-create-an-emergency-management-system/

By Josh Howell

June 9, 2020

Dr. Kiame Mahaniah, the CEO of Lynn Community Health Center, shares the message he wrote to his staff about finding a path toward healing after the recent spate of racial violence and resulting civil unrest.

Over the past four years, LEI has worked with the Lynn Community Health Center (LCHC) in Lynn, MA, about ten miles northeast of Boston. We hope we have been helpful but are certain that we’ve learned an enormous amount about the challenge of delivering high-quality healthcare to a multicultural community hard-pressed for resources.

https://www.lean.org/the-lean-post/articles/searching-for-a-path-toward-healing/

LYNN — As the city prepares to reopen, Lynn Community Health Center is launching a campaign to encourage more residents to get tested for COVID-19. The purpose of the campaign is to provide Lynn Community Health Center and other health officials in the city with a better sense of how widespread the virus is in the community. Dr. Geoff Pechinsky, LCHC chief medical officer, said the city’s seven-day positive rate, which at 29.62 percent is about three times higher than the state average, could indicate that not enough people are getting tested. For example, Pechinsky said the high rate, which is 22 percent at LCHC, could indicate that only the sickest people are getting tested for the coronavirus, which could be skewing results and preventing health officials from getting a handle on community spread. “We know the reason (for the higher rate) is we’re just not testing enough people,” said Pechinsky. “We’re offering testing here for people who are not symptomatic but have been in contact with people who have had COVID.” The LCHC campaign, which kicked off this week, is focused on reaching out to Lynn businesses that rely on “customer-facing work,” such as barbershops, salons and food preparation, with an offer to test their employees before they return from furlough. ...

https://www.itemlive.com/2020/06/04/lynn-health-center-pushes-for-more-virus-testing/

LYNN — Lynn Community Health Center has received a $715,000 federal boost for its coronavirus testing capacity, and the facility’s healthcare employees will also receive some financial relief through union-negotiated temporary wage increases. Distributed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the  federal grant was awarded through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. The new grant supplements the $1.228 million stimulus grant the health center received last month through the $2 trillion coronavirus economic relief package that passed through Congress and was signed by President Donald Trump in late March. “Better late than never,” said U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton in a statement. “This news is long overdue, but it’s good news for everyone. We’ve known since the beginning of this that testing is critical. To have any chance of reopening safely, we need much more testing, and this is a step in that direction.” Unlike the initial funding, which the health center was able to put toward making up for its loss of revenue and additional expenses it had incurred during the pandemic, the latest grant is specifically earmarked for coronavirus testing, according to LCHC CEO Dr. Kiame Mahaniah. “We’re not billing people for the tests, the lab that’s running the tests will not be billing patients either,” said Mahaniah. “This funding allows us to deliver on the federal government’s promise that you can get tested and treated for coronavirus illness regardless of insurance. “Our goal from a public health standpoint is to be able to test about 500 people a day, so that’s what we’re going to do. This funding allows us to consider reaching that goal without figuring out how to charge or bill people. It allows us to focus on delivering that needed service to the city of Lynn.” ...

https://www.itemlive.com/2020/05/13/lchc-gets-more-grant-money-for-tests-caregivers-given-crisis-pay/

Elena Weber, NP, reads for Lynn Public Library

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdvAubeLpX4&feature=youtu.be

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