In The News - Page 10 Of 26 - Lynn Community Health Center

LYNN — Free coronavirus testing will continue to be offered in the city of Lynn until mid-September. The testing, part of the state’s “Stop the Spread” initiative, was scheduled to end on Friday, but has been extended to Sept. 12 due to a recent spike in positive cases statewide. The initiative launched last month and consists of offering free coronavirus testing in hard-hit communities. At its launch, the initiative targeted eight communities, but has since expanded to 17, including Lynn, Chelsea and Revere. In Lynn, the majority of testing is offered through the Lynn Community Health Center at the center’s outdoor walk-through site in the Element Care parking lot on Buffum Street. Additional testing is also offered through Health Innovations/Healthy Streets Outreach Program, which has a mobile testing van set up at Lynn English High School four times a week. Dr. Kiame Mahaniah, CEO of Lynn Community Health Center, said he was pleased that the state opted to extend its testing initiative, given the rising case numbers that have been seen since late July. “I think for Lynn, it’s great because we’ve been seeing a rising rate in the past two weeks, so it’s great we can continue offering this service,” said Mahaniah. ...

https://www.itemlive.com/2020/08/10/free-covid-testing-in-lynn-extended-into-september/

LYNN — Free coronavirus testing will continue to be offered in the city of Lynn until mid-September. The testing, part of the state’s “Stop the Spread” initiative, was scheduled to end on Friday, but has been extended to Sept. 12 due to a recent spike in positive cases statewide. The initiative launched last month and consists of offering free coronavirus testing in hard-hit communities. At its launch, the initiative targeted eight communities, but has since expanded to 17, including Lynn, Chelsea and Revere. In Lynn, the majority of testing is offered through the Lynn Community Health Center at the center’s outdoor walk-through site in the Element Care parking lot on Buffum Street. Additional testing is also offered through Health Innovations/Healthy Streets Outreach Program, which has a mobile testing van set up at Lynn English High School four times a week. Dr. Kiame Mahaniah, CEO of Lynn Community Health Center, said he was pleased that the state opted to extend its testing initiative, given the rising case numbers that have been seen since late July. “I think for Lynn, it’s great because we’ve been seeing a rising rate in the past two weeks, so it’s great we can continue offering this service,” said Mahaniah. As of Saturday, the seven-day positive test rate at the health center is 9.6 percent, which is a significant spike from July 24, when the rate was 4 to 5 percent, Mahaniah said. After July 24, the rate steadily continued to rise, increasing from 6 percent on July 25 to 8 percent on July 27, 9 percent on July 30 and then stabilizing around 10 percent over the past week-plus, Mahaniah said. Although people have taken advantage of the free testing offered through the “Stop the Spread” initiative, Mahaniah said he does not think that is leading to the recent virus surge in the city. ...

https://www.itemlive.com/2020/08/10/free-covid-testing-in-lynn-extended-into-september/

Kennedy tours health center, meets with frontline workers

https://lynnjournal.com/2020/07/22/kennedy-tours-lynn-community-health-center-meets-with-frontline-workers/

LYNN — Community health organizations have been teaming up to fight Lynn’s stubbornly high rates of COVID-19. The North Shore Medical Center has partnered with the Lynn Community Health Center, the city of Lynn and Mass General Brigham to launch “Keep Cases Down,” an education initiative focused on Lynn and several other struggling cities throughout the Commonwealth. Lynn remains a hot spot for COVID-19, with 578 active cases as of Sept. 22. The initiative includes a series of PSA videos in English, Spanish, and Portuguese, educating communities about mask etiquette and the importance of social distancing. The videos are narrated by community members including Lynn’s Carlos Cappas, who works as the Chief Behavioral Health Specialist at the Lynn Community Health Center. These videos are accompanied by educational texts sent through the Patient Gateway system along with digital, social media and billboard ads. “We want to teach people to social distance, wear a mask, wash their hands, and avoid large gatherings,” said North Shore Medical Center’s community benefits manager Tina McLoughlin. These ads are targeted toward several high-risk communities, including Lynn, Chelsea, Revere, Lawrence, Hyde Park, Mattapan, Mission Hill, Roxbury, Dorchester, East Boston, and Everett. The initiative began about a month ago in response to an uptick of COVID-19 cases in these areas. “We’re trying to get as many people as possible informed about the disease,” said Cindy Steger-Wilson, director of Marketing and Communications at the Lynn Community Health Center. “And to encourage testing.” ...

https://www.itemlive.com/2020/09/23/health-groups-join-forces-to-beat-back-coronavirus/

COVID-19 infection rates in Massachusetts may be down overall but they remain stubbornly high in some communities, including Lynn. To keep cases down in these hard-hit spots, North Shore Medical Center (NSMC), Lynn Community Health Center (LCHC), the City of Lynn and Mass General Brigham have collaborated on a public education and outreach campaign to increase testing and encourage residents to remain vigilant about avoiding the disease. For the past several months, NSMC has joined Lynn community partners to host a series of outreach events where residents can receive free COVID-19 testing and Care Kits containing masks, hand sanitizer, soap and information in multiple languages about avoiding COVID-19. To date more than 40,000 Care kits have been distributed to Lynn residents. NSMC is partnering with the City of Lynn to distribute an additional 15,000 kits in the upcoming weeks and with the Lynn Community Health Center to expand testing for area residents. ...

http://lynnjournal.com/2020/09/24/north-shore-medical-center-mass-general-brigham-join-lynn-city-leaders-to-fight-covid-19/

LYNN — The delivery of two new trailers next week will enable the Lynn Community Health Center to continue offering outdoor COVID-19 testing this winter. The 60-foot trailers, which will be delivered to the health center’s new testing site on Buffum Street next Thursday, will replace the tents that are currently used to protect patients and staff from the elements. The move, approved by both the Lynn City Council and Off-Street Parking Commission, became necessary after the building located on their current site in the Element Care parking lot, 9 Buffum St., was sold, according to Dr. Geoffrey Pechinsky, LCHC chief medical officer. Pechinsky said that regardless of what happened with the property, the health center was planning to move to a bigger site that was more conducive to having trailers during the winter months. Fortunately, there won’t be much of an adjustment for residents, as the new site is located across the street in the Buffum Street parking lot. With the cold and flu season coupled with an anticipated second wave of COVID-19 approaching, Pechinsky said the new, expanded walk-through site — slated to open later this month — will enable the health center to test up to 500 patients a day. “We have structured our staffing and operations to meet the demand for testing as it rises and falls in the community,” said Kim Eng, LCHC chief operating officer. “We are currently conducting between 150 and 200 tests per day, but at our peak in August we conducted over 300 tests per day. We anticipate our numbers will rise again as more people return to work, combined with the onset of cooler weather and flu seasons.” ...

https://www.itemlive.com/2020/10/08/lynn-community-health-center-ready-for-covid-and-the-cold/

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/

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/

COVID-19 Announcements In the News

LCHC has met the DPH requirements for Phase 1 reopening

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/