2020 Report to the Community

Stories of our work in the community

Throughout Maryland and the Washington, D.C., region, MedStar Health works with communities to increase healthcare access and provide education. Our goal is to improve the health and well-being of all residents as we serve our patients, those who care for them, and our communities.

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  Combating the opioid crisis through Drug Take Back Day

  Pictured above are members of the MedStar Health pharmacy team with one of the prescription drug disposal bins.

  Often prescribed for surgery, pain management or a lost loved one, unused prescription medications can be found in household medicine cabinets throughout our communities—putting them in danger of falling into the wrong hands.

  A study by the Journal of the American Medical Association reveals that as many as 92% of patients who are prescribed opioids after surgery do not use all of their pills. And 77% of patients do not store their prescription opioids in locked containers.*

  In an effort to help community members rid of unwanted prescription drugs safely and anonymously, MedStar Health has joined National Drug Take Back Day, an annual effort held every fall by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

  “People generally don’t want to keep old, expired, dangerous medications laying around in their home. However, from what we have seen, many people just don’t know what to do with them,” says Michael Glaser, outpatient pharmacy manager of Operations at MedStar Health. “Programs like this help us provide information and guidance to the community on how to dispose of these unwanted medications safely.”

  As a five-year sponsor of National Drug Take Back Day, MedStar Health hosts drop-off locations at MedStar Washington Hospital Center, MedStar Montgomery Medical Center, MedStar Franklin Square Medical Center, MedStar Union Memorial Hospital, and MedStar Good Samaritan Hospital. Outside of this annual event, prescription drug disposal is available at all MedStar Health pharmacies year-round.

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  Educating underserved communities about the risks of colorectal cancer

  Pictured above are community members receiving health education information.

  Mary Douglas-Brown is always looking for ways to help fellow members of her church learn how to take charge of their health. The 70-year-old member of Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church in Northeast Washington, D.C., is a breast cancer survivor and knows firsthand that education and early detection are key to preventing and surviving many diseases.
  
  “We just need to be more aware of what’s happening with our bodies,” says the Hyattsville resident. “When we know better, we do better.”
  
  That’s why several times a year, she hosts health education events at her church, enlisting a number of community resources to spread the word about important health and lifestyle topics.
  
  One of those resources she calls is Lynel McFadden, one of our community navigators at MedStar Washington Hospital Center. McFadden is one of three community navigators serving as the boots on the ground for MedStar Health’s Colorectal Cancer Prevention in the Neighborhood program. She gives presentations, conducts classes, and informs residents about the risks of colorectal cancer.
  
  “The overall goal is to save lives by educating and dispelling myths about colorectal cancer,” says McFadden, a breast cancer survivor who uses her own story as an example of the importance of early detection.
  
  Launched in 2016, the program deploys members of the community, like McFadden, to promote and facilitate colorectal cancer screening to the area’s most underserved communities.
  
  Through events at churches, nursing homes, restaurants, and community centers, the team provides educational presentations, videos, and materials. They also give residents free take-home colorectal screening kits to complete at home and mail in for testing.
  
  McFadden always follows up within a week to ask residents if they’ve sent in their kit, and to encourage them to do so if they haven’t. She says sometimes it takes two or three calls before they finally return their kits for testing, but she uses each conversation as an opportunity to establish a relationship of trust. “It’s important that they know we’re not just breezing into their community, giving out these kits, and breezing out. I let them know I’m here because I care.”

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  Helping to reduce violent crime in the community

  Pictured above is Keith Brown, a Safe Streets hospital responder and lifelong resident of Cherry Hill in Baltimore.

  A teenager with a gunshot wound. A man whose hand is bloodied and broken from a fist fight. A mother with a black eye that she claims came from a fall. On any given day in the Emergency Department (ED) at MedStar Harbor Hospital, Keith Brown could encounter a patient in need of his intervention and help.
  
  As one of two hospital responders, Brown is called when a patient admitted with a violence-based injury agrees to talk with someone who could help. In this case, that someone isn’t one of our medical professionals—but instead a neighbor, a peer and a trusted face in the community. “I just try to be there and let them know that I can help,” says Brown, 45, a lifelong resident of Cherry Hill, the Baltimore community that neighbors MedStar Harbor Hospital. “I tell them that I was once where they were.”
  
  Brown says he was once “part of the problem” as a young man heavily involved in street violence. As a result, he was shot nine times and spent years in jail before starting a new chapter in his life.
  
  “Now that I’m older and in a position to do better, I want to reach out to help the kids out there who need it,” he says. “I want to be that example in the community.”

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  Integrating crucial health services to improve health for the region’s most at-risk infants

  Pictured above are Dr. Janine Rethy, chief of Community Pediatrics at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital, with a new mom and her baby.

  Pregnant mothers and women with newborns and infants in the most underserved communities in Washington, D.C., can look to their MedStar Health physician’s office to provide more than medical services.
  
  Andrea Pitts knows that firsthand.
  
  “I was coming up short at the end of the month,” says Pitts, a 36-year-old mother of three, including an infant. “So when I got the call about signing up for this service, I thought it was a blessing.”
  
  The service is a weekly meal delivery program offered to patients in need as part of the D.C. Safe Babies Safe Moms initiative, a program made possible through a historic $27 million endowment from the A. James & Alice B. Clark Foundation. It’s the largest philanthropic donation in MedStar Health history.
  
  The initiative aims to give mothers and babies in the region’s most at-risk communities easy and immediate access to a range of critical services needed to live healthier lives. These services include prenatal and postpartum care, nutrition education, mental and behavioral health services, healthy meal delivery, housing and transportation assistance, legal services, and help navigating health insurance and social service programs.
  
  “We’ve found that a holistic approach is the best way to serve the needs of our families,” says Janine Rethy, MD, chief of Community Pediatrics at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital. “We start by considering the patient perspective to determine how we can help mothers get the care they need with as few barriers as possible.”
  
  The approach includes integrating all aspects of health and overall well-being, and connecting patients to support at the point of service, instead of offering a referral or recommendation and assuming the patients will follow up on their own.
  
  “When families have other, more pressing concerns to deal with in their daily lives, they may not take the time to figure out what to do with a referral,” Rethy says. “It’s critical that we give them a warm handoff directly to partners that can help them right away.”
  
  

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  Responding quickly to help a community access COVID-19 testing

  Pictured above, a Medstar Health associate prepares to administer a Covid-19 test at MedStar St. Mary’s Hospital.

  At a Thursday afternoon press conference in the spring of 2020, Maryland Governor Larry Hogan issued his first round of statewide closures due to the rise in COVID-19 cases, announcing that all public schools would officially close the following Monday.
  
  On the very next day, MedStar St. Mary’s Hospital opened its drive-through COVID-19 testing site—becoming the first hospital in the region to offer residents drive-through testing for the virus.
  
  “We understood very early on that testing was critical to reducing community spread,” says Stephen Michaels, MD, chief operating officer and chief medical officer, MedStar St. Mary’s Hospital. “We’re a small but nimble organization, and we knew we had the capacity to get this set up quickly and efficiently.”
  
  He says the first step in getting the testing site operational was brainstorming ideas on ways to allow for traffic flow. Since the hospital had previously conducted drive-up community flu clinics, Dr. Michaels realized a similar setup would be ideal for administering COVID-19 tests.
  
  After addressing other logistical concerns, and acquiring enough Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for associates, the hospital was ready to offer testing.
  
  Being among the first testing sites of its kind in the region caused “a significant rush” in the early weeks, Dr. Michaels says, with some patients driving from as far as eight hours away to get tested.

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  Supporting expectant and new mothers on their journey to recovery

  Pictured above, Lakeitha Gross, a peer recovery coach meets with a patient at MedStar Franklin Square Medical Center.

  At first glance, many of us wouldn’t know if an expectant mother is also quietly battling alcohol or substance addiction. But Lakeitha Gross would.
  
  She knows a lot about the long road to recovery from substance use—because she’s traveled it. And now, as a peer recovery coach at MedStar Franklin Square Medical Center she is helping expectant and new mothers get the help and ongoing support they need to seek treatment, stay clean, and live healthier lives for themselves and their children.
  
  “I’ve walked the walk, so I know firsthand what they’re dealing with. And I know it’s not easy,” says Gross, who at one time had a peer recovery coach herself. “I tell them about my own experience, let them know they are not alone and that I’m here to help.”
  
  And that help begins with a simple screening at the patient’s routine Ob/Gyn appointment.
  
  As the sole peer recovery coach in our Department of Ob/Gyn and Women’s Health Services at MedStar Franklin Square Medical Center, Gross’s role is a key part of the department’s Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) program.
  
  Launched in the Ob/Gyn department in April 2019, the SBIRT program is designed to identify those expectant and new mothers who are facing extreme challenges at home and connect them with the resources they need. These challenges include anything from housing and transportation needs to food insecurity and legal struggles.
  
  “Most of the time, substance use is a result of things like trauma, depression, unhealthy living situations, and other circumstances that can make life so hard,” says Gross. “But normally, these things wouldn’t even be discussed at a regular Ob/Gyn appointment. So we would have no way of knowing someone needs help.”
  
  Since implementing the SBIRT program, nurses and patient care technicians now ask every obstetrics patient the same series of screening questions regarding frequency of alcohol consumption, history of drug use, mental health concerns, living situation, domestic violence, and other issues vital to a patient’s overall well-being. If a patient’s answers reflect a need for additional followup, that’s where Gross comes in.

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  Using avatar-enabled technology to monitor heart failure patients at home

  Pictured above, Michael Leggett, a MedStar Health patient, uses a tablet to check into an app that helps him keep track of his daily vital signs and symptoms.

  Since being diagnosed with cardio sarcoidosis, a condition that commonly results in heart failure, Michael Leggett has made it a point to stay on top of his weight, diet, and daily medications to keep himself healthy. When his primary care physician at MedStar Washington Hospital Center asked if he would be interested in participating in a study that would give him more power over monitoring his vitals and symptoms daily, he was eager to give it a try.
  
  The MedStar Health study, in partnership with artificial intelligence company ObEN Inc., equipped Leggett with a tablet device to take home. The tablet included an app preloaded with personalized information about Leggett’s health history. For the next 90 days, he was required to check into the app daily to answer questions about his weight, salt intake, and daily medications. He was also asked about symptoms—confirming if he’s been experiencing shortness of breath, swollen ankles, or coughing. And the “person” asking these questions was a 3-D healthcare assistant avatar named Tara.
  
  “I thought it was really progressive technology,” said the 63-year-old grandfather. “It was easy to check in every morning and answer her questions. It didn’t take long at all.”
  
  Leggett’s answers to these questions were relayed in real time to a patient dashboard monitored by our nurses. The responses are color-coded, making it easy to quickly identify those patients experiencing serious symptoms. For example, if a patient answers “yes” to experiencing chest pains or to gaining more than three pounds in a day, those answers appear on the dashboard in bright red to alert the nurses on the other end.
  
  “If severe symptoms like these are present, the patient’s physician and nurse are texted immediately,” says Nawar Shara, PhD, director, Department of Biostatistics and Biomedical Informatics, MedStar Health Research Institute. Dr. Shara recalls one patient in the study whose answers one day prompted an alert. She was immediately connected to her physician, who determined she needed to be admitted to the hospital right away.
  
  “Her physician believes that had she not been admitted that day, a massive heart attack would have occurred,” Dr. Shara says. “So this study, indeed, saved her life.”

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  Using technology to deliver health programs outside of the hospital

  Pictured above, members of the MedStar Health community health team host a virtual childbirth education class.

  Expectant mothers, especially those having a baby for the first time, have a laundry list of questions, concerns, and fears about delivering and caring for their newborns. Many enroll in classes to get the information they need to prepare for their babies’ big arrival. But once the country began suspending indoor services due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many parents-to-be found themselves wondering whether they could still access these valuable resources.
  
  Amanda Huster was one of those expectant parents.
  
  “This was my first child, and there was a lot that I didn’t know,” said the 28-year-old Essex resident, who was four months pregnant when she began looking into classes offered at MedStar Franklin Square Medical Center. “I would have preferred to take classes in person but that wasn’t possible.”
  
  With the help of technology, our Community Health team at MedStar Franklin Square and other MedStar Health locations throughout the area were still able to conduct these all-too important classes—and participants never had to leave their homes.
  
  Huster did not waste time signing up. She registered for all virtual classes offered by her hospital, covering topics such as childbirth, breastfeeding and infant care and safety.
  
  “The classes were much better than what I had expected,” she says. “They did a great job of sending out all of the materials beforehand, so I was prepared. And it was easy to see the instructor and ask her questions.” Although she says in-person classes would have been preferred, she’s happy the virtual option was offered in its place.
  
  “Considering everything going on in the world right now, and me being pregnant, it was much safer to take these classes at home,” says Huster, adding that when her baby boy Caleb arrived in September, the information she learned in her virtual classes came in handy in her real-life role as mom. “I just felt like I was more prepared to deal with everything. I would definitely take the classes again, whether they are offered virtually or not.”
  
  

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