4 HEALTH • Summer 2018
C E N T R A L M A S S A C H U S E T T S
Worcester Business Journal Editor
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HEALTH Editor
Emily Micucci, emicucci@wbjournal.com
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A division of:
HEALTH
{ From The Editor }
T
he way people receive health care isn't what it used to be. Patients don't necessarily go to
a hospital as much as they used to for many services, thanks to outpatient clinics. Even
surgeries are more likely to be performed outside an acute hospital: just look to the new
Surgery Center in Shrewsbury, which opened in June with nine operating rooms to
serve what is expected to be 10,000 patients per year for orthopedic procedures and
plastic surgeries.
For underserved populations, it can be easy to get lost in those changes. But community health
centers are more often filling the void, as Livia Gershon explains in our story. At the Family Health
Center in Worcester, for example, 83 percent of patients use Medicaid or Medicare. The center's
patient traffic rose 29 percent from 2009 to last year.
Primary care is the foundation for good health, and it's a critical topic I'm happy to feature in this
issue as I fill in as editor of HEALTH.
There's plenty else to dive into as well. This year marks the 20th anniversary of the formation of
UMass Memorial Health Care, which was formed when then-rivals UMass Medical Center and
Memorial Hospital joined. Clinton and Marlborough hospitals had recently joined UMass, and
HealthAlliance came on board around the same time as Memorial. Suddenly, Central Massachusetts
had what remains a major player in Massachusetts health care. A wave of mergers in the industry has
continued, and it's not expected to end today.
As anyone who has been to a physical lately may have noticed, information technology is
becoming — belatedly, compared to other sectors — a bigger piece of the health care experience.
Many patients remain hesitant about their medical information being on computers instead of on
paper. Change is coming though, as UMass Memorial Health Care's transition last fall to electronic
medical records showed. A Marlborough firm, Versatile, has launched a healthcare IT arm that it
expects to take advantage of this trend.
Susan Shalhoub has written a story that explores the way some Central Massachusetts companies
are making it easier for employees to get some exercise on the job. Some workplaces have on-site
gyms and others even just standings desks, while others are encouraged to take a short walk or, in
one case, even play a game of cornhole. We all work in different environments, but the benefits of
exercise never change.
- Grant Welker, WBJ news editor
Primare care is changing, but just
as critical as ever
Central Massachusetts HEALTH is published 4
times a year by New Engand Business Media LLC.
