The TV and "tech" room at Mid Coast Hospital’s Behavioral Health Unit (BHU). Imagine being without your phone, computer or iPad for weeks at a time. That’s the reality for many behavioral health patients. In inpatient behavioral health units, phones are taken from patients at admission and tech products are banned from [...]

As opioid overdoses continue to take the lives of drug users in the U.S., healthcare workers are looking for creative ways to educate the public on the use of naloxone, a nasal spray that reverses the effects of opioids. When used correctly, naloxone can save a life. Naloxone (widely known by its brand name [...]

Heather Carll, of Maine Medical Center’s (MMC) Environmental Services (EVS) department, manages a team that comprises many employees who are non-native English speakers. Heather was concerned they might not understand the written safety labels on bottles that contain strong disinfectants and other chemicals they use in their daily work. She came up with a simple, [...]

UNE: Chancel Diazenza, Morgan Desmond, Cameron Mann, Matthew McDonald, Izzi Marcea, and Kyle Woodruff. SMHC: Jennifer Smith, Sarah Warner, Melissa Allen, Kathleen Sheehan-Tartre, and Hannah Ambrose. You and your colleagues are heroes on a mission. You walk into a mock patient room; the door “locks” behind you. You’re equipped with a QR [...]

When pediatric patients require infusion therapy, the experience can often make them feel anxious or nervous. Infusions require placing an IV in the child’s arm or using a needle to access a port within the chest, procedures that can be uncomfortable and scary for kids. Dr. Aaron Weiss, Nurse Amanda McGeachey and their colleagues [...]

Doug Johnston, MD (left) and Chris Racine, MD (right) reviewing a FRST screening. Assessing the risk of violence in behavioral health patients can be tricky, especially when the patient is admitted to the emergency department (ED) and there isn’t an opportunity for a comprehensive violence risk assessment. To make the assessment process [...]

Left to right: Leah Bauer, MD; Jorie Catlin, PMHNP; Alyssa Rouleau, PMHNP; Sara Jacobson, PMHNP; David Dettmann, DO Providers at Mid Coast Hospital’s inpatient behavioral health unit have long been challenged with demanding shifts and rigid on-call schedules, which sometimes resulted in burnout and low morale. Dr. Leah Bauer noticed the effect [...]

When the MaineHealth IT team identified the need for a telehealth solution that was affordable, easy to use, and interfaced with internal MaineHealth technology, they searched nationwide to find a suitable product. Their search turned up nothing that met all of their needs, so they decided to assemble their own device. Having an extensive [...]