News & Events

Day in the Life: Pharmacy Community Health Workers

Community Health Workers are an integral part of the pharmacy team. They are essential in establishing positive, supportive and trusting relationships with both patients and colleagues. Their work is greatly appreciated by all!

• Serve as Patient Advocates
  • Main point of contact for patients assisting them with understanding care plans and completing consent forms
• Schedule pharmacy related patient visits
  • Conduct outreach for identified patients to schedule appointments for Medication Therapy Management, Collaborative Drug Therapy Management, Transitions of Care and Immunizations
• Assist pharmacists by interpreting for patient visits
  • MTM, CDTM, Medbox adherence packaging, Medication pick-up
• Provide Cultural Competency
  • Educate staff on Puerto Rican diseases and foods
  • Perform staff medical terminology training and teach conversational phrases
• Complete patient needs assessments
  • Transportation, community barriers, preferred language, literacy
• Oversee pharmacy’s community service project “Sharing is Caring”
• Conduct Community Outreach
  • Attend community-related events at schools and health fairs
  • Assist with reaching patients affected by fire to help identify medication needs and location for them to be delivered
    • Fire on South Bridge Street on 7-1-22 – replacement of 45 prescriptions including behavioral health, diabetic, blood pressure, infant medications

Holyoke Health Center will be closed 6/20 for the Holiday. 

A Day in the Life – Compliance & Risk Management, Security Team

By Carrie Matusko, RN – Director of Compliance/Risk Management

After our basic needs are met (food, water, shelter, clothing, sleep) what is the next thing that we, as humans, crave?  If you said Safety and Security you would be in agreement with Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.  According to Maslow, human actions are motivated by physiological needs.  In short, this means when our basic needs are met we are more productive.  In turn, the safer we feel the more comfortable we are in performing our daily routines and activities.

The mission of the Security Team is to help ensure all patients and visitors feel safe when they are at the health center.  Their training in non-violent de-escalation techniques help provide the best and safest outcome possible in a variety of situations including when a patient, visitor or staff member may not be at their best and are either acting out or just need help with a difficult situation they are experiencing.  Whether assisting to de-escalate a tense situation or helping people to get the assistance they need, the team works non-stop on safety items.

Holyoke, MA: Holyoke Health Center, located at 230 Maple Street in Holyoke, is pleased to announce the grand re-opening of their Dental Clinic satellite site at the Western Massachusetts Hospital. The Holyoke Health Center Dental Clinic at Western Massachusetts Hospital, is located at 91 E Mountain Road, in Westfield, MA. On Thursday, April 28th at 10:00am, the Holyoke Health Center hosted a grand re-opening event to showcase the newly renovated Dental Clinic and welcome back new and existing patients to our dental practice.

The Holyoke Health Center has worked in partnership with the Western Massachusetts Hospital with a dental clinic at this location for over ten years. On the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the dental clinic temporarily closed its door due to COVID-19 regulations and staffing shortages caused by the pandemic. During the closure of the Western Massachusetts Hospital satellite site, the Dental Clinic was renovated to include an addition dental operatory for a total of 4 operatories at this location. The renovations also included an X-ray room and additional staff offices. Grant funding was used to expand the Dental Clinic to allow for more patients and community members to be treated at this location as well as new state of the art equipment.

Dr. Deviprasad Makonahally, Dentist at the HHC Dental Clinic at Western Massachusetts Hospital, says, “I am excited to welcome patients back to our Dental Clinic, we have more operatories to serve more patients and we look forward to bringing in new community members who are in need of a dental home.”

Thank you to all that were able to attend the ribbon-cutting. It was an honor to see Westfield Mayor, Mike McCab, Senator John Velis, Chamber of Commerce's Eric Ouellette, City Council members William Onyski and Bridget Matthews-Kane, Anthony Distefano from Western Mass Hospital, and Brian Sutton from Baystate Noble Hospital.