As we get a glimpse of the light at the end of the pandemic tunnel this summer, I think back to the early stages of the pandemic when celebrities, government officials, and media framed the viral outbreak as the “great equalizer.” A virus is incapable of discrimination, and many people (mostly coming from a place...

Maternity care has been on my mind lately. Mainly because my family is expecting our second child this summer and because of how new state policies intersect with our perinatal bundle. During this last legislative session, I watched with enthusiasm as Senate Bill 5068, that extended Medicaid coverage up to 12 months after a person...

Much of our conversation in the opioid prescribing for older adults workgroup has focused on how one’s body is psychologically different with each passing decade – metabolism, risk of side effects, pros and cons of different treatments. Our bodies tend to change in predictable ways. In addition to this body-focused process, the socio-political-cultural world in...

Vaccines are a revelation – countless lives saved and countless more improved due to not contracting a disease. The rapid development, production, and dissemination of our newest vaccine, to SARS-COV-2, is an even more remarkable addition to this legacy. Even more, our collective ability to pivot gives us leverage to push back when anyone in...

Our Bree Collaborative website is now more fully part of the Foundation for Health Care Quality – see our new address here: www.qualityhealth.org/bree/. All the content you know (and love) will be easier to access – you can see our past topics here and current topics including all meeting materials here: Cervical Cancer Screening Opioid...

At last week’s Bree Collaborative meeting we adopted an primary care recommendations as well as voted to adopt adding pediatric care to last year’s perinatal bundle. Read our Perinatal Bundle | Read our Primary Care Recommendations We have leaned into bundled payments to solve some of the quality issues for specific clinical services for a...

Nearly all of us have moved in some way or another into operating within the virtual space. My family spent a virtual holiday followed by a virtual new year’s celebration with family and friends. As a community, we have shifted to virtual clinical care, wondering all the while whether we are achieving the same outcomes...

As the Bree Collaborative closes out 2020, I cannot help but be proud that despite the stress and tumult, we continued to bring people together to channel frustration into insight and forward-thinking healthcare transformation. January and February saw the start of Amy’s visits to our pilot site clinics for in-person practice coaching and the initiation…

Through this pandemic, I have found great solace in the garden. As we move into November, I am watching my winter garden of broccoli, kale, and cabbage grow and am tucking my soil away for a period of winter dormancy. Winter can encourage (or force) us all to turn inward, especially as we are barred…

I have been thinking a lot about grief recently.  How grief is deeply personal, is nonlinear in its stages, how it pervades every aspect of our lives regardless of our conscious awareness of the emotions in real time.  I have been thinking about all the things there are to grief right now – the incomprehensible…