A Visit to a Team That is Doing Great Things

The opioid epidemic is getting a lot of press lately. We healthcare providers realize the role that we have played in causing the epidemic with our liberal use of narcotics for pain management. We are now acting to reduce this use and we are making great strides. Unfortunately, it will take a long time to reduce the number of those who have become addicted.

A few months ago, Dr. Andrey Ostrovsky, a pediatrician and the Chief Executive Officer of Concerted Care, LLC, an organization that treats addiction, came to visit GBMC with several of the members of his leadership team. They went on our Lean Daily Management walk with us and we spent some time learning from each other about care improvement. 

Last week, several of us from GBMC went to see the Concerted Care operation in Baltimore City on 25^th Street. We were extremely impressed with the system of care that they have created for hundreds of addicted Baltimoreans. They prescribe and distribute methadone and they provide individual and group counseling for their patients. Dr. Ostrovsky also showed us some houses that they rented to provide living quarters for some who were also homeless.

We spent time with them in a team-building exercise called “The Marshmallow Game,” which is designed to create innovative thinking. As much as Concerted Care is doing, they believe that they could do even better, but it will require new ways of doing their work.

I left Concerted Care reflecting on how fortunate we are in Baltimore to have such dedicated people to care for those with tremendous medical and social needs. Rather than lament the difficulty of their work, they had found the energy to continually improve. We salute Dr. Ostrovsky and his team for all that they are doing to help our community!