Our Integrated Network comprises private practice and employed physicians, and community and academic providers who have come together as equal partners in governing our Network and building healthy communities.

We are organized as one unified Network but with an operating focus on geographic regions where local care teams convene in clinical councils to ensure we can best manage risk and outcomes at a neighborhood level.

We define success as appropriately moving care out of hospitals, not into hospital beds. Our Network makes possible our vision to deliver care close to where people live, work and play.

Membership in our Integrated Network feels different. Hospitals are our partners; their bottom lines are not our Network’s purpose. Collaboration and collegiality are the attributes we value in our leaders and teams. Clear accountability for continuous improvement defines our culture and determines which providers are in – and which are out – of our Network.

A physician-led enterprise

Our Integrated Network is governed by a 12-person Board comprising eight practicing primary care and specialty physicians. Four other Trustees include a Tufts Medicine hospital representative, an independent Trustee, and Tufts Medicine’s Chief Physician Executive and Integrated Network President as ex officio members.

Central planning, local decision-making

Our Network sets an enterprise agenda for managing populations in value-based contracts, establishes performance goals, and designs best-practice systems.

Our Regional Clinical Councils develop strategies to organize local care teams to effectively manage populations and drive growth in geographic markets. Each Council convenes care teams from across the continuum to improve performance through activities such as unblinded peer-review of data, clinical care model design and clinical and cost performance monitoring. Councils are responsible for:

• Monitoring quality and cost, identifying gaps in the care continuum and addressing underperformance
• Defining strategies to address clinical under-performance and closing gaps in the continuum of care
• Reporting and managing financial performance in the regions and aligning resource allocations to Network goals

The Schwartz Center Rounds are unique, multi-disciplinary sessions in which hospital staff explore the emotional side of caregiving.

Presented in a typical rounds session, a panel of caregivers present a patient case that brought up interesting and important psychosocial issues. Hospital staff then share their own thoughts and feelings related to the day’s topic. Past topics have included:

• delivering bad news
• when religious or spiritual beliefs conflict with medical advice
• taking care of a colleague
• losing a patient

Benefits for staff

Unlike grand rounds, these sessions are not about clinical problem-solving, but rather about exploring and processing the emotions that come up in the daily work of hospital staff.

A comprehensive study of Schwartz Center Rounds has shown them to help caregivers connect better with patients emotionally, enhance their understanding of the effects of illness on patients and their families, improve communication among caregivers, decrease feelings of caregiver isolation and stress.

Dates and times of Schwartz Center Rounds are shared with staff via email. For more information, please call 781.979.3439.

A national program with sites across the country, Schwartz Center Rounds are funded by the Kenneth B. Schwartz Center, a Boston-based nonprofit dedicated to advancing compassionate healthcare. For more information about Schwartz Center Rounds, visit www.theschwartzcenter.org.

Excellence in nursing, superior patient care

We provide safe, quality patient care and promote competence, compassion, communication and critical thinking in health promotion and disease prevention across the continuum of life.

As professional nurses, we practice autonomously with accountability and responsibility in managing and coordinating patient care. We are committed to advocating for patients to achieve optimal patient outcomes. We are dedicated to providing comprehensive care guided by ethical principles and utilizing sound judgment.

Become a Tufts Medicine nurse

With rapid advances in technology and pharmaceuticals, all physicians must be engaged in lifelong learning.

Physicians are required to show an annual hourly commitment to earn continuing medical education, or CME, credit hours as a condition of medical licensure.

Our program brings prominent, local and national orators to educate clinicians on the latest medical advances.

MelroseWakefield Healthcare is accredited by the Massachusetts Medical Society to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

Inspiring a healthy community

We're here to support our community members throughout their lives. Our system offers an extensive array of programs, activities, and resources that promote healthy lifestyles and health education for everyone. We're here to help you with any challenges you may have, whether it's during emergencies, improving access to care, or addressing unique healthcare needs. We appreciate volunteers and donations for our programs. To get involved, call us at 781.338.7552. Let’s build a healthier community together.

We offer courses on a variety of topics aimed at promoting community safety, health and wellness.

We are committed to providing families with information to lead healthier lives through education and support programs. Our community health education classes are conducted by clinical staff, certified childbirth educators, CPR and first aid instructors and other educators. Classes are offered throughout the year.

We offer a variety of classes and attend community events, these are few of our most popular:

We develop programs to provide the needed services and support to the identified needs in the community.

Based on the community health needs assessment, our community programming is planned by the community benefits advisory council and by the board of trustees when the three-year community health implementation plan is approved.

• Community health implementation plan (2026-2028)
• Community health implementation plan (2022-2025)

Our areas of community health priorities are:

• Access to healthcare
• Behavioral health, including mental health and substance abuse
• Chronic disease prevention and management
• Disaster readiness and emergency preparedness, including climate change
• Housing stability and homelessness
• Income, poverty and food insecurity
• Preventable injuries and safety
• Violence and trauma

Copies are available in our patient access department at MelroseWakefield Hospital, human resource department at Lawrence Memorial Hospital of Medford, MelroseWakefield Medical Building, North Reading Senior Center, Saugus Senior Center, 101 Main Street in Medford, Hallmark Health Medical Center in Reading, MelroseWakefield Diagnostic Imaging in Stoneham, Everett WIC office and community service department in Malden.
 

Assessing the current health status and needs of the communities we serve.

For our communities, our community health needs assessment defines our primary and secondary health priorities to be addressed and identifies opportunities for optimizing population health improvement.

This assessment is completed every three years, as required by state and federal law. It guides the planning and implementation of our three-year community health implementation plan.

• 2025 community health needs assessment summary and report
• 2022 community health needs assessment summary and report

Copies available for public review

Copies are available in our patient access department at MelroseWakefield Hospital; human resource department at Lawrence Memorial Hospital of Medford; MelroseWakefield Medical Building in Wakefield; North Reading Senior Center; Saugus Senior Center; 101 Main Street in Medford; Hallmark Health Medical Center in Reading; MelroseWakefield Imaging in Stoneham; Everett WIC office; and community service department in Malden.

Promoting the health and well-being of our communities

We work to identify individuals in the community who are in need, including those with complex health needs or are facing social, economic and environmental disadvantages.

We partner with community service agencies, to reach out to those in need with direct services and to attend community events to provide health education and free medical screenings.

Data is collected to understand and identify the needs of our communities. We report our findings and develop a formal community health needs assessment every three years. This assessment advises the development of our community health implementation plan (as required by state and federal law).

• Learn about our community health needs assessment
• Discover how we build a community health implementation plan