Mayor Marty Walsh Cuts Ribbon to Officially Open New Interprofessional Education Health Care Center

MGH Institute of Health Professions officially opened its innovative IMPACT Practice Center on Thursday, October 19, at the graduate school’s Charlestown Navy Yard campus, with Boston Mayor Marty Walsh cutting the ceremonial ribbon.

An overflow crowd of community leaders, donors, students, faculty, and staff were on hand to witness the opening of the Center. The result of several years of planning, the IMPACT Practice Center will allow the Institute to significantly increase the 10,000 hours of free care – valued at more than $1 million – it provides to Charlestown and Boston area residents.

The IMPACT Practice Center was specifically designed for graduate students from the MGH Institute’s nursing, occupational therapy, physical therapy, physician assistant studies, and speech-language pathology programs to collaboratively learn from and with each other on how to provide the team-based care that improves patient outcomes.

“I want to thank the Institute for being such a wonderful partner in providing free accessible health care to the residents of Charlestown and Greater Boston,” said Mayor Walsh. “As this facility certainly shows, Boston is leading the way, in so many different ways, in terms of compassionate and accessible treatment and setting a strong example for the nation.”

MGH Institute Board Chair Dr. George Thibault welcomed the Mayor and invited guests to the event and spoke passionately about the value of team-based care—a cornerstone of the new IMPACT Practice Center. Sheeba Arnold also spoke at the event about the “miracle” care her young son has received at the Institute’s Speech, Language and Literacy Center, now housed in the new Center.

“This IMPACT Practice Center will provide transformational opportunities for students and faculty, across programs and disciplines to work, plan, study and practice together,” explained MGH Institute President Dr. Paula Milone-Nuzzo. “Our graduates are poised to transform health care delivery.”

The IMPACT Practice Center houses the Institute’s Speech and Language Center, the Aphasia Center, the Physical Therapy Center for Clinical Education and Health Promotion, and the Occupational Therapy Center for Learning, Intervention, Participation, and Rehabilitation.

The state-of-the-art 15,000-square-foot integrated center includes an adult rehabilitation room, two pediatrics rehabilitation rooms, 23 consultation rooms, mock exam rooms, and a community room. Sessions with clients are viewed live by supervising faculty, and are captured on video for students to review afterward.

Each week, more than one hundred clients receive expert one-on-one and group assistance in their continued efforts to rehabilitate from speech disorders, stroke, brain injury, or accident. Most have exhausted their insurance benefits or do not have health insurance, meaning that they would not have the chance of continuing to improve without the care they receive at the IMPACT Practice Center. The care is provided by students under the supervision of the Institute’s practicing clinician faculty.

About MGH Institute of Health Professions

Team-based care, delivered by clinicians skilled in collaboration and communication, leads to better outcomes for patients and clients. That’s why the MGH Institute makes interprofessional learning a cornerstone of all its programs. At its Charlestown Navy Yard campus in Boston, more than 1,600 students learn and collaborate in teams across disciplines as they pursue post-baccalaureate, master’s, and doctoral degrees in nursing, occupational therapy, physical therapy, physician assistant studies, speech-language pathology, health professions education, and rehabilitation sciences. This interprofessional learning extends to hundreds of hospital, clinical, community, and educational sites in Greater Boston and beyond.

Founded in 1977, the Institute is the only degree-granting affiliate of Partners HealthCare, New England’s largest health provider, and is fully accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges. Several programs are highly ranked by U.S. News & World Report. For the past four years, the IHP has been named to the Honor Roll in The Chronicle of Higher Education’s “Great College to Work For” annual survey, and has been named a Great College for eight consecutive years.