St. Stanislaus School benefit, 9 to 4 in Kolbe Hall, Adams. Bake sale, snack bar, games, Chinese auctions, money raffle, crafts, and pierogi.
Blackinton Union Church, 1373 Massachusetts Ave., North Adams; 10 to 2. Crafts table, bake sale, Chinese auction, the Christmas table, and kid's grab bag. Lunch $4, $2 kids.
First Congregational Church, North Adams, 9-2.
Nov. 28 Becket Federated Church, Route 8, holiday bazaar from 9-3. Lunch, crafts, baked goods, holiday and other items. Information: Mary Peltier, Parish House, 413-623-5217.
Dec. 5
Holiday Fair at First Congregational Church, 25 Park Place, Lee, from 10 to 3; handcrafted items, raffles, children's shop, bake sale, cut Christmas trees and lunch from 11 to 1. Includes angel-themed goods from SERRV. Information, 413-243-1033 or www.ucc-lee.org.
Dec. 12-13
North Adams Country Club, crafts 9-4; food from That's a Wrap from 11-2. Information: Sheryl Morehouse at 413-822-3329.
Planning a bazaar this season? Submit information to info@iberkshires.com to have it listed here.
We're trying out blogs to offer shorter, easy-to-find news. Let us know what you think.
Send press releases and announcements to info@iberkshires.com. Need to contact someone at iBerkshires? Here's how.
Mammography Dispute The government's issued controversial new guidelines stating that women shouldn't get annual mammograms until age 50, rather than age 40.
iBerkshires will be meeting with local medical experts Monday. Have a question you'd like answered on this issue? Send it info@iberkshires.com with "mammogram" in the subject line.
Report: Still Room for Improvement for Massachusetts Doctors
By Monique Coppola Commonwealth News Service 09:31AM / Friday, April 03, 2009
BOSTON — Patients will now be able to examine doctors in Massachusetts.
Beginning yesterday, health-care consumers in Massachusetts can access new information regarding how well 150 medical groups performed relative to national standards for providing medical care. The information can be found in a report issued by Massachusetts Health Quality Partners.
MHQP Executive Director Barbra Rabson says the report shows statewide improvement.
"Massachusetts physicians still perform above the national average on most of the measures. We know that physician leaders take these reports seriously and use them to target internal improvement efforts."
One physician who has focused on high quality, according to the report, is Dr. Gregory Young, president and CEO of Pediatric Physicians' Organization at Children's Hospital in Boston. His group has been able to utilize data from the studies to improve the quality of patient care, he says.
"We collaborated with the full-time licensed clinical social worker in our office to work with kids receiving medications and we changed several of our standard office practices to ensure the scheduling of follow-up visits."
Marilyn Kramer, executive director Partnership for Healthcare Excellence, says the study is a great tool for physicians, as well as consumers.
"It's important for consumers to learn about their physicians as well as their hospitals and this kind of data gives them great insight."
Despite the overall high level of quality among primary-care physicians, MHQP has consistently found variation in performance among medical groups. The results of the study are available at www.mhqp.org.
