If you are a parent, you know this scenario well: Your child does something cute so you bust out your phone. Mine has countless videos and photos of my son from all ages, generally never revisited. For the Fratkin family, however, one of these random moments has turned, extraordinarily, into a short film selection in […]
Michael Fratkin
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Resolution Care Sells to Healthcare Tech Company in Merger that Could Lead to National Expansion
Resolution Care, Humboldt County’s groundbreaking palliative care company, has been sold to Vynca, an advanced care planning technology company, in a merger that Resolution Care founder Michael Fratkin hopes will ultimately allow for a national expansion of the patient-centered care the company has prided itself on providing. Founded in 2014, Resolution Care’s palliative care teams […]
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Woo-Woo and the Hammer
The weekly staff meeting begins with the ringing of a Tibetan prayer bowl. ResolutionCare’s entire staff — social workers, administrators, nurses, community health workers, clinicians, a chaplain, an “office synergist” and an IT specialist — crowd around a pair of tables pushed together as if a few people showed up unexpectedly for Thanksgiving dinner. Other […]
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Local Healthcare Company Focus of WaPo Story
In case you missed it, The Washington Post recently put a spotlight on local palliative care company ResolutionCare. The Post’s story, which published Dec. 15, uses the story of Hoopa brothers-in-law Gordon Surber and Mark Hailey — both of whom have been diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease — to explore the impact of palliative […]
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Dying and Destitute
Craig and Lisa Smith are running out of time. They’re dying. He has congestive heart failure and a cancer eating at his kidney. She has a severe respiratory illness and spends her nights plugged into an oxygen concentrator. But that’s not what they’re talking about today, sitting in the bed where they spend most of […]
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‘Magical Efficiency’: Update on Local Palliative Care Initiative
Palliative care doctor and founder of ResolutionCare Michael Fratkin was recently interviewed by Telemedicine Magazine, and the Q-and-A reveals some of the inner workings of Fratkin’s operation since it launched last year. The Journal wrote about Fratkin’s startup in 2014, when he was still finding support and funding for his vision to provide in-home end-of-life […]
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UPDATE: Gov. Brown Approves Right-to-Die Bill
Local doctor Michael Fratkin, who began the palliative care program ResolutionCare featured in the Journal here, emailed the following response to the news that Gov. Brown had signed the bill. Gov. Brown has signed in to law the ‘End of Life Options’ bill. That’s quite something and reflects an electrified social conversation that is transforming […]
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UPDATE: Local Palliative Care Outfit Launches Pilot Program
UPDATE: ResolutionCare has launched its education portion, Project ECHO, in a nine-month pilot program, also in conjunction with Partnership HealthPlan of California. Project ECHO uses a hub and spoke model to ” demonopolizes the scarce resource of a palliative care team,” according to a press release (see the illustration below, and read more about it here.) […]
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UPDATE: A Resolve for End of Life Care
Resolution Care sailed past its crowdfunding goal, and stands at more than $105,000. The funds should allow Resolution Care to build the infrastructure and hire necessary staff to begin the initiative. Previously: Dr. Michael Fratkin’s Resolution Care initiative, featured on the coverof the Nov. 6 Journal, recently got a touching radio segment on KQED’s California […]