News release from Milton Hospital

Carmel Kelly, MD, a Randolph-based family practitioner affiliated with Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital-Milton, welcomes Family Nurse Practitioner Elizabeth Hodgman, MSN, to her health care practice.

“Elizabeth’s expertise expands the practice’s ability to deliver high quality care to adults and children of all ages,” Dr. Kelly said.  “She is an exceptionally talented nurse practitioner with a broad scope of experience.”

 

Elizabeth is a graduate of Boston College, where she completed a Family Nurse Practitioner Master’s program.  She uses a patient and family-centered approach, which takes into account each patient’s unique set of circumstances to determine a diagnosis and plan effective treatments.

Nurse practitioners perform many of the same functions as PCPs, including writing prescriptions.  They typically focus on common chronic diseases, such as diabetes or high cholesterol.  “Nurse practitioners are becoming more common in the U.S. because of a shortage of primary care physicians,” Hodgman said.  “By easing the burden on PCPs, nurse practitioners increase access to care and may often allow for same-day appointments.”

 

Working in a collaborative practice with Dr. Kelly, Elizabeth emphasizes preventive medicine and patient education to reduce the risks for future illness. “Often times, a nurse practitioner is able to spend more time with a patient, which provides an opportunity to educate patients about managing chronic conditions or illness prevention,” she said.

In 2011, Elizabeth served as a volunteer in Haiti, where she helped launch five clinics near the epicenter of the 2009 earthquake. She is a member of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners (AANP).