Yellow Ribbonnews
River Hospital Foundation and River Hospital Offices Moving to New Location
River Hospital Foundation and some River Hospital offices are relocating to 3 James Street, downtown Alex Bay beginning this week. The Foundation Office is scheduled to move from the current Route 12 location to the newly renovated space once occupied by CP Roman’s Night Club on Friday of this week, January 27th. The Post Office Box 567 mailing address, as well as telephone and fax numbers will remain the same.
Patient Billing and Finance offices currently located at Route 12 are scheduled to move next week, Monday January 30thto the 3 James Street location. The administrative offices currently located adjacent to the hospital are scheduled to be relocating to 3 James Street during the week of February 6th. The mailing address and telephone numbers for hospital staff will remain unchanged.
The relocation of offices will bring the hospital, Primary Care Clinic and Foundation staff closer together and will make additional on-campus space for new clinical services. “Because Critical Access Hospitals must retain all clinical services on the same campus, this makes the most business sense to relocate the non-clinical services and administration offices” says Ben Moore, River Hospital CEO. Recent additions to the growing list of health care offerings include Cardiology and Gynecology specialists. New services are already under serious consideration for the office space which will soon be vacated by the administration. The growth of our outpatient volume is critical to our plans to stabilize the financial condition of the institution in these challenging times for health care facilities.
A complete renovation of the 5,580 square foot ground floor will make an easy access for the public on the James Street side of the building. The hospital has entered into a 10 year lease agreement with Empire Management.
Posted on Monday, January 23, 2012
River Community Clinic Receives Recognition from Tobacco Cessation Center
On Thursday, January 5th, 2012 The Tobacco Cessation Center of Northern New York (TCC of NNY) recognized River Community Clinic for their diligent efforts over the past several years in the treatment of tobacco dependence. River Community Clinic has achieved the highest level of partnership with the TCC of NNY and was recognized for their efforts with a plaque presented to them by the TCC’s Joel Schuyler, CTTS (Certified Tobacco Treatment Specialist). The Tobacco Cessation Center originally worked with the Clinic in 2007 to assist them in the implementation of the US Public Health Service Guidelines for tobacco dependence treatment. The Clinical Practice guidelines are the Standard of Care in tobacco cessation treatment in health care settings and River Community Clinic was among the first in their area to implement them. The Clinic Nurse Manager, Chris Jewett, who together with the staff and providers Dr. Aaron Huizenga, Dr. Mahreen Razzaq, Jeniffer Alberry, FNPC and Cynthia Simpson, FNPC, has continued to provide excellent tobacco cessation services to the community. Since tobacco is the single greatest preventable cause of death and disability, these efforts are critical to the community’s overall health.
The Tobacco Cessation Center of NNY is one of nineteen cessation centers statewide and covers the tri-county area to assist healthcare providers to aid their tobacco dependent patients through training, assistance and implementation of the Clinical Practice Guidelines. This is just one of several critical programs which comprise the state of the art New York State Tobacco Control Program. For more information on how to quit or to schedule an appointment at River Community Clinic call 315-482-2094.
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Photo: Presentation of Plaque
Left back: Judy Hunter-Eves (Respiratory Therapist), Chris Jewett (RN & Clinic Nurse Manager), Dr. Aaron Huizenga (DO), Wendy Morrison (LPN), Billie Jo Bowes, Karen Denner, Marcia Graves (LPN), Robin Whitcomb(LPN) Dr. Mahreen Razzaq (MD)
Front left: Theresa Vinson, Cynthia Simpson (FNP-C), Jeniffer Alberry (FNP-C), Joel Schuyler (Tobacco Cessation Center of NNY)
Posted on Thursday, January 19, 2012
River Community Clinic Achieves Certification as a Patient Centered Medical Home
River Community Clinic, in partnership with the Fort Drum Regional Health Planning Organization, are pleased to announce we have attained certification as a Patient Centered Medical Home level 3, the highest level of this important new health care model. Scoring 91.25 out of a possible 100 points, among the highest across the North Country Health Information Partnership (N-CHIP) project, this certification puts our small, rural practice at the forefront of the evolution of health care in the country. Patient Centered Medical Homes must meet a variety of nationally-recognized quality standards, including:
- Written standards for patient access and enhanced communications
- Appropriate use of charting tools to track patients and organize clinical information
- Responsive care management techniques with an emphasis on preventive care
- Adaptation to patient’s cultural and linguistic needs
- Use of information technology for prescriptions and care management
- Use of evidence-based guidelines to treat chronic conditions
- Systematic tracking of referrals and test results
- Measurement and reporting of clinical and service performance
This certification is awarded for three years through the National Committee for Quality Assurance (www.NCQA.org).
In the Patient Centered Medical Home model, the patient’s primary care doctor acts as the central hub, or home, for everything going on with that patient. The primary care doctor can find out quickly and efficiently if the patient is admitted to a hospital and can get in touch for follow-up care. Specialists and doctors are linked so test results go right back to the primary care office. The model aims to use the latest advances in information technology to restore some of the values of old-fashioned small-town medicine – knowing your patient better, coordinating their total care – back into modern medical practice.
“PCMH standards really stress involving a lot of different people – physicians, nurses, specialists, social workers – and that also includes the patients. It does expect the patient to take some responsibility for their care as well: what they’re doing at home, whether they’re complying with their medications, whether they’re following up with specialists’ appointments. And it does that by involving them with the discussion in the first place, so they have a better idea of the whole process, the progress of their disease and why we’re doing what we’re doing,” says Dr. Aaron Huizenga, medical director of River Community Clinic.
Being certified at level 3 as a Patient Centered Medical Home means River Community Clinic meets the highest standards of health care coordination under this cutting-edge health care model. We have implemented a system to get patient feedback about their visits, and already as a result of that feedback are reserving space for same-day appointments to provide better access to our patients. We are using electronic medical records and are the only Critical Access Hospital tied into the new regional health information exchange, named HealtheConnections, which allows electronic patient histories to be shared online across health care providers with patient consent.
“The health information exchange is really going to make the retrieval of information much better,” says Dr. Huizenga. “Because of our location and a lot of the specialists in Watertown and Syracuse, our access to all that information is going to be so much better. And going the other way, they will be able to access information from us as well. It will make things significantly more seamless and much more complete so everyone’s getting a much better picture of what’s going on with a patient."
River Hospital hosts specialists who come from outside the hospital, and they, too, will be able to access the health information exchange during their time practicing at River.
River Community Clinic decided to pursue Patient Centered Medical Home certification in part because of some of the chronic health issues we see among our patients. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes, hypertension and asthma are the top four diagnoses at our clinic. With chronic conditions especially, better coordinating patient care and improving patient education can go a long way toward preventing relapses and repeat inpatient hospital stays, and widening the time between acute episodes of illness.
Because the clinic is a part of River Hospital, the same clinicians care for patients through the clinic as well as at the hospital during inpatient stays. That means River Hospital patients, too, benefit from these improvements to care.
Posted on Wednesday, December 21, 2011
River Hospital responds to community desire for more communication
River Hospital has responded to the community’s request for more open communication by hosting community meetings to share information with residents about the hospital’s programs and services and updates on financial stability, said Andrea C. Bates, River Hospital Foundation director of development. About 600 people in river communities took the survey in December.
“What we noticed from that was people wanted to know more about River Hospital,” she said. “They knew we were there, but what we did wasn’t prevalent. We’re committed to more and better communication with our communities. We’re here. We’re trying.”
Mrs. Bates said those community outreach meetings have been successful in developing conversation between hospital administrators and residents, and has sparked the implementation of a new marketing campaign. Part of that marketing plan includes the creation of a hospital newsletter and use of the River Hospital Foundation as a platform for hospital programs and services.
“We’re not just an emergency room,” she said. “That’s a misconception. We’re more than that — a lot more.”
Outpatient services offered there include ambulatory surgery, laboratory services, radiology, cardiopulmonary, physical therapy, smoking cessation, obesity counseling, diabetes counseling, nutritional support and primary family health care.
Inpatient services include acute care, laboratory services, physical therapy, cardiopulmonary therapy, nutritional support services, physical therapy and evaluation, medical management of illness, palliative care, wound care, respite care and telemetry.
Mrs. Bates said River Hospital will use local media and community outreach meetings to let residents know when new physicians are recruited to the hospital and when new services will be offered. New specialties residents want to see at the hospital, according to Mrs. Bates, are cardiology, gynecology, orthopedics and mental health services.
“What we found in doing those conversations with the community is they don’t want to have to travel for those,” she said.
Recruiting physicians would be the easy part, she said, but it would take some reconfiguration of space to add all four services.
If the community does not stay apprised of what is going on and does not support the hospital at 4 Fuller St., then it will be hard to keep the doors open, she said.
Future community outreach meetings will be announced later this summer. For more information, call Mrs. Bates at 482-4976.
Posted on Friday, August 26, 2011
Summer MASH camps teach students about medical careers
ALEXANDRIA BAY — Students from Thousand Islands area high schools learned basic medical procedures Monday involving needles, thread and fresh produce.
Oranges played the role of people as eight students took turns sewing up their “patients’” lacerations during the fourth annual Medical Academy for Science and Health, or MASH, camp at River Hospital, 4 Fuller St.
Dr. Harriet Burris, emergency department medical director, created cuts in each orange with a scalpel, showed how to clean a wound properly and demonstrated the proper stitching technique.
“The way you tie a knot on a stitch is a square knot and to do an instrument tie,” she said, as she demonstrated the procedure with a curved needle. “Wrap it around the instrument and tighten it. I love what I do, and this is one of my favorite parts. When you’re sewing up someone, you don’t have to talk about medicine; you can talk about anything.”
She said she took time out of her day to teach students a few techniques so they could see all that is involved with emergency medicine.
“It’s a never-ending process,” Dr. Burris said.
Kristin C. Glass, 16, who will be a junior at Thousand Islands Central this fall, said her first MASH camp experience was preparation for college and an eventual career in radiology.
“I’m not really interested in anything else,” she said. “With X-rays and ultrasounds — I want to do that.”
Other participants, all girls, wanted to explore medical careers in surgery, orthopedics, speech therapy, nursing and neurology. Wearing their MASH camp scrub tops, they visited each department at River Hospital to give them snippets of various medical fields.
The camp, held also at other north country hospitals this summer, is sponsored by the Northern New York Rural Health Care Alliance. Sandy L. Hazen, alliance program manager, said the camp encompasses a curriculum base and is divided into three levels. The first is for first-year students who will explore careers in health care and receive cardiopulmonary resuscitation certification, while level 2 students will learn how to provide basic first aid and survival skills and to apply sciences to health problems. Level 3 students learn basic assessment skills and explore illness through case studies, mini lectures and diagnostic procedures.
Eventually, the program will be able to track students’ participating in MASH camp, set up “job shadows” through the Fort Drum Regional Health Planning Organization and then see what universities and program of study each student chooses.
After suturing up their produce patients, MASH camp participants spent some time with Headly, a mannequin head used to teach people how to find airways to get patients breathing and stabilized. Dr. Burris said that brings medical personnel back to basic medical procedure ABCs — airway, breathing, circulation.
Posted on Wednesday, August 3, 2011
TIERS to begin transport service
CLAYTON — The Thousand Islands Emergency Rescue Service soon will begin transporting mobility-impaired residents to and from medical appointments with a wheelchair van donated by River Hospital, Alexandria Bay.
Roland G. "Rolly" Churchill, executive director of TIERS, said the rescue service hopes to start offering the new service by the end of the month.
Mr. Churchill said people do not have to use wheelchairs in order to take advantage of the service. TIERS will transport anyone with difficulty reaching a destination — medical appointments, doctor-ordered therapy, dialysis, prosthetic service and dental appointments — because of injury, illness or other reasons.
Also, he said, residents who have mobility difficulties "can use this service to go to weddings, graduations, even funerals if they need to."
The handicapped-accessible van — named "Hillary" after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who helped the hospital obtain the Ford van in 2004 — previously was used to take adult day-care center patrons to and from River Hospital.
River Hospital closed its adult day-care center and 27-bed skilled nursing unit last spring due to financial difficulties.
The new TIERS transportation service will be offered primarily from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays. After-hours and weekend service must be arranged a week prior to the planned trip.
For more information or to arrange a wheelchair van service, call TIERS at 686-4333.
Medical patients covered by Medicaid must first call Coordinated Transportation Solutions at 1 (800) 818-6781, which will call TIERS to schedule a trip upon confirmation that the person meets criteria for medical transport.
Those not covered by Medicaid may inquire with TIERS about other insurance coverage or private-pay arrangements.
ON THE NET
TIERS: http://ti-rescue.org
(Article from Watertown Daily Times.com)
Posted on Wednesday, July 6, 2011
SENATOR RITCHIE: RIVER HOSPITAL TO BENEFIT FROM SENATE-PASSED BILL
Long-delayed change in payment rules could help preserve health care in the Thousand Islands
State Senator Patty Ritchie today announced Senate passage of a bill she cosponsored that helps secure the future of rural hospitals like River Hospital in Alexandria Bay, and Clifton Fine Hospital in Star Lake.
The bill, S.5431-A, will require the state to pay rural “critical access hospitals” for their actual costs of providing services, instead of relying on reimbursement formulas that currently leave the facilities shortchanged.
“The staff and board of directors of River Hospital have fought a heroic battle to keep this very important facility open to insure that the residents of the Thousand Islands region receive care when they need it,” Senator Ritchie said. “But current formulas shortchange hospitals like River, by paying less than they receive for the same services from private insurers and Medicare.”
“I recently toured River Hospital and saw firsthand the kind of outstanding care their doctors, nurses and staff provide every day,” Senator Ritchie said. “Hospital officials told me this reform was key to safeguarding their ability to continue to provide the excellent service and health care that people of our community have come to expect.”
Thirteen of New York’s 43 rural hospitals—including River and Clifton Fine in Northern New York—are designated as “critical access hospitals,” meaning they are located in underserved areas, have fewer than 50 beds, provide 24-hour access to emergency care, and have a record of efficient delivering of health care.
The bill has languished for several years without being enacted into law.
(Post from Senator Richie's website)
Posted on Monday, June 20, 2011
Convenient, High Quality Services in River Hospital’s Radiology Department
From routine x-rays to sophisticated radiologic procedures, River Hospital’s imaging department can service your radiology needs. Our newly remodeled department with state of the art computerized technology provides the patient the highest level of care while offering a convenient, comfortable and welcoming environment. We offer services 7 days a week. Procedures can be scheduled with minimal wait times and in many cases same day service is also available. With our state of the art system we can have results the same day if needed. River Hospital’s radiology department can provide diagnostic radiography, fluoroscopy, mammography, breast biopsy, done densitometry, sonography and computed tomography. Our 16 slice CT scanner as well as our computerized radiology system allows us to obtain high quality diagnostic images. What this means for our patient is a fast and accurate diagnosis from the ER or on an outpatient basis. We also have evening ultrasound appointments for your convenience. Take advantage of the high quality services River Hospital has to offer. Conveniently located in the River Communities.
Posted on Monday, May 16, 2011
River Hospital Begins Its 9th Year
With the celebration of its 8th Anniversary on April 15th 2011, River Hospital eagerly looks forward to the progress planned for the 9th year of business. The month of April includes a national recognition week for Healthcare Volunteer Week, April 10th through 16th. This makes a great time to say thank you to some of the ‘unsung heroes’ who have volunteered their time to contribute toward the growth thus far.
Past and present members of the Board of Directors, Hospital Auxiliary, and other community members give selflessly of their time and energy to assist with a variety of responsibilities and tasks from governance to gardening activities, and filing to philanthropy efforts. The old adage says “It takes a community to raise a child” can also be modified to state “It takes a community to grow a hospital”. Involvement at all levels adds to the quality experience patients receive when they come to River Hospital and River Community Clinic for their health care services.
It is the mission of River Hospital to provide compassionate, cost effective and accessible, primary health care to the year round and seasonal residents, and visitors of the River Communities. The hospital prides itself on high quality outpatient, inpatient andspecialty services to meet individual and community needs through partnerships with our patients andcommunities we serve. Sincere thanks to all volunteers and staff who have contributed, and who continue to contribute towards carrying out our mission. River Hospital Foundation is planning a reception to thank our volunteers. Watch for details as they become available.
For more information about becoming a volunteer for the hospital please contact us at info@riverhospital.org, www.riverhospital.org or 4 Fuller Street, Alexandria Bay, NY 13607. For information about volunteering for hospital events please visit www.riverhospitalfoudation.orgor contact the Foundation Office 315-482-4976.
Posted on Wednesday, April 13, 2011
River Hospital Foundation Appoints
Andrea C. Bates, Alexandria Bay, has been named as the River Hospital Foundation Executive Director of Development. This position has been designed to assist in the implementation of a long-range fundraising plan, such as planned giving, in addition to working with River Hospital to assist in strategic planning, marketing and grant securing efforts.
Ms. Bates is a graduate of Houghton College with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology. She has experience in marketing, planning and developing a capital campaign, as well as planning events and fundraising initiatives.
Ms. Bates has been employed by Jefferson Community College, Watertown, as Community Services Coordinator. She was also Alumni Development Officer at the College and currently serves on the Macsherry Library Board of Directors, Alexandria Bay. She is married to Geronimo Bates, owner of Northern Tree Surgery.
Andrea Bates will begin her new position April 4th and will be located at the River Hospital Foundation office on Route 12, Alexandria Bay. She will join Jodi Kemple, River Hospital Foundation’s Office Manager and Event Coordinator.
Ms. Bates states “I’m very excited to be working for River Hospital and in the River Community. River Hospital is a huge asset to our area, and I’m looking forward to letting everyone know what a treasure we have.” River Hospital and River Hospital Foundation are pleased to have her join the team in fulfilling the vision and mission to meet the health care needs of the River Communities.
Posted on Monday, April 4, 2011
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