Two state legislators who represent the Brockport community in Albany issued a joint statement this evening following the announcement that Lakeside Health System would begin closing its hospital in Brockport.
Lakeside officials praised the efforts of State Sen. George Maziarz, R-Newfane, and State Assemblyman Steve Hawley, R-Batavia, to obtain state funding to help keep the hospital open. But, the state decided against throwing a financial lifeline to Lakeside.
Here is the statement from Maziarz and Hawley:
“Today’s announcement is unfortunate, particularly after working extensively with hospital administrators, top state health department officials, and neighboring health care providers to continue to keep Lakeside’s emergency department viable and accessible. In the end, Lakeside’s financial hole was just too deep.
“This is a painful setback to improving access to health care in our region, and we know the greater Brockport community will never be the same without its hospital. We will continue working to reopen the Emergency Department at the Lakeside Facility with a neighboring health care provider for Eastern Orleans and Western Monroe Counties.
“Today’s announcement is strictly about finances and demographics.Lakeside has a stellar reputation for patient care, and that reputation has been justly earned by a dedicated staff. We sincerely thank them and salute them for all they have done over the years.”
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 22 April 2013 at 12:00 am
BROCKPORT – A hospital that serves many residents in eastern and central Orleans County announced today it will close its doors next week.
Lakeside Health System was unable to obtain state funding to help fund its emergency room and inpatient services. Lakeside will continue to operate primary care practices, urgent care and a nursing home.
However, it will shut down its acute care services. Orleans residents on the east side will have to drive farther for health care. Local ambulance services will also have longer transport times for patients going to an ER past the east side of the county.
“We have pursued all options,” said Nancy Plews, chairwoman of the Lakeside board. “Despite our best efforts, NYS has concluded that it will be unable to provide sufficient financial support from its Vital Access Provider Fund in order for the hospital to move forward. This is a tremendously sad day for our employees, medical staff, volunteers and our entire community.”
The hospital stopped accepting inpatient admissions on Saturday. This Friday it won’t accept patients in the ER after 2 p.m. The diagnostic, imaging and lab services will cease at 5 p.m.
“Our employees and medical staff have always been our number one greatest asset and we sincerely thank them for their dedication,” said Interim CEO Jim Cummings. “So many of our employees and medical staff have supported and stood by the health system to the end.”
Lakeside is closing the following departments at the end of today’s business day: Wellness, Respiratory, Occupational Health and Physical Therapy. On Saturday, all remaining inpatients will be transferred to area hospitals. Next Tuesday, April 30, the hospital will close.
Decisions related to the ongoing viability of Lakeside’s two primary care practices, Urgent Care in Spencerport and the Beikirch Care Center in Brockport will be made within the next month.
Lakeside officials will meet with the community 6:30 tonight at the Brockport High School LGI Room to address questions.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 16 April 2013 at 12:00 am
Schiavone pulls teeth, promotes dental health in rural Peru
Photos courtesy of Dan Schiavone – Dr. Dan Schiavone of Holley is pictured with two children from rural Peru, where he spent a week last month providing dental care.
HOLLEY – For a week every March in recent years, Dan Schiavone packs his suitcases and heads out of country.
The Holley dentist doesn’t go on a joy trip or an escape from dental work. He fills four suitcases with toothbrushes, fluoride varnishes and toothpaste. He heads into the Amazon, visiting poverty-stricken rural villages in Peru, pulling teeth, applying fluoride varnish and promoting dental care.
“They are gracious and happy people,” Schiavone said at his Public Square office on Monday. “They appreciate everything you do.”
Schiavone is often greeted as “The Gringo Dentist” by Peruvian children and their parents. After making five trips since 2008, he recognizes many of the children, and they remember him.
He also notices better dental health. His first trip in 2008, he pulled 75 decaying and sick teeth. On his trip last month, Schiavone extracted 12 teeth.
“I’m seeing an improvement,” he said. “But I still see a lot of problems.”
Schiavone, 44, wasn’t alone on the trip. His daughter Kaci, 22, joined him on the March 9-16 journey. Kaci is a biochemistry major who will graduate in May from the University of Rochester. She helps her father in Peru, applying the fluoride varnishes and alerting him to bigger dental problems in the children.
Photos courtesy of Dan Schiavone – Kaci Schiavone checks a girl’s teeth and dental health during an exam in Peru last month. Kaci will graduate in May with a degree in biochemistry from the University of Rochester.
They do the work without modern dental equipment. Schiavone is grateful if he can sit a child in a sturdy chair. Sometimes the kids stand while their mouths are examined. If Schiavone has to pull a tooth, he will stack plastic chairs to make the seat more sturdy for the child – and ease his back-bending.
Many of the children feast on candy and soda throughout the day, and they lack toothbrushes, which has made their teeth vulnerable to decay.
“They drink too much soda,” Schiavone said. “They don’t realize it’s so damaging.”
Schiavone knows enough Spanish to ask a child if a tooth hurts. Often, they answer yes.
Photos courtesy of Dan Schiavone – Dr. Dan Schiavone of Holley does a dental exam on a boy in a make-shift setup in rural Peru. Schiavone has volunteered on five trips to the region, providing dental care to the rural poor. The community there is trying to raise money for a modern dental chair. (The boy is sitting on a stack of plastic chairs.)
He was looking for a opportunity to volunteer as a dentist in 2008, when he found Yantalo Peru Foundation on the Internet. The foundation was launched in 2005 to improve the health of people in a Yantalo. Luis Vasquez, a retired cardiologist from Chicago, started the foundation and a volunteer program for medical professionals to assist the Yantalo population.
Schiavone flies into Lima, Peru, and then takes a short flight into the Amazon, before he completes the trip with a two-hour car ride to Yantalo. He performs about 500 dental examinations during the week, sometimes hiking to more remote villages, places that have never seen a dentist.
The foundation is building a health clinic that should open later this year. Schiavone has been contacting dental chair companies about donating a modern chair and equipment to the site. He pulls teeth in Yantalo without compressed air, suctions, electricity and sometimes even water. Last year he donated oral surgery instruments so he and other dentists could use those tools without having to lug them on the trip.
With better equipment, Schiavone said dentists could better serve the Yantalo population. Right now they can’t do fillings, sealants or dentures because of the lack of modern equipment.
He intends to keep going back.
“I’m not going to just pick a new spot in the world,” he said. “Down there, I’m seeing a return on my investment. Things are getting better.”
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 13 April 2013 at 12:00 am
Karen Watt, an Albion fruit grower, leads Oak Orchard Health
Photo by Tom Rivers – Karen Watt, chairwoman of Oak Orchard Health, is pictured inside the center’s Albion facility on Route 31. She also has served as a director for the National Advisory Council on Migrant Health and on the board for the National Center for Farmworker Health.
ALBION – The winner of a national award for service to community health centers has pushed a local organization to upgrade its health care facilities and expand into underserved communities.
Karen Watt, an Albion fruit grower, has served on the board for Oak Orchard Health for more than a decade, including the past two years as chairwoman. She is a former chairwoman of the National Advisory Council on Migrant Health and currently serves on the board for the National Center for Farmworker Health.
“She is well known around the country,” said Bobbi Ryder, president and CEO of the National Center for Farmworker Health. “She has been very instrumental as a board member and leader of her local center and at a national level.”
Ryder nominated Watt for the 2013 Outstanding Migrant Health Center Board Member Award. Watt will receive the honor next month in San Diego at the annual conference for the National Association of Community Health Centers.
Ryder said Watt, a retired math professor at SUNY Brockport, has been an advocate for healthcare in rural areas at the local, national and international levels. Watt often reminds professionals in health care to not overlook the humanity of their patients, who are often farmworkers and rural poor residents.
“I have admired her very frank recognition for the agricultural workers in her community,” Ryder said. “She recognizes them as human beings with feelings and families.”
Watt was asked to join the Oak Orchard board about 13 years ago. Besides her work with that organization, she has taken humanitarian trips to three African countries, working with farmers to increase profits and become more sustainable. In January she went to Cuba on a medical humanitarian trip, taking supplies into rural villages.
She led the Orleans County Farm Bureau in the late 1990s, serving as its president. She also led a North American association of farmers in direct marketing. She and her husband Chris were at the forefront of the agri-tourism movement in Western New York, turning their Route 98 market into a destination.
Watt said access to health care remains a personal mission. In January 2005, she was detected with breast cancer. She is a survivor, and works hard to raise money for research.
Nine months after she was diagnosed in 2005, she and her husband hosted a fund-raising walk through their orchards. The event has continued every October, and has raised about $225,000. The event last year attracted 1,000 participants and netted about $50,000.
Watt remains committed to community health centers. In the past few years Oak Orchard Health has acquired a healthcare site in Lyndonville, expanded and upgraded sites in Albion and Brockport, and will open a new facility in Warsaw in June. The organization also runs a mobile dental unit to schools in Orleans, Genesee and Wyoming counties.
Oak Orchard Health serves 16,000 patients in the community, and is pushing to do more to promote health and wellness in Orleans County and nearby rural towns.
“We are known throughout the region for delivery of excellent primary health care, whether you’re insured or uninsured,” she said.
Oak Orchard sees 60,000 client visits annually and 42 percent of the patients have insurance, which is high for a community health center. Watt sees that as an indication Oak Orchard has won respect in the community for its high quality of care.
The Genesee-Orleans Council on Alcoholism and Substance Abuse displayed 70 T-shirts and signs warning about the dangers of tobacco and smoking on March 20, when the agency joined in a “Kick Butts” day.
The 70 T-shirts represent the 70 people who die each day in New York from smoking-related illnesses. The display was at GCASA’s new office at 249 East Ave., Albion. The agency also is working with Lyndonville students on a video about the dangers of tobacco and some of the marketing strategies used by cigarette companies to entice smokers. That video will be posted on the agency’s Web site when it’s ready.
Frederica Mathewes-Green, a Christian writer and commentator from Baltimore, was the featured speaker during a March 19 banquet to benefit the Care Net Center of Greater Orleans, an agency based in Albion.
Mathewes-Green shared her optimism about the pro-life cause. She urged the crowd of 250 people at the Brockport State College to support the Care Net Center, which saw client visits double in 2012 when it moved to the former Lipton’s office at 111 West Ave., across from McDonalds. The center offers pregnancy testing, fetal development information, limited ultrasounds and testing for the sexually transmitted infections chlamydia and gonorrhea.
After giving her speech, Mathewes-Green signed copies of her books, including “The Illumined Heart: The Ancient Christian Path of Transformation”.
(Editor’s note: Tom Rivers’ wife, Marsha, is director at Care Net.)
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 14 March 2013 at 12:00 am
ALBION – Orleans County residents lacking dental care can now access services at a discounted rate. Eight of the 12 dentists in the county have agreed to reduce their fees for uninsured residents.
The county has partnered with Health Economics, a Rochester firm, to offer the program. Residents will pay $36.50 for an individual card annually or $52 for a family program. That goes towards the administration costs.
It’s the second partnership the county has reached with an outside company to make health care more affordable for residents, Legislature Chairman David Callard said.
In 2009, the county started offered prescription drug cards through ProAct Inc., a subsidiary of Kinney Drugs. That program saves residents without health insurance about 36 percent on prescription drugs, according to the county.
Callard said he would like to partner with a company to secure eye care discounts for uninsured residents.
He expects the county and Health Economics will start pushing the new dental discount program in April. A list of participating dentists and the discounted rates for services will be available on the county website, www.orleansny.com.
Eric Lintala, director of business development for Health Economics, said residents should save about 30 to 40 percent in dental services through the program. Dentists will benefit with new patients who likely had been avoiding dental care because of the costs, Lintala told county legislators on March 13.
The dental discount program has been endorsed by the New York State Association of Counties. Several counties have joined with Health Economics in offering the discounts. Residents can cross county borders to use their cards if dentists are members of the program.
“We’re trying to get people access to the dentist and promote good oral health,” Lintala said.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 6 March 2013 at 12:00 am
Photo by Tom Rivers – Lakeside Health System officials met with about 40 people on March 5 in Albion, detailing the Brockport hospital’s recent financial losses, which are forcing a reduction in 56 inpatient hospital beds. Lakeside is working with the state to keep the emergency room open.
ALBION – Lakeside Memorial Hospital in Brockport, a popular choice for many Orleans County residents for health care, has reversed its intention to close its emergency room after hearing many concerns from the community and the state Department of Health.
Lakeside announced in mid-February it planned to close the ER and all 61 inpatient hospital beds. In a revised plan to the state DOH, Lakeside will keep the ER and five of the 61 hospital beds. Lakeside would like to have the changes in place by May 1, interim CEO Jim Cummings told about 40 people during a March 5 meeting at Hoag Library in Albion.
“We’re happy to put out this new and improved message,” Cummings told the crowd at Albion. “We credit the communities for voicing their concerns.”
Lakeside has suffered steep losses in recent years, mainly due to a decrease in inpatient care, Cummings said. About five years ago, Lakeside averaged 35 inpatient beds a day, compared to the current 22. Losses at the hospital are threatening the viability of the entire Lakeside system, which includes diagnostic services, and the 120-bed Beikirch Care Center nursing home.
Cummings said he expects to see more small hospitals reduce inpatient beds and possibly close their ERs. Lakeside and Medina both recently closed their birthing wings to cut costs.
Photo by Tom Rivers – Lakeside Health System Interim CEO Jim Cummings, left, and Leon Gossin, senior director of finance, discuss a plan to cut inpatient hospital beds at the Brockport hospital during a March 5 meeting at Hoag Library in Albion.
“The community hospitals are all losing a great deal of money,” Cummings said. “The state doesn’t have enough money to prop up all of these hospitals.”
The restructured Lakeside will be stronger financially, and should ensure the organization will continue for years to come, he said.
But it will be a different Lakeside. Cummings said he expects patients will still be able to access many services as the hospital shifts to an outpatient diagnostic and treatment center.
“There is a crisis in this country in the cost of healthcare and this outpatient model that is developing is less expensive,” Cummings said.
The move to keep the ER will save many Orleans ambulances from longer trips into the city, occupying those rigs for two to three hours.
Several of the residents at the Albion meeting, including Ron Ebbs and Cheryl Mowatt, told Cummings their families were treated well by Lakeside. They praised the care at the hospital.
Cummings said he regrets the changes at the hospital will result in job cuts of many dedicated employees.
“We have a staff that is second to none,” he said.
