Join us on November 14, as we unveil the Utica Landmarks Society 2013 commemorative ornament honoring the Medical Center. A reception will be held in the three Sister Conference Rooms in the Medical Center from 5 - 8 p.m.
Refreshments will be served and staff will be available to provide tours of our newly renovated laboratory during the event.

St. Elizabeth College of Nursing (SECON) College is actively recruiting students and will hold an Open House on Tuesday, November 12, 2013 between 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. in the Multipurpose Room at the College.

The College offers a two-year associate in applied science (AAS) degree in nursing, fully integrated theoretical learning with clinical experience within a caring environment. The nursing courses include patient care that is planned and supervised by a faculty member with expertise in a particular nursing area. One of the strengths of the program at St. Elizabeth is its clinical component that combines the theory learned in class with actual nursing practice, allowing for immediate transfer and application of knowledge. SECON offers an evening/weekend nursing program in addition to the weekday program. It is designed to meet the needs of the adult learner who is unable to attend class during the weekday hours.

St. Elizabeth College of Nursing is one of the first hospital-based nursing programs to receive dual accreditation by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education and the National League for Nursing Accrediting Commission.

To reserve a seat at the Open House, go online at www.secon.edu. For more information, call (315) 798-8347.

Faxton St. Luke’s Healthcare (FSLH), St. Elizabeth Medical Center (SEMC) and Rome Memorial Hospital (RMH) strongly support the new smoking cessation regulation that bans smoking on the grounds of general hospitals and residential healthcare facilities. Governor Cuomo recently signed this provision into law to take effect on Friday, November 1, 2013. Both Utica hospitals and their associated facilities and properties have been tobacco free since November 2006. RMH became tobacco free in 2007.

“While Faxton St. Luke’s Healthcare and St. Elizabeth Medical Center have been tobacco free for close to seven years, we feel this new law is an excellent reminder of the dangers tobacco use poses not only to those using the products but also to those around them,” said Scott H. Perra, FACHE, president/CEO of FSLH and Richard H. Ketcham, FACHE, president/CEO of SEMC. “This new law helps to promote a healing environment where people need it the most. We commend our governor and state legislature for recognizing the health benefits of this regulation and for making it law.”

Tobacco use affects not only a person’s health, but it can also affect the ability to recover after an illness or surgery. Smoking slows wound healing, increases risk of wound infection and increases bone healing time. The hospitals offer Tri-County Quits: Tobacco Cessation Program for individuals looking to stop using tobacco products. For more information on the program or to join a tobacco cessation class, call (315) 624-5639 or visit the Tri-County Quits website.

Dr. Prabhat Ahluwalia, a gynecologist with an office in New Hartford, had a vision of gynecologists using minimally invasive surgery, rather than traditional open surgery, to correct a gamut of conditions affecting women, from cancer to endometriosis and even for hysterectomies. Ten years ago, that vision became real when he began a one-year GYN Fellowship. In 2006, the addition of a second, two-year GYN Fellowship was made.

This year, the position of a two-year fellow has been accepted by Jyothi Chetiyaar, M.D., who started in July. Dr. Chetiyaar, a native of India, is a graduate of M.S. Ramaiah Medical College, Bangalore, India, where she earned her medical degree. She worked at St. Philomena’s Hospital, Bangalore and Mission Hospital, Mysore in India after finishing medical school. She completed her residency in obstetrics and gynecology at the Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, Jamaica, NY. Dr. Chetiyaar was awarded the Striving for Excellence Resident Award and Resident Research Award there and was recognized as Resident of the Year in both 2011 and 2012 for her teamwork, professionalism and compassionate care. She was elected administrative chief resident during her last year of residency and was also recognized as best senior resident teacher in the year 2013.

Dr. Chetiyaar has done research at Jamaica Hospital Medical Center on shoulder dystocia training showing significant decrease in brachial plexus injury. Dr. Chetiyaar is a member of the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American Medical Association and the American Association of Gynecologic Laparoscopists.

She has received Certification from the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates and licensed medical practitioner in New York State. She speaks fluent English, Kannada and Hindi and is a U.S. citizen. She enjoys badminton and tennis.

Though the fellowships are under the direction of Dr. Ahluwalia, other fellowship instructors include Surgeon Leo Sullivan, M.D. and Urologists Robert Fleischer, M.D. and W. Anthony Mandour, M.D.

Dr. Chetiyaar will have an opportunity to learn, develop, and refine the new techniques of endoscopy and reproductive surgery that make for better, safer and more economically efficient health care for women. For Dr. Ahluwalia, this is an opportunity to impart that knowledge and expertise.

Dr. Ahluwalia has been a practitioner and supporter of advanced, laparoscopic, minimally-invasive surgery for the past 30 years. Often referred to as “keyhole” or “pinhole” surgery, laparoscopic surgery differs from traditional surgery in that it requires three to four quarter-inch incisions as opposed to a deep eight-inch incision. The “pinhole” incisions are small enough to minimize tissue and muscle injury, but large enough to admit the passage of precision-crafted surgical instruments, a laser, a fiber-optic light (laparoscope), and a tiny high-resolution video camera (endoscope). Equipped with advanced digital technology, the endoscope can magnify surgical sites up to 20 times their actual size, permitting the surgeon to view anatomical structures in fine detail and operate with a precision previously unfathomable by traditional methods.

“The benefits are tremendous,” Dr. Ahluwalia said. “The patient suffers less post-operative pain, less surgical trauma, and fewer complications, while enjoying a speedy recovery, early return to work and a better cosmetic result. In addition, if it weren’t for St. Elizabeth Medical Center’s Administration’s passionate commitment to community service and improved, quality healthcare, the fellowships would have been impossible.”

St. Elizabeth Medical Center has been designated an Aetna Institute of Quality® (IOQ) Cardiac Care Facility in Cardiac Medical Intervention and Cardiac Surgery.

Aetna makes information about the quality and cost of healthcare services available to its members to help them make informed decisions about their healthcare needs. In line with this goal, Aetna recognizes hospitals and facilities in its network that offer specialized clinical services for certain health conditions. Facilities are selected IOQ for consistently delivering evidence-based, safe care.

"St. Elizabeth Medical Center and the Mohawk Valley Heart Institute have been committed to providing high quality and cost-effective cardiology and cardiac surgery services to our community for many years,” said Albert D'Accurzio, M.D., Vice President of Medical Affairs at St. Elizabeth Medical Center. “We are proud that Aetna has recognized the efforts of so many St. Elizabeth employees. This designation, based on nationally recognized measures of quality and cost-efficiency, will reinforce the notion that high quality cardiac care is available at our community hospitals."

St. Elizabeth Medical Center is a 201-bed, acute care hospital that offers cardiac surgery, angioplasty, cardiac catheterization, and electrophysiology and houses cardiac intensive care and special-care units under the umbrella of the Mohawk Valley Heart Institute (MVHI). The MVHI is collaboration between St. Elizabeth Medical Center and Faxton St. Luke’s Healthcare that celebrates its 16th anniversary of cardiac services in October, 2013. St. Elizabeth also offers both inpatient and outpatient services in numerous other specialties at multiple sites.

For more information on cardiac services, visit the Mohawk Valley Heart Institute's website or call (315) 734-3329.

The St. Elizabeth Medical Center Foundation will hold its 13^thAnnual Lights of Love Candle Lighting and Remembrance Service at 4:30 p.m., Wednesday, December 4 at Our Lady of Lourdes Church. Co-Chairs Bunny Gottuso and Christine Abbass invite the public to share in this special event at which people remember loved ones, honor individuals, say “thank you” to someone who has brightened a life through special care or service, or give one of these as a holiday gift.  

Gifts may be made in memory or in honor of a loved one, in celebration of a birth or special event, in recognition of a patient, in honor and acknowledgement of Medical Center staff, or as a friend of the Medical Center. The Medical Center will be illuminated by holiday lights, each representing the special people acknowledged through this year’s Campaign. A minimum donation of $10 per honoree is encouraged. The deadline to be recognized in this year’s LOL Campaign is Friday, November 22.       

Proceeds from the event will benefit the purchase of endobronchial ultrasound equipment for the Medical Center, replacement beds for CT/ICU, new furniture for the central admitting waiting area and the renovation and upgrade to the Mohawk Valley Sleep Disorders Center. For more information, please call the Foundation Office at (315) 734-4287, e-mail bfilletti@stemc.org or you may also contribute online here.
All contributions are tax deductible.

The Boards of Directors for Faxton St. Luke’s Healthcare (FSLH) and St. Elizabeth Medical Center (SEMC) have unanimously voted to move forward with an affiliation agreement and the submission of a Certificate of Need (CON) application to the New York State Department of Health (DOH). The boards signed a Memorandum of Understanding to affiliate the two organizations in December 2012.

“For the past year, we have been working through a number of steps including the review of legal and financial due diligence for the hospitals, meetings with a number of agencies within the Department of Health as well as representatives from the Federal Trade Commission,” stated Scott H. Perra, FACHE, president/CEO of Faxton St. Luke’s Healthcare. “We are pleased that we can now move to the next step, having our application reviewed by the DOH.”

The hospitals submitted the application on Friday, October 4, 2013 and are waiting to hear from the DOH about when the proposed CON will be on the agenda of the New York State Public Health and Health Planning Council. They are hoping it could be as early as December of this year.

The name of the proposed “parent organization” that will govern the two facilities is Mohawk Valley Health System. The proposed parent organization will be governed by a new Board of Directors comprised of 18 members with equal members from the FSLH board and the SEMC board. Each hospital will still maintain a separate board, which will have significant overlap of members with the parent board. One CEO, Scott H. Perra of FSLH, will oversee the management team for both organizations.

“Another step in the process is to file a notification with the Department of Justice under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act. These types of affiliations are reviewed from an antitrust perspective,” Perra explained. “We anticipate that filing will take place by mid-October.”   

The Hart- Scott-Rodino Act, signed into law in 1976 by President Ford, requires large companies to file a report with the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice before completing a merger, acquisition or transfers of securities or assets. Under the provision, government regulators determine whether the transaction would violate antitrust laws.

The CEOs anticipate that the next steps will take between three to six months to finalize and, if all approvals fall into place, they are looking toward spring 2014 to complete the affiliation process.

“I wish to commend both boards and our employees, medical staff and volunteers for their incredible patience and understanding,” said Richard Ketcham, FACHE, president/CEO of St. Elizabeth Medical Center. “We have been working on this since December 2011 when our boards first agreed to explore the concept of affiliation. Throughout this process, the Sisters of St. Francis of the Neumann Communities and the Syracuse Diocese have been very supportive of our efforts, and involved with every step.”

Consolidation and joint partnerships are not new for the organizations. Faxton Hospital and St. Luke’s-Memorial consolidated their services in 2000. Both SEMC and FSLH jointly sponsor the Mohawk Valley Heart Institute and have a collaborative agreement for the Central New York Diabetes Education Program.

The two organizations employ nearly 4,500 employees and have combined operating budgets of more than $500 million.

The Tri-County Quits Tobacco Cessation Center provides you the support and resources you need to reach your goal of becoming tobacco free.

Below is a list of the upcoming Fall classes. For more information call the NY State Smokers’ Quitline at 1.866.NY.QUITS (1.866.697.8487) or go to www.nysmokefree.com

MVHI presents its second Community Education Talk on Thursday, October 10 from 6-7 p.m.

All are welome to attend this event and learn about new developments in cardiac care during this FREE informational Q&A session. The director of Electrophysiology, Thor Markwood, MD, FACC will discuss new innovations in Cardiac Electrophysiology. If you or someone you know has been diagnosed with an irregular heart beat, this may be an opportunity for you to learn more about an Electrophysiology Study, treatment options, and innovations in care happening here in our community.

Where: St. Elizabeth Medical Center (directions) in the Sister Regina and Sister Rose Vincent Conference Rooms located on the first floor.
To Register: Please call 1-866-505-MVHI or 315-734-3329

Refreshments will be served.

The Laryngectomy Support Group will hold its monthly meeting on Thursday, November 14 at 12 p.m.  in the Sister Regina Conference Room at St. Elizabeth Medical Center in Utica. The group will plan its annual Christmas party at this meeting.

A laryngectomy is the procedure to remove a person’s larynx and separates the airway from the mouth, nose and esophagus. The laryngectomee breathes through an opening in the neck, called a stoma.

The public is welcome to attend. If you have questions, please contact the Speech Therapy Department at 734-3475.  The meetings for the Laryngectomy Support Group are held the second Thursday of each month at 12 p.m.

St. Elizabeth Medical Center, in accordance with Section 2803-1 of the Public Health Law, has submitted its 22nd Annual Community Service Plan to the New York State Department of Health.

It includes information on community health priorities identified by Medical Center staff, in collaboration with other area hospitals, community partners and local public health agencies.

View this Community Service Plan and past years here or request a free copy by contacting the Marketing and Public Relations deparment.

For the 38th consecutive year, St. Elizabeth Medical Center staff packed and distributed Thanksgiving baskets, complete with turkey and trimmings, to 135 families in need on Monday, November 25.  Baskets were prepared and picked up at the St. Elizabeth Medical Arts building on Middle Settlement Road, New Hartford.

The effort is called “Operation Share,” with this year’s baskets providing Thanksgiving dinner for approximately 800 people, Chairman James Getter said.  The staff prepared and distributed approximately six tons of food during the day.  Recipients picked up the baskets mainly between 4:30 and 6 p.m.

The annual charitable effort is made possible by major donations from Mohawk Valley Imaging, PC. and Chanatry’s Supermarkets, Inc.  Donations also came from physicians, employees, volunteers and others.

Recipients were recommended by the Sisters of St. Francis, doctors, nurses, other employees and local agencies, including Catholic Charities and Thea Bowman House.

The St. Elizabeth Medical Center Foundation held its 13^th Annual Lights of Love Candle Lighting and Remembrance Service on Wednesday, December 4 at Our Lady of Lourdes Church.  Lights of Love is an annual fundraising campaign presented by Empower Federal Credit Union and co-chaired by Bunny Gottuso and Christine Abbass.

Gifts were made in memory or in honor of a loved one, in celebration of a birth or special event, in recognition of a patient, in honor and acknowledgement of Medical Center staff, given as a holiday gift, or as a friend of the Medical Center. The Medical Center is illuminated during the holiday season by lights, each representing the special people acknowledged through this year’s Campaign.

Proceeds from the event will benefit the purchase of endobronchial ultrasound equipment for the Medical Center, replacement beds for CT/ICU, new furniture for the central admitting waiting area and the renovation and upgrade to the Mohawk Valley Sleep Disorders Center.  

For more information, please call the Foundation Office at (315) 734-4440, e-mail alagatta@stemc.org or contribute online by visiting www.stemc.org/foundation. All contributions are tax deductible. The public’s support is very much appreciated.

SEMC Lights of Love Committee Members are, top from left:  Andrea LaGatta, Mary Koury, Karen Burton, Janis Thrasher and Sandy Srour. Bottom from left: Rosanne Hart, Norma Schug, Christine Abbass, Bunny Gottuso, Susan Cooper, Ann Boerger and Bianca Filletti.

Over the past two months, St. Elizabeth Medical Center (SEMC) and Faxton St. Luke’s Healthcare (FSLH) have moved several steps closer to their proposed affiliation agreement. On Thursday, November 21, 2013, FSLH and SEMC met with the New York State Project Review Committee of the Public Health and Health Planning Council (PHHPC). The committee endorsed their affiliation proposal, which was approved by the PHHPC on Thursday, December 12, 2013. On Wednesday, December 11, 2013 the hospitals also reached an agreement with the New York State Attorney General’s office to move forward. The organizations caution that while this is very positive news, there is one more step to complete.

“We are pleased with the support we have received from the New York State Department of Health and the Attorney General’s office,” commented Scott H. Perra, FACHE, President/CEO of FSLH. “Our last step is next week when we file our notification with the Department of Justice (DOJ) under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act. The DOJ reviews affiliations from an antitrust perspective. If they have no objections, we will be able to move forward with the affiliation as early as the spring of 2014.”

“This is a positive move for our community,” stated Richard Ketcham, FACHE, President/CEO of SEMC. “While there is still much work to do going forward, the affiliation provides a strong foundation to better respond to the healthcare needs of our community.”

Mohawk Valley Health System is the name of the proposed “parent organization” that will govern the two organizations. A new Board of Directors, comprised of 18 members with equal members from the FSLH Board and the SEMC Board, will oversee the parent organization and the two hospitals.

Consolidation and joint partnerships are not new for the organizations. Faxton Hospital and St. Luke’s-Memorial consolidated their services in 2000. SEMC and FSLH jointly sponsor the Mohawk Valley Heart Institute and have a collaborative agreement for the Central New York Diabetes Education Program. The two organizations employ nearly 4,500 employees and have combined operating budgets of more than $500 million.

St. Elizabeth Medical Center (SEMC), in accordance with the New York State Nursing Mothers in the Workplace Act (NYS Labor Law § 206-c), provides unpaid break time to nursing mothers who wish to express milk at work, for up to three years following childbirth.  

In response to this need, the Medical Center has created a Lactation Room on the hospital’s third floor for employee and visitor use, either for expressing milk or nursing infants.  The Lactation Room is located by the 3B Unit waiting area, easily reached by hospital Elevators 1 and 2.  The Human Resources Director will work with employees who work at SEMC community sites, and their department managers, to provide suitable areas there, as well.

The Mohawk Valley Perinatal Network provided a stipend, which was used toward creation and furnishing of the Lactation Room.

The Laryngectomy Support Group will hold its monthly meeting on Thursday, January 9 at 12 p.m. in the Sister Regina Conference Room at St. Elizabeth Medical Center in Utica.

A laryngectomy is the procedure to remove a person’s larynx and separates the airway from the mouth, nose and esophagus. The laryngectomee breathes through an opening in the neck, called a stoma.

The public is welcome to attend. If you have questions, please contact the Speech Therapy Department at 734-3475.
The meetings for the Laryngectomy Support Group are held the second Thursday of each month at 12 p.m.