Current News
by tim
by Laura Krantz vtdigger.org
Brattleboro’s opiate treatment center is the latest acquisition in a nationwide methadone clinic empire being assembled by a holding of private equity giant Bain Capital.
CRC Health Group, owned by the Boston-based firm founded by 2012 GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney, has purchased Habit OPCO, the East Coast company that runs the Brattleboro methadone clinic and another in West Lebanon, N.H.
by tim
Related Company: Norwich UniversitySovernet CommunicationsNorwich University and Sovernet Communications announced an agreement for Sovernet to provide multiple gigabit speed (1Gbps or 1000Mbps) Internet connections to the Northfield campus.
Norwich has 2,300 undergraduates in attendance—including cadets, civilian residents and commuters—along with 1,200 online graduate students, 160 full-time and 60 part-time faculty members, and 600 staff. Because of its robust infrastructure, Norwich, which also supports renowned cybersecurity programs, demands the most sophisticated network capabilities. Sovernet’s construction of a fiber-optic network path through Northfield enabled the company to connect the institution.
by tim
Vermont Attorney General Bill Sorrell appointed Assistant Attorney General John Treadwell as Chief of the Criminal Division of the Vermont Attorney General’s Office. Treadwell has 18 years of experience as a criminal prosecutor serving for four years as a Chittenden County Deputy State’s Attorney and 14 years as a prosecutor in the AGO.
“We need John’s experience and leadership skills. I am pleased that he agreed to take on the additional responsibilities as a division head. The Criminal Division has its plate full with several homicide, sexual assault and child protection and drug trafficking cases pending in courts around the State. I have the greatest confidence that John will provide solid leadership on these cases as well as on important criminal justice policy issues facing the State,” said Attorney General Sorrell.
by tim
The American College of Healthcare Architects (ACHA) has named Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center one of two recipients of ACHA’s inaugural Legacy Project Awards. The awards were presented in Orlando, FL, on March 18 at the American Society of Healthcare Engineers (ASHE) Planning, Design, and Construction Summit.
Dartmouth-Hitchcock represents a paradigm shift in hospital design, incorporating and foretelling some of the most significant healthcare delivery and design issues of the past 25 years. This includes:
· A patient- and family centered campus
· A focus on managing first costs and ongoing operational costs with a series of connected, yet discrete buildings
· A mall as the organizing concept and circulation backbone
· The use of daylight and views of nature as a wayfinding strategy and a partner to medical treatment
by tim
The federal Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services has certified Green Mountain Psychiatric Care Center as an approved provider. GMPCC received a Notice of Decision on March 20, 2014, that the temporary, eight bed, state-run hospital in Morrisville has been accepted as an approved CMS provider.
This milestone allows a State of Vermont psychiatric hospital to be a participating CMS provider, thereby eligible for federal funding,
for the first time since 2003.
This CMS notification decision carries an effective date of March 7, 2014, for the small hospital. The certification follows two on-site surveys, one in December 2013 assessing standards applied to all hospitals, and one in February of this year that assessed standards for psychiatric hospitals.
by tim
Related Company: Vermont Hard Cider Company, LLCOne of America’s original craft ciders is once again “going pink” to support an important community organization. Last year, the Vermont Hard Cider Company, makers of Woodchuck Hard Cider, unveiled the newest addition to their Private Reserve Line, Woodchuck Pink. This cider was created to honor and support the work of Survivorship NOW, a Vermont-based nonprofit organization dedicated to offering wellness programs to cancer survivors. Along with a pink label that incorporates the Survivorship NOW logo, Woodchuck Pink Cider is naturally colored with grape skins to give it a pink hue.
Although Woodchuck Hard Cider has grown from a two car garage into a national brand, it works to remains true to its roots, and operates under the credo, “Good people, doing good things, in a good way.”
by ayla
NMC’s Diagnostic Imaging Department recently received ACR accreditation for its Magnetic Resonance Imaging program --- a medical imaging procedure that uses a magnetic field and pulses of radio wave energy to make pictures of the body’s organs and structures. This adds to the department’s accreditations already received in CT, Mammography and Ultrasound.
Lead MRI Technologist Erica Finnegan talks with a patient in NMC’s MRI suite. Photo courtesy of Northwestern Medical Center.
The MRI team, led by Erica Finnegan RT(R)(CT)(MR), Lead MRI Technologist, worked tirelessly to assure that all standards required by the ACR were met in full and in some cases, exceeded the standards set by the ACR. "ACR Accreditation is voluntary, but we felt it necessary because Northwestern Medical Center always puts the patient first. This accreditation assures the community that we are committed to providing the best patient care and image quality possible," says Erica.
by ayla
by Patrick and Marcelle Leahy It’s uncomfortable, though not as much as most of us fear. The preparation the day before is unpleasant. I don’t have time for this, we think to ourselves. I don’t want to think about this. These are all excuses some people might give when told it’s time to schedule a colon cancer screening, such as a colonoscopy. But by putting it off, you could be risking your life. And if you think a colonoscopy might be uncomfortable, unpleasant or time-consuming, consider the implications of colon cancer, and think again.
March is National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month, and colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer diagnosed in the United States. This year, nearly 137,000 people will be diagnosed with it. Worse, more than 50,000 people will die from it. In Vermont this year, 290 new cases of colorectal cancer are expected, and 100 deaths.
by ayla
A gift of $10 million to Dartmouth-Hitchcock (D-H) will be used to create an advanced clinical facility to provide integrated, patient and family-centered care for patients with life-threatening illness and complex medical needs.
The Center for Palliative and Hospice Care will combine the latest thinking and techniques to advance interdisciplinary patient and family-centered, care, while offering unprecedented opportunities for teaching, training, and research for health care providers and clinicians in training from across the country.
The $10 million gift, the largest in Dartmouth-Hitchcock’s history, has been made anonymously. It will be used to establish a 12-bed Center, intended to fill a growing need for specialized care for seriously ill people whose pain or other medical needs are difficult to manage at home or in a nursing home.
by tim
by Kate Robinson vtdigger.org A patient’s medical records used to be more or less a closed book. The large, sometimes inches-thick file sitting on the counter in the examination room, which the doctor might refer to but did not discuss with the patient, is a thing of the past.
by tim
An overnight fire in Burlington has forced residents of a 131 Elmwood Avenue apartment building from their homes, leaving some to wonder what’s next. The building has four units, three of which were occupied.
Throughout the day, volunteers with our Chittenden County Disaster Action Team have met with the residents of two of the impacted units, one of which took the brunt of the blaze. The residents of a second apartment are unable to return at this time due to smoke damage and the fact that power to the building remains cut off. In each instance, our volunteers have made arrangements for temporary lodging for the residents, including the pet that lived with the couple residing in one of the units. In addition, financial support was provided for food, clothing, shoes and seasonal garments as appropriate. Referrals to additional avenues of support, whether that be state or non-profit resources, were also shared.
by ayla
North Country Hospital Medical Staff President, Dr. Jennifer Ladd, delivered several boxes of food and well over $2,300 last week to the NEKCA food shelf from a month long effort.
"The medical staff wanted to donate to the community and decided to give food and money to the local NEKCA food shelf," she said.
Accepting the donation is April Mead of NEKCA. She commented how grateful NEKCA is to receive this donation, as this time of year the shelves are very much depleted.
Photo courtesy of North Country Hospital
Source: North Country Hospital