Hospital News

Trouble Paying Medical Bills?

We understand that there are times when our patients may have difficulty paying for their medical care. Under the O'Connor Hospital Community Services Program (CSP), O'Connor Hospital provides free care each year to uninsured individuals and families unable to pay the total cost of their medical care. So that we are able to serve as many people as possible under this program, we are available to come into your community to present how we can be of help to your families. We offer to present, What the qualifications for Community Services Program include, How to apply for CSP and When approval for CSP is awarded. Contact O'Connor Hospital Community Outreach, at 746-0528 to set up presentation to your town leaders or organization.

Swing Bed Gets a Facelift

by Elaine Wright

As we make our journey through life we encounter bumps in the road especially as we get older. At times we may become ill or injured and need time to recover fully in order to return safely to a somewhat normal life style. The goal of Swing Bed is to assist people with that recovery period. This may include receiving physical, occupational, speech therapy, long term dressing management, and long term IV antibiotic therapy as well as many others services.

Swing Bed is getting a facelift. All of the in-patient rooms have been upgraded with superior quality hospital beds, flat screen TV’s, new furnishings and draperies as well as a fresh paint job.

When you are a Swing Bed patient you find that you have a lot of free time on your hands. You can only receive a so much physical therapy a day. To prevent boredom and encourage socialization between our Swing Bed patients we have given the Activity program an upgrade. We are proud to announce that Ruth Martinis has been brought into the Swing Bed program to provide increased individual and group activities under the supervision of the Occupational Therapist, Helen Tari. Ruth has had experience in the past with Activities in other facilities and is eager to interact with the patients. Each patient will receive a daily schedule that will include specific times for therapy, activities and group activities. The night unit clerk will post each schedule the evening before on the white boards in the patient’s room. This allows the patient to have the opportunity to see what their schedule for the next day will be as well as allows nursing to adjust the patient care.

Additionally, the Occupational Therapy hours have been increased to further enhance the Swing Bed program. The Solarium will be getting some new furnishings that are more functional.

Finally, as the patient is ready to be discharged, they will be receiving a folder that will provide information regarding services that have been arranged for them once they go home. For example, a referral to Delaware County Public Health Nursing for continued Nursing evaluation and management, Physical Therapy, as well as Home Health aides if needed. Anything the patient may need to know when they are discharged will be included in this folder.

We will continue working to stay updated in all our services. Stay tuned for further news. If you have any suggestions for the Swing Bed program, please feel free to contact Elaine Wright at (607) 746-0416 or any member of the Swing Bed team.

O'Connor Emergency Preparedness Initiatives

by James Higgins

O’Connor’s Emergency Preparedness initiatives are kicking into high gear.
Currently, we are in the process of assessing the Comprehensive Emergency Plan (CEMP) in order to standardize its contents. We also are working with the Regional Resource Center (RRC) Albany Medical and the Department of Health to incorporate Pandemic Influenza plan annex, the Mass Care-Surgery plan annex and the Mass Fatality plan.

Training and Education Updates

• - A number of training and education initiatives are underway, including:
  
• - National Incident Management System (NIMS) training
  
• - Burn Disaster Training, which is targeted to RNs and MDs, preferably from surgical, emergency or pediatric departments.
  
• - Support New York State Department of Health’s Healthcare Volunteer Management Program.

Drills and Exercises

This year, O’Connor will participate in four Interoperable Communications exercises coordinated through New York State Department of Health statewide. As part of the exercise, we will test the communication systems between hospitals and to the state Department of Health.

The systems include computer, phone (land line and satellite), fax and ham radio systems.
Another drill we are planning involves lab packaging and shipping exercises, in which we will test the process of sampling and shipping items to the state Department of Health’s Wadsworth Lab for their processing.

On June 23-27, we will participate in a Pandemic Influenza Full-Scale Exercise. This will be a New York State Functional Logistics exercise, and we will participate with other organizations, including Bassett and all the system affiliates, Delaware County hospitals and local Department of Health emergency services.