MDNews - Mid Hudson

NEWS Patients at the HealthAlliance Dialysis Center can now look forward to a more comfortable experience. Thirty-four new medical recliners, purchased with a generous gift from the Klock Kingston Foundation and support from the HealthAlliance Foundation, await those who come to the center at 37 Albany Ave. in Kingston for treatment several times each week. The Klock Kingston Foundation contributed $25,000 toward the replacement of the recliners. (L–R) Certified registered nurse and HealthAlliance Dialysis Center Director Cheryl Ostrander and dialysis registered nurse Pam Mills stand behind one of the center's new medical recliners with Mary Ellen Cologero of the Klock Kingston Foundation. Middletown Medical is proud to announce that its Chester Urgent Care Center has earned prestigious certification for excel - lence from the Urgent Care Association of America (UCAOA). Opened February 2014, the Chester Center is part of a select hand- ful around the nation that have met all of UCAOA's nationally standardized criteria. The Chester location joins Middletown Medical's Urgent Care location in Middletown as UCAOA-certified. UCAOA-certified urgent care programs have met nationally standard - ized criteria, demonstrating their commit- ment to provide patients with high-level care. Vassar Brothers Medical Center has received the 2015 America's 100 Best Hospitals Award according to Healthgrades, an online re- source for comprehensive information about physicians and hospitals. The distinction puts Vassar Brothers Medical Center in the top 2 percent of the more than 4,500 hospitals evaluated nationwide for its superior clinical performance. Between 2011 and 2013, award recipients had a 26.4 percent lower risk- adjusted mortality rate across 19 procedures and conditions where in-hospital mortality rate was the clinical outcome, compared to all other hospitals. During this period, if all other hospitals had performed at the level of the 100 Best Hospitals Award recipients, 172,626 lives could have potentially been saved. It is estimated that patients treated at these 100 best hos - pitals had, on average, a 29.3 percent lower risk of dying from heart failure than if treated at a hospital that did not receive the award. Vassar Brothers Medical Center is among the hospitals in the New York region with some of the best quality care across at least 21 of 32 common inpatient conditions and procedures evaluated by Healthgrades over a period of at least three years. A new wheelchair-accessible minivan lets residents of Mountainside Residential Care Center in Margaretville increase their freedom and stimulation by taking trips, seeing sights and going shopping and to appointments. The specially converted power-ramp rear-entry white Dodge Caravan seats six, including the driver and two people in wheelchairs. The lion's share of its $45,000 price — $43,665 — was paid for by the Auxiliary of Mountainside and Margaretville Hospital, which has focused on community wellness. The balance came from a small fund Mountainside had from earlier fundraisers. The auxiliary had raised the money for the van through its thrift shop, antique and flea market, annual Harvest Moon Ball, and other fundraising activities. Charlie Slater, a resident of Mountainside Residential Care Center in Margaretville, stands in front of the nursing home's new $45,000 wheelchair-accessible minivan. HealthAlliance of the Hudson Valley projects to foster healthy preschoolers, healthy food access and healthy workplaces received $35,000, HealthAlliance said. The award — part of a CDC grant — extends the successful HealthAlliance-backed Nutrition and Physical Activity Self-Assessment for Child Care pro - gram for another year. It will also advance an Eat Well Kingston working group on healthy food access and build a new Work Well Kingston group. The money HealthAlliance received from the CDC, through the American Planning Association's Plan4Health program, is part of a $125,000 grant Live Well Kingston received from the CDC. Live Well Kingston, sponsored M D N E W S . CO M ■ MD NEWS Mid Hudson | 2 1

• Cover