Mosquito and Tick Bites: What You Need to Know

Prevention and treatment, from our infectious disease experts

Enjoying summer means spending time outside – which means bugs. Two bugs, in particular – mosquitoes and ticks – are cause for concern, since they can spread diseases. Here’s the scoop on summer’s most annoying pests.   Prevention If you’re going to be out and about, especially in wooded or grassy areas, you should dress appropriately, says Madiha Tahir, MD, of The University of Vermont Health Network - Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital. Dr. [...]

ICU Nurse's Care Inspires Donation to Foundation of CVPH

A Plattsburgh couple touched by a dedicated nurse’s care has donated to The Foundation of CVPH in her honor. The patient was rushed to The University of Vermont Health Network-Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital (CVPH) needing emergent care, including dialysis. Julia Tansor, RN was among those providing care for the patient during a stay in the hospital’s Intensive Care Unit (ICU). Fortunately, the couple happened to live close by to Tansor and she volunteered to help them out wh [...]

Our Commitment to the Patients and Communities We Serve

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CVPH Hosts Norwegian Nurse Practitioner Student

Aiste Venclovaite Hopes to Transform Nursing Profession in Norway

The University of Vermont Health Network-Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital (CVPH) is impacting the nursing profession on a global scale following a unique visit by an international student. “In my country, the Primary Care Providers have so many patients, there’s actually a crisis happening there now,” Aiste Venclovaite, a nurse from Norway, said. “After learning what I did at CVPH, I want to lift the Nurse Practitioner position up and say we can do a lot of what do [...]

Gun Violence is a Public Health Crisis -

Let’s Treat It Like One

Mass shootings are happening so frequently in our country that the past few weeks seem as unsurprising as they are terrifying: 19 innocent children and two teachers killed in Uvalde, Texas; 10 killed in one of the deadliest and racist massacres in recent U.S. history in Buffalo, New York; four lives lost to an angry patient with a gun at a hospital in Tulsa, Oklahoma; and a security guard shot to death inside a Dayton, Ohio hospital. The horror and heartbreak are overwhelming, yet all too f [...]

New Patient Logistic Assistant Role Enhances Customer Service

Offers New Career Opportunities

It’s a scenario that’s repeated many times in our bustling facility. An Environmental Service worker chats with a patient while mopping the floor. The patient needs to use the restroom and fiddles with the nurse call button. The Environmental Service worker, wanting to help but not trained in providing that kind of patient care, offers to get a member of the nursing staff for assistance. The patient waits. Because meeting our patients’ needs is a key component of our work (and [...]

'I'm right where I want to be'

If not for Star Trek’s Dr. Spock, Johnnie Wren, MD, might not be practicing family medicine at the Au Sable Forks Health Center in northern New York. Fresh out of medical school and hoping to find a residency program to launch her career into family medicine, Dr. Wren attended a regional recruitment conference in Massachusetts. She remembers the conference was held shortly before Halloween. “I saw one group of program recruiters, head-to-toe in full costumes – including one [...]

Foundation, United Way Help Baby Get Home for Christmas

The generosity of donors to The Foundation of CVPH and United Way of the Adirondack Region paved the way for a Christmas gift one northern New York family will not soon forget: a cab ride home for the holidays. A one-year-old from Clinton County, and his family had been through some difficult times recently. Less than a week before Christmas, the little bubbly boy was in Boston with his family to begin his chemotherapy. “Even through all this, all the chemo, every bad thing that&rsqu [...]

Don't Delay Care

Don’t Delay, Get Screened Today The COVID-19 pandemic has changed many things in our lives but not the importance of regular cancer screening. Screening for breast, cervical, colorectal, lung and prostate cancers can dramatically improve treatment outcomes and in some cases, prevent the cancers from occurring in the first place. According to the National Cancer Institute, when detected at its earliest stages and confined to the primary site, the 5 year survival rate for: Breast [...]

Celebrating Safely: COVID-19 and the Holidays

The holiday season is fast approaching, and with COVID-19 still prevalent in our region, it is important to think about how we can celebrate safely during get-togethers with family, friends and colleagues. Late last spring, we all expected that this holiday season would be back to normal. Sadly, the emergence of the delta variant has changed that. The following numbers, while offering some encouraging signs, also show the pandemic is not over: Across New York State, daily cases are slowly [...]

Breast Cancer Survivors Raise Big Bucks for Foundation, FitzPatrick Cancer Center

Organizers inspired by care at FCC

Connected by friendship, grateful to beat breast cancer and inspired by the compassionate care they received, two North Country women organized and hosted a fundraiser that will benefit cancer patients in the region for years to come. Lisa McGinn and Chris Bigelow are also hoping it demonstrates the power of community-based generosity and the benefits such an event can offer to The Foundation of CVPH and the many lives it touches, while convincing others to take action and give back in any way t [...]

10 Minutes is Better Than No Minutes

Exercise… The word itself can spark anxiety for many. It’s easy to come up with excuses to avoid exercise, and even easier to fall into sedentary habits. Dylan Daniels, EP, CCEP, understands. As a Clinical Exercise Physiologist at UVM Health Network – Elizabethtown Community Hospital Daniels’s job is to help patients who have avoided the “E” word and need help to get moving again. “Lots of people think that they just can’t do it,” s [...]

Homegrown: Training North Country Kids For a Career in Medicine

Ten years ago, high school student Joey Tousignant enrolled in career exploration program called New Visions at UVM Health Network-Alice Hyde Medical Center. The program offers motivated, high-achieving students an insider’s view into a wide range of health care roles through college-level courses, supervised clinical experience and job shadows with Emergency Department physicians, pediatricians, nurses, occupational therapists and much more. Fast forward a decade and that high school s [...]

Getting the Care You Need

A guide to help you receive the right care in most appropriate setting

Need Care? Know Where to Go. As the pandemic presses on and the national shortage of health care workers intensifies, it’s more important than ever to understand your health care options to ensure you receive the right level of care in the most appropriate setting. Health care options for North Country residents often include primary care, urgent care and emergency care so it’s not always obvious where to go for care – or when.  So in the heat of the moment, this gui [...]

The Big Latch On: Supporting Breastfeeding Women in our Community

Breastfeeding women and their families are invited to participate in The Big Latch On planned for Saturday, August 7 at 10:30 a.m.  The event, sponsored by the University of Vermont Health Network – Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital’s (CVPH) Alice T. Miner Women and Children's Center (WCC) will be held virtually by mobile device or computer on Zoom. Each year, groups of breastfeeding women across the globe come together to nurse their child for one full minute at an es [...]

Nursing Team Inspires Donation to Foundation of CVPH

Former patient grateful for care she received

Lying in a hospital bed, battling to breathe, was not the start to 2021 that Jane Woods envisioned. But after taking on COVID-19 for four days at CVPH, she left with a renewed sense of hope and overwhelming gratitude that she shared through a generous donation to The Foundation of CVPH’s Honor a Caregiver program. The 73-year-old Plattsburgh resident’s fight with the dreadful disease began as we kicked off a new year near the height of the pandemic in the United States. Like many [...]

Driving a Healthier Community

Golf tournament marks 20 years of making a difference

As much as golf is an individual sport, the game can also bring people together in a special way. For Dan, Tim, Pat and Kathy Coffey, golf has helped them remain connected with each other and their father for the last two decades. June 4, 2021 was the 20th anniversary of the Jim Abbott & Dick Coffey Golf Tournament. Held at the Adirondack Golf & Country Club in Peru, the tournament benefits The Foundation of CVPH. It was started in memory of Dick Coffey, an avid golfer and a well-know [...]

Living the Lab Life During a Pandemic

Since the pandemic arrived in our region in March 2020, one of the questions that has dominated just about every aspect of our daily lives is: “Am I positive or negative for COVID-19?” The answer to that question can be life changing for our patients, our people and our community as a whole. The CVPH Laboratory team dedicates itself to providing answers to that question and a long list of others 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Lab Manager for Microbiology and Qu [...]

What are you waiting for?

The COVID-19 vaccines are safe, effective and easy to get

If you are waiting to get vaccinated, what specifically will end the waiting? If you are vaccinated but still masking, when will you decide it is safe enough? We don’t typically wait forever for anything. There is usually an “until.” What is your until? If you are waiting until there is more information about the COVID-19 vaccines, here are a few facts that may ease your concerns: As of June 11, 2011, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported more t [...]

Paying it Forward for Patients

Why Janet Mann Gives

You do not need to be at the bedside to realize the difference that donations make in the lives of our patients. Janet Mann, Supervisor of Patient Centered Care Management – Medical Home, has witnessed the need in our community first hand over the past decade. During her time at Medical Home, the team has helped countless patients secure everything from medications, blood pressure cuffs and scales to durable medical equipment, all while ensuring that patients are educated about their tr [...]

Reflecting on a Year of COVID-19

We have reached a sad moment in our ongoing fight against COVID-19: it has been one year since our first inpatient death from the virus at CVPH. Since April 10, 2020, we have lost 28 souls at the hospital to this unprecedented public health crisis. They were mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, adult children, grandparents, aunts and uncles, nephews and nieces, and cousins. They were friends, colleagues and neighbors - our patients. Each profound loss represents what could have been, if [...]

This is Our Shot

How COVID-19 vaccinations can open doors

If we all want to get back to the things we’ve missed most since the beginning of the pandemic, it’s time to shift our thinking about what getting vaccinated means. As COVID-19 spread across the globe, those of us in medicine believed that a vaccine would even-tually be our way out – a return to normalcy. As it turned out, three have been developed and approved for use. They work tremendously well in preventing the worst outcomes from this virus: hospitalization and death [...]

CVPH: The Next Generation of Health Care

When COVID-19 arrived in our community nearly one year ago, no one could have imagined the impact the virus would have on each one of us, both personally and professionally. I’m filled with pride in recalling how every member of the CVPH family rose to the occasion for those in our care and for each other. Throughout this time, our team has remained committed to providing the care our patients needed while supporting one another in meaningful ways.  On the home front, families and [...]

COVID-19: Hitting Close to Home

What we do now determines if our hospitals will get overwhelmed

As COVID-19 cases surge in our region, many people are worrying about where they might contract the virus. In reality, you may only need to go as far as your own home. For most of us, our guard is up once we leave our home. We are on high alert, taking many precautions to reduce the risk of getting sick. Yet, the number of positive COVID-19 tests in Clinton, Essex and Franklin counties is rising at a troublesome rate. As of Thursday, December 17 in Clinton County alone, the seven-day rolli [...]

Turning the Tide Against COVID-19 During Thanksgiving

What we all need to think of before the holiday

COVID-19 is spreading faster and wider in our region than we have seen before. And, with Thanksgiving right around the corner, this opportunistic virus is ready to take a stronger grip on our community if we are not careful. Many of us are thinking about spending time with family and friends we have not seen in person for a long time due to the pandemic. Thanksgiving traditionally brings our loved ones together to watch football, catch up with each other and share a meal. It seems harmless [...]

The Diabetes Guessing Game

Expanding Our Knowledge About Types and Treatments

Written by: Ashley Williams, PA in Endocrinology It sounds like a bad joke, “Three people walk into a clinic. One pulls out an insulin pump, the second a bottle of pills and the third a carrot. When the front desk staff asks what they are there for they all respond, 'Diabetes.'” This depicts the great variation in types of diabetes and treatments for the disease.  Treatment is not quite as simple as it used to be. Since the discovery of insulin in 1922, w [...]

Patient Touts Safety Undergoing Surgery at CVPH

It’s natural to get nervous about having to go through a major surgery. Getting the procedure done in the middle of a pandemic is sure to add to those nerves for many people. But, for Plattsburgh resident Richard Boulrice, COVID-19 was hardly a concern. “I could not have asked for a better situation than I had right here at CVPH,” Boulrice said just a couple weeks after undergoing a complicated gall bladder surgery at the hospital this summer. Richard Boulrice The [...]

Expanding Our Understanding: Do Masks Work?

There is growing evidence that some people who got infected with COVID-19 despite wearing a mask are still alive today because of that mask. And that gives us a new way of thinking about the protection face coverings provide. From early on in the pandemic, you’ve heard from me, my colleagues here at CVPH and public health officials across the country bang the drum on the importance of wearing masks and how they can help slow the spread of the novel coronavirus. The initial selling point [...]

Painting a New Picture

A Message from Michelle LeBeau, RN, BS, MHRM | President & COO

The basic rule to maintaining any budget, whether it’s your family budget or the ledger of an organization like ours, is that you need to have more money coming in than you have going out. When that balance is disrupted, changes must be made. To meet your household’s immediate needs and sustain the family going forward, you adjust by reducing spending and finding ways to increase your cash flow. The same actions are required at CVPH, today. Despite our great work, our average loss [...]

Emergency Department Receives National Certification Champion Award

The University of Vermont Health Network-Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital (CVPH) was named a 2020 National Certification Champion Award winner by the Board of Certification for Emergency Nursing (BCEN). The honor was announced during a virtual ceremony streamed across the country last month. The BCEN is considered the benchmark for board certification across the emergency nursing spectrum. CVPH competed against large healthcare organizations nationwide. The hospital was recognized for hav [...]

Cooking With a Doc Program Promotes Healthy Eating

The Difference Your Donations Make

“If we can really help change behaviors for patients, we can really help change health outcomes," Cooking With a Doc creator Therese Ray, MD said. But, that's something that Dr. Ray realizes can be a tough thing for people to learn given the eating habits they've had their entire lives. “For a lot of patients, eating more fruits and vegetables and really changing their diet, it’s a big change, it’s something that a lot of our patients are not familiar w [...]

I’m At–Risk for COVID-19. How Do Older Adults Get Care, and Stay Safe?

While we all wish there was a solution to put an end to COVID-19, we are best served to begin adjusting our behaviors, expectations and lifestyle to acknowledge this pandemic will take time to manage and resolve. As we shift to a longer-term acceptance of our new reality, many patients in our older adult population have been asking great questions about their health, their risk of contracting COVID-19, and how to live a h [...]

Welcome Back: We’ve Got You Covered

Thank you. As members of the community, you’ve done a remarkable job evolving with the many swift changes across our homes, businesses, schools and health care facilities. This collective action – your sacrifice – has allowed our communities to flatten the curve and avoid a devastating surge to our health care system. For that, we thank you. But as we look back at what we’ve accomplished these past few months, it’s time to look forward and s [...]

Taking Advantage of Telehealth

Imagine being able to get out of bed, do your normal morning routine, and then head to your doctor appointment – without having to leave home. There’s no need to find a babysitter for the kids, spend money on gas or lose more time from work. That’s what thousands of people have experienced thanks to CVPH’s telehealth services. The program, which has already been operational for years, was expanded in response to the COVID-19 pandemic as an additional option to help pat [...]

Providing Great Care in Our Post-COVID World

Thanks to your vigilance and the tireless efforts of health care workers across the North Country, we are embarking on the next chapter in the COVID-19 pandemic. This part of the story begins with the New York State Department of Health’s approval for us to resume elective surgeries and the phased reopening of our region. While CVPH remained open for care throughout this health care crisis, our response to COVID-19 required us to pause non-essential services and programs to conserve sup [...]

Thank You to CVPH Employees, Families & the Community

A message from Michelle LeBeau

Our community is standing together like never before in the face of COVID-19.  I take great pride in the amazing work of the men and women at Champlain Valley Physician Hospital (CVPH) who are contributing to that effort by caring for those who are affected. These are tough times indeed. In just a few short weeks, there has been a tremendous amount of change and disruption to both our home and work lives.  We have cancelled non-essential surgeries, procedures, diagnostics and many p [...]

What's Your Plan?

Dr. Wouter Rietsema talks about having a plan should COVID-19 come to your house.

Especially during times like these, it’s easy to adopt a “this-won’t-happen-to-me” mindset. But what if “it” does happen and either you or someone you live with becomes ill with COVID-19?  What’s your plan?  My years of experience as a physician, hospital administrator and father of 3 has taught me that hoping for the best while planning for the worst is usually the right path to take. Should COVID-19 come to your house, what will you do? Se [...]

Advice from an Infectious Disease Physician on COVID-19: Act Like You Have It

By: Wouter Rietsema, MD - VP of Population Health & Information Services, Infectious Disease Specialist

As an Infectious Disease Physician and Hospital Administrator, over the past several weeks I have been touting the many ways people can help protect themselves from COVID-19 – hand-washing, avoid touching your face, social distancing. And then it hit me. A better way to look at stopping the spread of the virus is to act like you have it. So what would I do if I knew I was infected with COVID-19? I would go home, lock myself in a room and tell everyone else in the house to stay away. I [...]

Everyone Plays a Part in Keeping Health System Strong

I was on the phone recently with my 28 year-old daughter who lives in the Boston area. I asked her what she was feeling down there related to novel coronavirus or COVID-19.  She said she thought that it seemed like people were going “over the top” with responses. They had just closed the schools in her town after a single confirmed case.  “Isn’t this not much more than a bad flu?,” she asked.  But I realized that many people are thinking and feeling t [...]

Flu Season Has Arrived!

An article from the UVM Health Network 2020 Flu Education series

With Cindy Dion Noyes, MD, University of Vermont Health Network Medical Group UVM Medical Center Infectious Disease Influenza has arrived in our region and is considered to be widespread at this time. This means that at least half of the regions in the state of VT and NY are reporting laboratory confirmed influenza (usually with a nasal swab). Current Regional Strains The current strains we are seeing locally include two strains of influenza A (H3N2 and H1N1) as well as one strain of [...]

Improving Your Health Care Connections Across Our Network

Epic, our new electronic health record, will begin to seamlessly link four network affiliate hospitals

When we formed the University of Vermont Health Network in 2014, we brought together a collaborative approach to quality health care in our region and forged strong network connections between our affiliates in Vermont and northern New York. The November 9 launch of our Epic electronic health record (EHR) is a significant representation of our Network’s collaboration thus far and will positively impact our patients and communities. Unified communication between our providers &ldquo [...]

Chelsey Bushey Understands that Great Patient Care Comes In Many Forms

Chelsey makes a difference every day.

Cancer Peer Educator Chelsey Bushey knows that there are truly many ways to make a meaningful difference in the lives of the people we serve. She’s been part of the CVPH team for a little over 5 years working first as a Transporter and later, as a Clinical Assistant. Both positions allowed her to share her compassion and kindness and gave her the opportunity to assist patients when they needed it most.  “I love patient care – helping people,” Chelsey said. So t [...]

Caring for Our Communities: What it Means to be a Rural Health Care Provider

By: Kent Hall, MD, Chief Medical Officer, Alice Hyde Medical Center and CVPH Dragos Banu, MD, Practice Physician Leader, Alice Hyde Medical Center Alison Guile, MD, Regional Physician Leader, UVMHN MG/Adirondacks Living in rural America is special. In a country of 326 million people, we’ve achieved something amazing: preserving the ability to walk out your door and still feel a sense of adventure and pioneerism every day. That’s part of what brings people to areas like Frankl [...]

Spring Forward with SMART Lifestyle Goals

By: Matt Miller, Lead Clinical Dietitian Each year many of us make resolutions to change our lifestyle, including; eating healthier, exercising more and achieving a healthier body weight. However, many resolutions fall short as we lose steam along the way. Now is the perfect time to Spring into action by developing a well-defined plan and setting achievable goals by using SMART objectives. SMART stands for: • Specific. The more detailed and targeted your description, the better you [...]

Remembering Those Who Give the "Gift of Life"

It's fitting that National Donor Day is February 14, a day we already associate with love. On this day, we raise awareness about organ donation and celebrate the lives of organ and tissue donors. Most people will eventually be affected by donation in their lives. They will either know someone who needs, or has received a life saving transplant. Or, they will learn that someone they know was a donor.  What is the need for organ donation? The need for organs is great and grows eve [...]