Benedictine Health Foundation sponsors HealthAlliance of the Hudson Valley’s Health and Technology Camp for Young Adults

HealthAlliance of the Hudson Valley hosted a free Health and Technology Camp at the Mary’s Avenue and Broadway Campuses for 23 local students from July 27 to July 31.

This innovative, week-long summer program sponsored by the Benedictine Health Foundation, provided 10-12 year-old children with the opportunity to observe many different aspects of healthcare in a hospital setting.

“The Benedictine Health Foundation was honored to provide funding for the Health and Technology Camp at HealthAlliance hospitals,” said Paul Beichert, Second Vice President of the Benedictine Health Foundation. “This was a truly memorable experience for the campers, their parents and the hospital staff. It’s certainly one that exemplifies the Benedictine spirit of compassionate care for people in our community.”

The Health and Technology Camp was organized by Charlene Cohen, Registered Nurse Certified and Nursing Supervisor at the Mary’s Avenue Campus, and Estela Aquino-Woch, Registered Nurse Certified; with assistance from Amy McAden, director of volunteer and auxiliary services, and six teen counselors, 14-19 years old.

Campers were grouped together in “teams” and attended classes on CPR and summer safety, and received coaching in public speaking. The campers visited many clinical areas, such as nursing, emergency medicine, maternity, mental health, and pharmacy; as well as non-clinical areas, including security, engineering, and information technology. Campers also received an introduction to complementary patient services such as nutritional services, physical therapy, music therapy and pet therapy.

At the end of the week, parents and guests joined the campers for dinner and a special graduation ceremony. The campers shared their team research project with Powerpoint presentations on a healthcare topic they had worked on during the week.

“Keeping the students engaged was never a problem,” said McAden. “We had the best group of enthusiastic kids who walked away with a bird’s eye view of hospital life and a greater appreciation of the challenges in medicine.”

For more information about attending the 2016 HealthAlliance Health and Technology Camp, please contact Charlene Cohen at (845) 338-2500 ext. 4810 or Charlene.cohen@hahv.org; or Amy McAden at (845) 334-4712 or amy.mcaden@hahv.org.

HealthAlliance Hospital in Kingston is participating in a global research study for patients with acute heart failure.

The study is led in the Hudson Valley by principal investigator Dr. Ellis Lader, a board-certified cardiologist at HealthAlliance Hospital. He is working with study coordinator Pamela Van Kleeck, a HealthAlliance registered nurse with a cardiology specialty, and Jeannine McErlean, a HealthAlliance RN with a decade of cardiac experience.
The study will test to see if an investigational product will be effective to manage acute heart-failure episodes.
Heart failure is a significant and growing public-health concern. It occurs when the heart cannot pump enough blood to the body’s organs, resulting in shortness of breath, fatigue and retention of fluids.

Five million to six million Americans, and some 26 million people globally, have heart failure, a study published last year in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology indicated.

It is a leading cause of U.S. hospitalization, the study found.

“Hospitalized heart-failure patients continue to experience unacceptably high post-discharge mortality and readmission rates that have not changed in the last two decades,” the study said.

The clinical trial HealthAlliance is participating in is studying an expected 6,800 patients at approximately 550 study centers worldwide. The clinical trial seeks to confirm the investigational drug’s effectiveness, monitor side effects and collect information about safety for the patients.

In the trial, participating heart-failure patients receive a 48-hour IV infusion of either the investigational drug or a placebo, along with conventional therapy for acute heart failure.

All patients are tracked for six months for safety information, as well as to determine hospital readmission rates. Participation is voluntary.

“Many advances that have been achieved in medicine and improved the lives of patients have come about as the result of clinical trials,” Lader said. “We at HealthAlliance are proud to be part of this important clinical research.”