Letters to the Editor - The Millerton News - 5-19-22

Agree with John Walter on the energy crisis

In response to Millerton resident John Walter’s letter to the editor about the national energy crisis that is hitting close to home that ran in The Millerton News on May 12. Kudos and well done, John.

You honestly voiced the concerns of most common-sense folks.

There is a very simple solution, John: Convince President Biden to put everything back the way he found it when he came into office.

The country would quickly heal itself.

Larry Conklin

Millerton

Celebrating Sharon’s nursing professionals

Compassionate, calm, competent, resilient and efficient. These are just a few traits embodied by the skilled nursing teams of Sharon Hospital — a group of individuals transforming care into the 21st century with immense fortitude and courage.

I am proud to serve as the Chief Nursing Officer at Sharon Hospital, where I have had the pleasure of witnessing firsthand the amazing work of our nurses for more than four years.

Time and again, I am awed by our nursing teams’ skill, compassion and dedication to serving our patients and community. Their perseverance, especially over the last couple of years, is humbling.

Last week, May 6 through May 12, marked National Nurses Week, and Sharon Hospital spent that time celebrating them for their extraordinary work as integral caregivers and members of our community.

The strength and quality of care delivered across all departments is a testament to their commitment to the nursing profession.

Their support remains a strength of our facility today and through the future — and for that, our nurses deserve the utmost recognition.

Our nurses play an essential role in making Sharon Hospital a welcoming, reliable resource.

We thank them for tirelessly protecting our community against the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, for the high-quality, around-the-clock care they provide to those most in need, and for the kindness and support they provide to our entire community in their greatest times of need.

As we reflect back on Nurses Week, I ask all of you — the patients and community who inspire them — to join me in thanking our Sharon Hospital nursing team.

Christina McCulloch

Chief Nursing Officer
Sharon Hospital

Sharon

Sharon Hospital’s plan is ‘fatally flawed’

I commend Nuvance Health for investing in Sharon Hospital as announced in a full-page advertisement in the May 5 issue of The Millerton News. The ad listed the purchase of a new MRI scanner, 3-D mammography unit, and atelemedicine kiosk. Sharon Hospital needed a new MRI scanner. Among other uses, the MRI scanner is needed to promptly evaluate stroke symptoms in patients that should be transferred to a stroke center.

State of the art mammography necessitated a 3-D unit. It would be even better if the unit was used for stereotactic biopsies at Sharon Hospital as they had been done in the recent past, rather than making patients travel 45-60 minutes each way for an already emotionally stressful procedure.

Optimally, Nuvance should invest in a breast surgery program here if it truly wanted to serve our community. It takes more than bricks and mortar to make a hospital.

More importantly, we need more primary care doctors, not just nurse practitioners, as Nuvance touted in the ad. About 20 years ago, there were about a dozen primary care doctors and now there are five, plus three doctors at Sun River Health at the Federally Qualified Health Center (EQHC) facility in Amenia.

The 50,000 residents of the Sharon Hospital service area deserve more than a mobile van in the hospital parking lot one day weekly and a telemedicine kiosk as stated in the ad. They need a hospital that truly supports ALL the doctors here.

Some of the money spent on the capital equipment could have been better used to maintain primary care service, maternity, a full service ICU and 24-7 surgical services. It could be used to institute a pain management program, a vein center, an alternative medicine center and other initiatives to expand services.

With a vigorous fundraising campaign, millions could be raised from our community. Unfortunately, Nuvance and the Sharon Hospital Board, do not have a dialogue with the stakeholders in the community. The Nuvance “Transformation Plan” is fatally flawed.

David R. Kurish, MD

Sharon