Letters to the Editor - The Millerton news - 2-9-23

PCU will work for all at Sharon Hospital

I am a clinical navigator at Sharon Hospital and a proud member of the Sharon community, writing to share my support of Sharon Hospital’s proposed establishment of a Progressive Care Unit. I hope that this letter will help some of my friends and neighbors better understand the proposed plan and join me in believing this is the right direction for our local hospital.  In my 30 years at the hospital, I have witnessed how healthcare delivery continues to evolve, and how the demands of hospitals, their facilities, and their staff continually change. The proposed plan to centralize critical care and medical-surgical services into a unified Progressive Care Unit will enable our leaders to meet these demands by assigning our staff and resources more efficiently, while providing continuity of care for our patients. The Progressive Care Unit will continue delivering critical care with our same talented team, in a new location within the hospital, just up the stairs from where these services are offered today.

The transition to a Progressive Care Unit is designed to have minimal impact on the patient care currently provided while creating a more sustainable model that will serve Sharon Hospital well into the future. Care teams will continue providing the same level of care offered today. Centralizing critical care and medical-surgical services into a unified location is a more contemporary care model for our patients and our teams.

This transition is an integral component of our transformation plan to allow our hospital to remain a vibrant part of our community for years to come. I stand with many members of the Sharon Hospital staff who support this plan, and know it will serve our hospital, patients, and community.

Jim Hutchison

Norfolk, Conn.

Superbowl party

I wish that I loved football, I swear to God I do;

I wouldn’t have to feign this Colgate smile if it weren’t true!

Oh, but I’d give anything: that pressure so intense,

those bodies lunging down the field; I wish it all made sense.

Sweat glistening on their tattooed arms, sun glinting off their cleats,

the fans are all hysterical and leaping from their seats.

Those golden girls with silken thighs, cavorting on the side,

have long since lost their voices but their pom poms shake with pride.

Girls here, at home, shake golden hair, and alpha guys galore,

with frothy ale in frosty cans, hope – later – they will score.

Out come the bowls and baskets, with the chicken wings and chips;

arteries start hardening, at the thought of blue cheese dips.

Old referees, like zebras, are scrambling to keep pace,

I watch one apoplectic coach turn purple in the face.

Someone tries to tell me what they mean by a “conversion,”

(I guess it’s not the time I should confess to my aversion.)

The crowds have all ceased breathing, all glancing at the score,

as half the fans, up in the stands, prepare for that last roar.

The team’s exchanging fist bumps with the guy who always kicks;

then, yes – the ball  soars over – that cross bar on two sticks!!

Betsy Sprague

Salisbury

Sharon Hospital board supports the PCU

We are members of Sharon Hospital’s Board of Directors. We serve on our hospital’s community Board because as residents of this region, we understand the importance of Sharon Hospital to the communities it serves. We are also patients, and some of us are current or former medical and clinical staff members. We write today in firm support of the proposed establishment of a Progressive Care Unit (PCU) at Sharon Hospital.

It is important to understand that this plan is not reflective of a major revision to the care currently offered at Sharon Hospital; instead, it is mainly a change in name and location to reflect the level of care that the hospital currently provides. For example, we all find comfort in knowing that the hospital has resources like ventilators and cardiac monitoring equipment. We will still have access to these resources in a PCU, with the key difference being that we will receive this care upstairs from where it is currently, in a single unit as opposed to two separate units.

Our community should continue to come to Sharon Hospital for all care needs. Sharon Hospital’s Emergency Department is open 24/7, and will continue to serve as the community’s first stop for care. Sharon Hospital’s skilled staff members will continue to accept, treat, and triage all patients just as they do today, determining whether a patient is best served by remaining at Sharon Hospital or by being transferred for more intense inpatient care.

For us as patients, the impact of the transition to a PCU will be limited, but for the trusted caregivers working at the hospital, the centralization will allow increased flexibility and more supportive resources. When planning for the future of Sharon Hospital, there were many discussions about the need to adopt a more contemporary and efficient model for inpatient care. Our Board and the hospital’s leadership team agreed that engaging the staff who work in the hospital every day would be crucial to ensuring the plan was right for both patients and staff.

The proposed PCU is a result of this work, informed by input from a group of staff and hospitalists (the physicians who oversee inpatient care across the hospital). This team feels strongly that establishing a PCU is the best way for the hospital to continue providing high-quality care to our community, with added efficiency. We trust leadership and these caregivers, as they are the most familiar with the process already used to decide whether a patient is best served by remaining at Sharon Hospital or moving elsewhere. This successful process will continue to be used if the CON is approved. If patients are transferred, they will return home to receive follow-up care locally once they are discharged, just as they are today.

This centralization of resources will allow Sharon Hospital to embrace a more sustainable model to serve our community into the future. We urge our neighbors to join us in asking the Connecticut Office of Health Strategy to approve this application.

Rick Cantele,

Board Chairman,

Salisbury

John Charde, MD

Lakeville

Margaret Coughlan, MD,

Millbrook

Randall Dwenger, MD,

Lakeville

Pari Forood, Lakeville

Hugh Hill, Kent

Joel Jones,

Falls Village

Mehrdad Noorani,

Sharon

Kathryn Palmer-House,

Dover Plains

James Quella, Sharon

Ken Schechter, Salisbury

Mimi Tannen, Millbrook