Littauer’s Geoffrey Peck presents at health symposium in NYC Posted on June 5, 2018 by Dakota Pike Nathan Littauer Hospital & Nursing Home is proud to announce that Littauer’s Vice President of Population Health and Executive Director of the Nathan Littauer Foundation, Geoffrey Peck, was the featured speaker at the Medicaid Accelerated eXchange Series (MAX Series) Symposium. The event took place on Wednesday, May 30, at Metropolitan West in New York City. Peck spoke at the MAX Series Symposium. The goal of the symposium is to reduce 30-day readmissions, emergency department visits, and overall hospital utilization by successfully implementing multidisciplinary action plans. He shared best practices, and celebrate the success of Littauer’s initiatives to reduce readmissions. “Our shared goal is to find methods to connect patients to the most appropriate and cost-effective services available to help them stay healthy and live better lives,” said Peck ahead of the conference. “We discovered that some patients need assistance navigating through the systems of health care and social programs.” According to Peck, Littauer and a network of regional partners are successfully addressing these issues. “Partnerships with community-based organizations have made these care-management improvements possible. We have an incredible group of service agencies in Fulton County,” he continued. The MAX Series program is supported by the New York State Department of Health. This is Peck’s third presentation in the series with others to follow over the next few months. Littauer’s Vice President of Population Health and Executive Director of the Nathan Littauer Foundation, Geoffrey Peck
Littauer joins with The Baby Box Co. bringing a safe sleeping environment to all NLH Birthing Center newborns Posted on February 23, 2017 by Dakota Pike 2. The Baby Box Co. and Littauer collaborate to bring Baby Boxes to the Littauer community. Shown here is the first baby to receive the gift GLOVERSVILLE, NEW YORK (February 15, 2017) – Nathan Littauer Hospital and The Baby Box Co. announced the launch of the Universal Safe Sleep program at Nathan Littauer Hospital. “This program is a critical first step in reducing infant mortality,” stated Cheryl McGrattan, Vice President of Community Relations for the hospital. The new program is free to the new parents of the expected 340 newborns welcomed into the world at Nathan Littauer’s Birthing Center over the course of a year. Ms. McGrattan added, “According to our research, we are the first hospital in New York State to provide Baby Boxes to every family throughout the year.” This program is focused on reducing the infant mortality rate in the U.S. which hovered around 6.5 percent in 2015 which is worse than all EU countries, Japan, South Korea, Australia and even Cuba. The innovative new program combines the Baby Box University information platform for new parents along with the proven safety of the Baby Box. Empowering parents and families with essential information for them to properly care for newborns is the heart of this new initiative. Nathan Littauer’s Baby Box program is accessible to all expecting and new parents regardless of socioeconomic status. The Baby Boxes are available upon discharge from The Birthing Center. The use of Baby Boxes has been associated with helping Finland achieve one of the world’s lowest infant mortality rates. The Finnish initiative, which enables every expecting woman in the country to claim a free Baby Box once she receives prenatal care and parenting information from a healthcare professional, is credited with helping to decrease Finland’s infant mortality rate from 65 deaths for each 1,000 children born in 1938 to 2.26 deaths per 1,000 births in 2015. “What makes this program so unique is the focus on education” explained Maureen Mosher, RN, NLH Manager of Maternal Child Health, adding, “Every mother must watch a video syllabus in the prenatal stage to secure the box”. The multi-media parenting curricula called Baby Box University has video featuring local experts. The families will begin reviewing the syllabus in the prenatal stage. Upon completion, they are given a certificate which can be used to secure the free Baby Box. 3. An example of the Baby Box contents new babies will receive after being born at Nathan Littauer’s Birthing Center The Adirondack Rural Health Network (ARHN), a program of Adirondack Health Institute, partially funded the Nathan Littauer Hospital’s Baby Box project, one of seven ARHN Prevention Agenda Projects, with support from the New York State Department of Health Charles D. Cook Office of Rural Health. “Providing families with a means to keep their newborn safe and secure is such a privilege,” said Margaret M. Vosburgh, CEO, Adirondack Health Institute. “We are grateful for the opportunity to support our partners at Nathan Littauer Hospital in this important work.” The Baby Boxes themselves, which are made from durable cardboard and come with a firm mattress, waterproof mattress cover and fitted cotton sheet, are traditionally used in Finland as a baby’s bed for up to the first eight months of life. Participants in the safe sleep program receive a Baby Box that contains the following items at Littauer: Mattress Waterproof mattress protector Fitted sheet Safe sleep sack Pampers baby wipes Pampers Swaddlers diapers Lansinoh breast pads and nipple cream Vroom baby brain boosting activity cards Onesie Board book Thermometer Infant Mortality Rate Stats: Approximately 3,500 infants die annually in the United States from sleep-related deaths, including sudden unexpected infant death (SUID); ill-defined deaths; and accidental suffocation and strangulation. The number of infant deaths initially decreased in the 1990s after a national safe sleep campaign but has plateaued in recent years. The Baby Box Co. is Rooted from a Finnish Tradition: The use of Baby Boxes has been credited with helping Finland achieve one of the world’s lowest infant mortality rates. The initiative, which enables every expecting woman in the country to claim a free Baby Box once she receives prenatal care and parenting information from a healthcare professional, is credited with helping to decrease Finland’s infant mortality rate from 65 deaths for each 1,000 children born in 1938 to 3 deaths per 1,000 births in 2013, according to the World Health Organization. The success of the Finnish Baby Box intervention inspired the founders of The Baby Box Co. to adapt this tradition with enhanced multimedia parenting curricula through Baby Box University to the benefit of nonprofits, hospitals, government institutions and individual families worldwide. The Baby Box University program’s exponential growth has solidified the model as an impactful safe sleep and parenting education intervention for millennials. About The Baby Box Co. Entrepreneurs Michelle Vick and Jennifer Clary founded The Baby Box Co. to offer a safe sleep environment to babies everywhere. Through its Baby Box University platform, Baby Box Co. is an innovative, integrated program to support parents and improve maternal and infant healthcare outcomes globally. The Baby Box Co. partners with hospitals, government agencies and non-profit organizations to provide Baby Boxes, quality products, resources and ongoing education to families on a large scale. Baby Boxes are also available direct to consumer either as a standalone item or filled with new baby essentials. Serving families in 52 countries, The Baby Box Co. has offices in USA, UK, Canada, Australia and Singapore. For more information or to purchase a Baby Box, please visit www.babyboxco.com The Baby Box University education resource is at www.babyboxuniversity.com About Nathan Littauer Hospital & Nursing Home Nathan Littauer Hospital and Family of Health Services serves Fulton, Montgomery, and Hamilton counties in upstate New York with a full-service, 74-bed acute care hospital, nine primary care centers, a nursing home and a community education center. The hospital was founded in 1894 and has 1,000 employees. Littauer’s medical staff provides well over 100,000 patient encounters each year. For more information, please visit www.nlh.org. 1. The Hart family with the first baby to receive a Baby Box from Littauer
Littauer featured in “State of Health” Posted on April 28, 2014 by Dakota Pike State Of Health New budget well-received by area officials, though some uncertainty remains April 13, 2014 By BRIAN McELHINEY , The Leader Herald Most years, when the New York state budget is announced, Nathan Littauer Hospital expects to lose funding. That didn’t happen this year. “This budget’s different in that there’s usually all this negative, and there isn’t,” Nathan Littauer Hospital CEO Laurence Kelly said. The state’s 2014-15 budget will reinvest $8 billion from a federal Medicaid waiver announced in February for projects to improve the health care system, according to a release from the state Senate. There also were no cuts in hospital reimbursement for Medicaid patients, Kelly said. Article Photos Senior technologist Elishiba Frasier, left, performs a Dexa-Scan to test for bone density on patient Kaytie Compani at Nathan Littauer Hospital in Gloversville on Thursday. Photo by Bill Trojan/The Leader-Herald “That just means that we can do everything that we usually do and not have to scramble to try to be forced to reduce expenses when we didn’t want to,” Kelly said. “We’re looking to do that all the time anyway, to provide more services. … Most years we’re getting a 1 percent, 2 percent cut, 3 percent cut.” The budget also includes funding for a number of health care programs, including $4.1 million to the Elderly Pharmaceutical Insurance Coverage program and other senior services; a $1.2 billion capital investment over seven years for restructuring health care facilities; and $163 million for early intervention programs, according to the Senate release. According to the release, along with funding for other health initiatives, including cancer services programs and the Nutritional Information for Women, Infants and Children program, the budget also includes the Safe Patient Handling Act, which requires hospitals to establish a program to prevent injuries to staff and patients during patient transport. However, at the moment it’s still too early to tell how most of these investments will affect local services, according to local officials. Fact Box Budget numbers Some highlights from the New York state budget pertaining to health care and senior services: $8 billion in funds from the federal Medicaid waiver for transformative projects to improve the health care system. $1.2 billion capital investment over seven years for the restructuring of health care facilities. $95 million to create a statewide electronic medical record system. $4.1 million in increased funding to the New York’s Elderly Pharmaceutical Insurance Coverage program. Additionally, eligibility has been expanded, from $35,000 to $75,000 for singles, and from $50,000 to $100,000 for married seniors. $5 million for the Community Services for the Elderly Program. $25.3 million for cancer services programs. $26.3 million for Nutritional Information for Women, Infants and Children. $2.3 million for the Prenatal Care program. $4.5 million for maternal and child health. $550,000 for women’s health services. $533,300 for the Adelphi Breast Cancer Support program. $1.8 million for the Prenatal and Postpartum Home Visitation program. $34,700 for the Safe Motherhood Initiative. $10.6 million for adolescent pregnancy prevention. $1.8 million in increased funding for Rape Crisis Centers. $5 million in additional funding for the Spinal Cord Injury Research Board. $2.5 million in additional funding for the Doctors Across New York program. $2.45 million for addiction services, prevention and treatment. $500,000 for Lyme and tick-borne disease initiatives. $163 million for early intervention programs. Kelly said the state will need to come up with criteria for distributing the $1.2 billion for health care facilities as grants. “We don’t really know what they’re looking for yet,” he said. “Restructuring, on a global term, that kind of means what’s been happening for a long time now. There’s less of a need for people to be admitted to a hospital, and in place of that we take care of them as an outpatient, or they just come for a treatment, they come for a test or they come for therapy, or you go to their home versus them coming to a hospital.” Littauer already has a head start on the Safe Patient Handling Act. The hospital formed a safe patient handling committee about three years ago, and has invested “thousands and thousands of dollars” on lift systems to move overweight and obese patients, Kelly said. Some rooms in the hospital are equipped with stationary lifts, while other lifts are portable. “We all know that there are more people that weigh more than they did in the past,” Kelly said. “It’s so much more of a risk for our staff when you’re trying to move somebody who’s 400, 500 pounds, so we have to have this stuff to do it safely.” Representatives from New York Oncology-Hematology, which has an office in Amsterdam, were not sure how much of the $25.3 million set aside for cancer services in the budget would be coming directly to them. “We are pleased that this year’s state budget includes funding for cancer services,” Edwin T. Graham, Northeast regional senior vice president of the U.S. Oncology Network, said in an emailed statement. “It signals New York’s continued commitment to expanding access to vital screenings for early detection as well as continued cancer research.” “Typically the state will use some of that money to expand access for people not eligible [for cancer care],” said Sarah Bilofsky, NYOH’s marketing director. “Obviously, any money set aside for research benefits everybody as well.” According to Bilofsky, in late January NYOH announced a $3 million investment of its own money for the Amsterdam office to upgrade its radiation line. The budget also includes $26.3 million for the WIC program. However, Fulton County WIC Director Stella Zanella did not have information about the funding and would not comment. “I really haven’t heard anything about that,” she said. Dave Jordan, executive director of the Montgomery County Office for Aging, said he was pleased with the funding allocated to EPIC and other senior services, in particular the $5 million alloted for the Community Services for the Elderly program. “That’s a catch-all state program,” Jordan said. “That’s used for things like outreach.” He estimated that his office would receive anywhere from $10,000 to $20,000. “I think often senior issues don’t get on the front page, so they don’t get enough coverage, especially the EPIC program, where people don’t realize how much of someone’s income goes [to medication],” Jordan said. The Office for Aging in Fulton County did not return phone calls seeking comment on the EPIC and senior services funding. St. Mary’s Healthcare also did not return phone calls seeking comment.
