Tag: Valley Hospital

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Valley’s Life-Saving Tourniquets Donated to Bergen County Rapid Deployment Force

Bergen County Rapid Deployment Force
file photo courtesy of Boyd Loving’s Facebook page

Valley’s Life-Saving Tourniquets Donated to Bergen County Rapid Deployment Force
December 2, 2015

the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ , The Valley Hospital continues to show its dedication to protecting our community through the distribution of tourniquets to first responders. The most recent recipients of the tourniquets are the Bergen County Rapid Deployment Force (RDF), which is comprised of police officers from each municipality within Bergen County.  These officers respond to a variety of incidents including riots and active shooters. Each officer on the Bergen County RDF was issued two tourniquets.

Having access to a tourniquet can be critically important in a life or death situation. If a police officer is shot or injured in an extremity, they are able to apply the tourniquet to themselves. Similarly, if a member of the community is severely injured in an extremity, the tourniquet can be used to assist them. The presence of these tourniquets minimizes the chance that a wounded individual will bleed to death prior to help arriving.

In addition to the Bergen County RDF, Valley’s Department of Emergency Services has donated almost 1,000 tourniquets to approximately 500 police officers in 16 area towns. They have also given tourniquets to the New Jersey Division of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

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Fight over non-profit hospitals’ tax exemption looming

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DECEMBER 5, 2015 LAST UPDATED: SATURDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2015, 1:21 AM
BY LINDY WASHBURN
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD

New Jersey’s non-profit hospitals may not pay property taxes, but they generate so many jobs, both directly and indirectly, that their economic activity contributes more than $1.4 billion to local and state tax revenues, a report commissioned by the state hospital association said Friday.

The industry is bracing for legislative action that might threaten the current exemption from property taxes in the wake of a precedent-setting Tax Court decision earlier this year involving Morristown Medical Center. State Senate leaders have said they plan to introduce legislation this month to clarify the standards for maintaining a property-tax exemption, to better reflect hospitals’ evolution into complex corporate enterprises since the tax code was written in 1913.

In Bergen and Passaic counties, the value of hospitals’ tax exempt properties is conservatively estimated at more than $700 million.

The report by EY (formerly Ernst & Young), commissioned by the New Jersey Hospital Association, details the economic and community benefits that non-profit hospitals provide. The 63 non-profit hospitals statewide employed 140,000 people, who received $8.3 billion in salaries and paid $674 million in state and local taxes in 2013, the report said. Hospital activities led indirectly to an additional 114,000 jobs statewide, and generated $777 million in additional taxes.

In North Jersey, those hospitals include Hackensack University Medical Center, Holy Name Medical Center in Teaneck, Englewood Hospital and Medical Center, The Valley Hospital in Ridgewood and St. Joseph’s Healthcare System in Passaic County.

https://www.northjersey.com/news/nj-state-news/property-tax-fight-looming-1.1468111

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North Jersey towns reassess tax-exempt status for hospitals after key ruling

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NOVEMBER 23, 2015, 9:53 PM    LAST UPDATED: TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2015, 6:42 AM
BY LINDY WASHBURN
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD

Around North Jersey, more than $700 million worth of property goes untaxed because it is owned by non-profit hospitals. That includes hospital campuses on nearly 90 acres in Ridgewood, Hackensack, Teaneck, Englewood, Paterson and Wayne. And it also includes hospital-related properties, such as portions of medical office buildings in Wayne and Paramus, parking garages in Hackensack and an assortment of lots in Paterson.

That property, and the potential revenue it could produce if it were assessed property taxes, is getting a close look by leaders of the state and local governments after a precedent-setting Tax Court decision and recent settlement in a case between Morristown and the non-profit Morristown Medical Center.

Judge Vito Bianco ruled that non-profit hospitals in the early 21st century are essentially legal fictions, with little in the way they operate to distinguish them from for-profit hospitals — and almost nothing in common with their beginnings as “charitable alms houses.”

https://www.northjersey.com/news/north-jersey-towns-reassess-tax-exempt-status-for-hospitals-after-key-ruling-1.1461487?page=all

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Reader says Anyone pointing fingers at past Councils about conflicts of interest is clearly trying to divert attention away from the several conflicts with the current Council

3 amigos in action Ridgewood NJ

Anyone pointing fingers at past Councils about conflicts of interest is clearly trying to divert attention away from the several conflicts with the current Council. Mr. Killion is long gone folks. We have several critical issues before this Council and the 3 majority members all seem to have cozy relationships with the parties that have a lot to gain from their “YES” vote. Money has already changed hands from Mr. Saraceno to our Council majority in the form of $1,000 fundraiser tickets for them and their dates. Mr. Pucciarelli and Mrs. Hauck have clear conflicts on the Valley Hospital lawsuit.

Apologists for the Council majority cry “old news” when these conflicts come up yet they point fingers at past Councils as a convenient way to deflect any blame that comes their way.

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Failure to Stop, Causes accident on the Corner of Fairway and Van Dien in Ridgewood

failure to stop
photo courtesy of Boyd Lovings Facebook page
Disregard of Stop Sign Causes accident on the Corner of Fairway and Van Dien in Ridgewood
November 16,2015
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, The driver of a Volvo XT90 was issued a summons for disregarding a stop sign at the intersection of Fairway Road and North Van Dien Avenue in Ridgewood on Tuesday, 11/17. Her actions caused the Volvo to collide with a 4-door Hyundai Sonata.
Both vehicles were removed from the scene by a flatbed tow truck and a passenger in the Hyundai was transported by ambulance to The Valley Hospital with a non-life threatening injury. Ridgewood FD Engine Company 35 personnel attended to a minor accident related fluid spill.

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Why is the Village Council Not Talking about a PILOT program for Valley Hospital?

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November 17,2015
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ,  once again we would like to call attention to the article in NorthJersey.com https://www.northjersey.com/news/n-j-towns-may-push-hospitals-to-pay-up-more-could-seek-property-tax-deals-with-non-profits-1.1453139 which speaks about the current trend in NJ to take away the non-profit status of hospitals.
In the article it states that Morristown Hospital has agreed to pay $15.5 million over the next decade to settle demands for property taxes and that Valley’s Hospital tax liability would be $4.5 million in Ridgewood if its main campus were not exempt.
The article goes on to state Mayor Aronsohn has not been able to bring this issue up because of Valley’s pending application for approval of building plans. Which seems to open the door for Valley expansion and leaves many residents are still looking for some clarification on this as I don’t understand  how one issue precludes the other.
Council women Gwenn Hauck’s has articulated over and over that the potential for money is an important factor in the Village Council’s assessment of the High Density Housing issue. Clearly the Judge in Morristown has just given Ridgewood a much simpler path to a financial windfall then increased High Density Housing could.

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It’s Way Too Easy to Hack the Hospital

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Firewalls and medical devices are extremely vulnerable, and everyone’s pointing fingers

By Monte Reel and Jordan Robertson | November 2015

from Bloomberg Businessweek

In the fall of 2013, Billy Rios flew from his home in California to Rochester, Minn., for an assignment at the Mayo Clinic, the largest integrated nonprofit medical group practice in the world. Rios is a “white hat” hacker, which means customers hire him to break into their own computers. His roster of clients has included the Pentagon, major defense contractors, Microsoft, Google, and some others he can’t talk about.

He’s tinkered with weapons systems, with aircraft components, and even with the electrical grid, hacking into the largest public utility district in Washington state to show officials how they might improve public safety. The Mayo Clinic job, in comparison, seemed pretty tame. He assumed he was going on a routine bug hunt, a week of solo work in clean and quiet rooms.

But when he showed up, he was surprised to find himself in a conference room full of familiar faces. The Mayo Clinic had assembled an all-star team of about a dozen computer jocks, investigators from some of the biggest cybersecurity firms in the country, as well as the kind of hackers who draw crowds at conferences such as Black Hat and Def Con. The researchers split into teams, and hospital officials presented them with about 40 different medical devices. Do your worst, the researchers were instructed. Hack whatever you can.

Like the printers, copiers, and office telephones used across all industries, many medical devices today are networked, running standard operating systems and living on the Internet just as laptops and smartphones do. Like the rest of the Internet of Things—devices that range from cars to garden sprinklers—they communicate with servers, and many can be controlled remotely. As quickly became apparent to Rios and the others, hospital administrators have a lot of reasons to fear hackers. For a full week, the group spent their days looking for backdoors into magnetic resonance imaging scanners, ultrasound equipment, ventilators, electroconvulsive therapy machines, and dozens of other contraptions. The teams gathered each evening inside the hospital to trade casualty reports.

“Every day, it was like every device on the menu got crushed,” Rios says. “It was all bad. Really, really bad.” The teams didn’t have time to dive deeply into the vulnerabilities they found, partly because they found so many—defenseless operating systems, generic passwords that couldn’t be changed, and so on.

The Mayo Clinic emerged from those sessions with a fresh set of security requirements for its medical device suppliers, requiring that each device be tested to meet standards before purchasing contracts were signed. Rios applauded the clinic, but he knew that only a few hospitals in the world had the resources and influence to pull that off, and he walked away from the job with an unshakable conviction: Sooner or later, hospitals would be hacked, and patients would be hurt. He’d gotten privileged glimpses into all sorts of sensitive industries, but hospitals seemed at least a decade behind the standard security curve.

 

https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2015-hospital-hack/

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No more knives in the kitchen, Knife Assault on Chestnut Street in Ridgewood

Knife Fight Ridgewood
Photo courtesy of Boyd Loving’s Facebook
Knife Assault on Chestnut Street in Ridgewood
November 11,2015
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, Ridgewood Police officers at the scene of an assault with a knife that took place in the rear of a restaurant located at 31 Chestnut Street shortly before 5 PM on Wednesday, 11/11. A male victim was transported by ambulance to The Valley Hospital with non-life threatening injuries to his hand. Police apprehended a male suspect at the scene. He was placed under arrest and transported to Ridgewood PD headquarters. Charges are pending.

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Valley Offers Free Screening For Lung Cancer Awareness Month

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November 11,2015

the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, Earlier this year, The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced that for eligible beneficiaries, annual screening for lung cancer with low-dose computed tomography will be covered as an additional preventive service. The announcement made by CMS corresponds with the recommendations made by The United States Preventive Services Task Force, a government panel. The recommendations and the screening guidelines apply to current heavy smokers and to those who have quit within the last 15 years and are between 55 to 80 years old.

November is lung cancer awareness month. Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in men and women. An estimated 160,000 people die from lung cancer every year. Current and former smokers are at high risk for developing lung cancer. Many of these deaths could be prevented by following these screening guidelines, as studies have shown that treatment for lung cancer can be highly successful if the tumor is detected in its earliest stages, before there are any signs or symptoms of the disease.

The Valley Hospital is currently offering free, low-dose CT scans to those ages 55 to 80 who are eligible based on the screening guidelines. The test is painless and only takes about 15 or 20 minutes.

Request to be considered for a free screening online by clicking here, or call 201-634-5757.

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Exterminator succumbed to bee sting in Franklin Lakes

Franklin Lakes Bee Sting

photo courtesy of Boyd Loving’s Facebook page

November 7,2015

the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Franklin lakes NJ,  Franklin Lakes PD, EMS, and FD, along with a paramedic unit from The Valley Hospital, responded to a 911 report of a man lying unconscious on the roof of a synagogue located at 375 Pulis Avenue sometime around 12 noon on Wednesday, 11/04. The victim, an exterminator, was pronounced dead on the scene by the paramedic team. He apparently succumbed to a bee sting.

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Valley Hospital : Illuminating the Roadmap to Easier Blood Draws

blood bank1

November 5, 2015

the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ,  Blood drawing for patients with hard-to-reach veins just became a lot easier and less painful at The Valley Hospital, thanks to a small hand-held device that lights up veins like a roadmap.  With the AccuVein illumination device, the need for multiple needle sticks to try to hit a good vein for a blood draw is a thing of the past.

Hemoglobin in the blood absorbs the infrared light of the device. When the device is held above the skin, veins appear noticeably different than the surrounding tissue. The vasculature shows up clearly on the skin’s surface, aiding in vein location to collect a blood sample or administer IV medications.

When a vein is reached on the first attempt, it is much more comfortable for the patient since they have significantly less pain and swelling, if any, during and after the draw.

“Patients at Valley, especially those with hard-to-reach veins, are happy about our use of the vein illuminator,” said David Rivera, Director of Cardiac Services at Valley Hospital’s Heart & Vascular Institute. “Several patients have commented that they have felt a lot more comfortable during blood draws and IV insertions with the vein illuminator because of not needing multiple sticks. Valley is proud to be the first Bergen County hospital to have a large-scale deployment of the AccuVein device.”

Very often, elderly patients and children have hard-to-reach veins that cause the procedure to be more painful.  Dehydration, obesity, certain medications, and drug abuse can also contribute to having hard-to-reach veins.

Ron Goldman, Chief Executive Officer of AccuVein, said, “The Valley Hospital is a recognized leader in patient safety and their large scale adoption of vein illumination is further evidence of their commitment to excellent patient care.”

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Ridgewood students get a glimpse of career option at Valley Hospital

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OCTOBER 29, 2015    LAST UPDATED: THURSDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2015, 10:04 AM
BY MATTHEW SCHNEIDER
STAFF WRITER |
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS

Last week marked the beginning of the 10th year of the Ridgewood Academy for Health Professions (RAHP) program.

During the kickoff on Tuesday, 36 Ridgewood High School sophomores took a tour of Valley Hospital in order to get an idea of what goes on behind the scenes, and of what kind of work they would like to pursue as part of RAHP.

“This is their first exposure to RAHP,” said Maureen Curran, manager of media relations and communications at the hospital. “This shows them all of the different aspects of the program, which lets them choose what they want to continue with.”

The program takes RHS students interested in working in medical professions and gives them firsthand experience in that field.

“It definitely looks good on their college applications,” said Sandra Kunzle, the RHS liaison to RAHP. She added that the majority of RAHP students pursue degrees in pre-med or other healthcare-related fields.

RAHP was created in 2005 by Peter Diestel, executive vice president of Valley Hospital; Sheila Brogan of the Board of Education; and Bob Hutton, a former Board of Education member.

https://www.northjersey.com/news/education/students-get-glimpse-of-career-option-1.1444189

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Valley Physicians Well-Represented on NJ Monthly Top Doctors List

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October 21, 2015

the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, New Jersey Monthly magazine has named 58 doctors from The Valley Hospital’s Medical staff to its 2015 “Top Doctors” list.

To compile their list, New Jersey Monthly commissioned an independent survey of every licensed doctor in New Jersey.  Each of the doctors was asked to vote for physicians he or she would choose to treat him or herself or a family member. The list names 647 doctors in 57 medical specialties.

Included on the “Top Doctors’ list are 58 members of Valley’s medical staff in a range of specialties, including cardiac electrophysiology, gynecologic oncology, hematology and oncology, maternal/fetal medicine, neonatology, obstetrics & gynecology, pediatrics, surgery and vascular surgery.

Valley physicians who were listed in the special issue of New Jersey Monthly magazine are:
Thomas Ahlborn, M.D., General Surgery; Mutahar Ahmed, M.D., Urology; Frederick Alexander, M.D.,Pediatric Surgery; Douglas Avella, M.D., Pediatric Orthopedic Surgery; Eric Avezzano, M.D.,Gastroenterology; Hooman Azmi, M.D., Neurosurgery; George Becker, M.D., Emergency Medicine;Jessica Blume, M.D., Allergy and Immunology; Neal Breit, M.D., Endocrinologist; Crystal Broussard, M.D., Gastroenterology and Internal Medicine; Cindy Chang, M.D., Allergy and Immunology; Daniel Char, M.D., Vascular Surgery; John Chuback, M.D., Cardiac Surgery; Jeff Chung, M.D., Rheumatology

Sameera Daud- Ahmad, M.D., Endocrinology; Mark Dombrowski, M.D., Family Practice; Frederick Fakharzadeh, M.D., Orthopedic Hand Surgery; Frank Ferraro, M.D., Plastic Surgery; Susan Flanzman, M.D., Internal Medicine; Gregory Gallina, M.D., Colon and Rectal Surgery ; Rajinder Gandhi, M.D.,Pediatric Surgery; Carol Glaubiger, M.D., Internal Medicine; Michele Gliksman, M.D., Gynecology;Edward Gold, M.D., Oncology Medical and Internal Medicine; Noah Goldman, M.D., Gynecologic Oncology; David Goldstein, M.D., Gastroenterology; Richard Goldstein, DPM, Podiatry; Lawrence Harrison, M.D., Surgical Oncology; Joel Jacowitz, M.D., Cardiology; George Kaptain, M.D.,Neurosurgery; David Konigsberg, M.D., Pediatric Orthopedic Surgery; Peter Lee, M.D., Pediatric Emergency Medicine

Bennett Leifer, M.D., Internal Medicine & Geriatric Medicine; Rafael Levin, M.D., Orthopedic Surgery;Joseph Licata, M.D., General Surgery; Frank Manginello, M.D., Pediatrics, Neonatology; Farshad Mansouri, M.D., Colon and Rectal Surgery; Zvi Marans, M.D., Pediatric Cardiology; Stephen Margulis, M.D., Gastroenterology; Monica Meyer, M.D., Obstetrics & Gynecology; Mary Ann Michelis, M.D.,Allergy & Immunology; Sessine Najjar, M.D., Internal Medicine; Joel Nizin, M.D., Colon and Rectal Surgery; Kumar Patel, M.D., Vascular Surgery; Rajnik Raab, M.D., Neurosurgery; Roger Rosenstein, M.D., Orthopedic Surgery and Hand Surgery

Steven Rosner, M.D., Rheumatology; Patrick Roth, M.D., Neurosurgery; Viral Shah, M.D.,Endocrinology and Internal Medicine; Leonard Silverstein, M.D., Allergy and Immunology; Carol Sotsky, M.D., Infectious Diseases; Gerald Sotsky, M.D., Cardiology; Jacques Tohme, M.D., Endocrinology and Internal Medicine; Roy Vingan, M.D., Neurosurgery; Howard Weizman, M.D., Nephrology and Internal Medicine; Ronald White, M.D., Colon and Rectal Surgery; Luis Zapiach, M.D., Plastic Surgery and Ophthalmic Plastic Surgery; Ira Zucker, M.D., Gastroenterology and Internal Medicine.

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Valley Hospital in cooperation with the Ridgewood Police Department to host a Multi-agency emergency exercise drill

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file photo by Boyd Loving

October 21,2015
the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, The Valley Hospital in cooperation with the Ridgewood Police Department will be conducting a multi-agency exercise on the morning of Thursday October 22, 2015 in the Emergency Department of the hospital.

This is part of our ongoing efforts to enhance the abilities of law enforcement and our public/private safety partners to effectively deal with potential critical incidents.

Numerous outside agencies will also be participating in the exercise. The Emergency Department of the hospital will still be open however there will be increased police and emergency medical services activity in the parking lot area of the hospital.

The drill will be contained to Valley Hospital’s property however residents may notice increased police and public safety personnel in the area during the event. Ridgewood Board of Education will also be cooperating in this drill.

The Ridgewoood Police thank you for your patience and cooperation as we work to make our community safer.