Bruce Apar’s Blog

“The healthcare delivery system is a disaster.” That’s the raw assessment of Joel Seligman, CEO of Northern Westchester Hospital, the newly expansive institution in Mt. Kisco blazing paths on several fronts, especially patient-centered care.
I spent a fascinating 90 minutes with the affable and enthused administrator last week in his office, where he detailed a host of initiatives under way at his institution to constantly improve healthcare delivery.
Stacked against a wall were poster-size renderings and schematics of new and improved spaces and services being built out at the medical center.
Under the umbrella of its Cancer Treatment & Wellness Center, recently opened on campus are The Women’s Imaging Center for breast imaging, The Laurie Bass Sklaver Infusion Center for state-of-the-art chemotherapy, and The Breast Institute at NWH, committed to care for “health and emotional well-being.” (For a video tour of these areas, see the NCN-TV button on homepage of NCNLocal.com).
The next centerpiece of construction is the Emergency Room, which already has undergone a dramatic transformation in terms of patient satisfaction. Seligman said its rating in that category has taken a quantum leap from being the lowest in the hospital (about 70% satisfaction) to one of the highest (in the high 90s). One result of involving stakeholders like the Yorktown Volunteer Ambulance Corps in the evaluation process is a new room off the ER entrance that EMS workers use to write reports and perform other tasks.
With the expansion starting in February 2009, the new ER is scheduled to be completed in late 2010, with 25 private rooms and lounge areas for family members. Special considerations include rapid treatment, pediatrics, psychiatric services and the elderly.
The current ER handles almost 30,000 visits annually, with the future unit, with 2-1/2 times the square footage (15,000 compared with current 6,000) able to accommodate 40,000 visits a year.
Seligman and staff are particularly proud of NWH’s being only one of five Designated Planetree Patient-Centered Hospitals in the U.S. and 150 in the world. The program is named for “the tree that Hippocrates sat under to teach the very first medical students in ancient Greece,” according to the Planetree website (planetree.org).
Some noteworthy examples of the program include trained therapy dogs that climb into beds with patients, including one in labor who requested the canine companion and an impromptu patient wedding ceremony assisted by the medical staff, which is encouraged to improvise to be more responsive to patients.
The hospital has taken to describing these as “Planetree moments.” It is all about “Putting the patient in charge,” said Seligman, and collecting a catalog of best practices that become standard operating procedure for the hospital. “Patients like coming here for their treatment,” he added.
Another new wrinkle on the way is “room service” meals that can be ordered by patients at individual times rather than delivered at times preset by the hospital.
The CEO clearly was proud of the sophisticated IT infrastructure used by the NWH, dubbed MediTech, which is part of the Stolaris Network, named for the parent company that also owns White Plains, Lawrence and Phelps hospitals.
It is a order entry system built for “the most advanced patient safety” by totally controlling dosages administered to patients through bedside medication verification. It prevents prescriptions being given to the wrong patient or mistaken dosages that can prove dangerous.
The medications are dispensed in single-dose packages and barcoded so they can be “wanded,” along with the patient’s wristband, to verify it is the exact right dose at the right time for the right patient.
All of this is a testament to the hospital’s rising star under the expert supervision of CEO Joel Seligman.

It’s a stretch to compare a mugger with the type of able-bodied motorist who thinks nothing of pulling into a parking space clearly designated only for drivers with disabled parking permits. Or is it?

Muggers and disabled-permit violators share some obvious traits: 1) desperate; 2) morally bankrupt; 3) crazy lazy; 4) weak in thought and deed; 5) insensitive; 6) self-absorbed; 7) disregard the law; need counseling; 9) need to perform community service; 10) need to gratify themselves through illegitimate actions.

It’s somehow satisfying that I keep encountering more people who, like me, are repelled by parking space muggers and some even will mouthe off to the violators. It would be a better world in this particular way if more people called out the non-diasbled who selfishly plant their vehicles — even if for a minute — in a spot they don’t need.

I’m not advocating that anybody put themselves in harm’s way by poking a finger in the chest of a lineman-size driver who emerges from a car misparked in a handicap spot. But those of us who don’t let people like that get away with their shenaningns find various ways to duly shame the culprits into at least perhaps thinking twice about making the same move next time:

1) “Boy, you sure move around well for somebody who needs to park in a disabled spot.”

2) “Hey, can you tell me where I go to get one of those parking permits that I don’t need either.”

3) Pull up in back of the person’s car and say, “I’ll be out of your way in a minute. I just need to write down your plate number to give to the police.”

4) “Can you sign a petition for the town to add disabled parking spots since they seem to be in short supply thanks to people like you who abuse them?”

5) “Excuse me, you might know the answer to my question: How much is the fine when you get a summons for illegally parking in a handicapped space?”

6) But the most appropriate salutation with which to greet these jokers is: “Be thankful you don’t qualify for a handicap permit.”

I was sitting with some people the other night talking about just this phenomenon — or outrage — and sure enough a couple days later witnessed a very healthy-walking middle-age woman exit Circuit City in Cortlandt and get in to her luxury car parked alongside the entrance in a handicap spot.

I didn’t bother to check if she had a permit, but even that is not proof of need. It’s not only non-permit-holders who slink their way in to the spots that need to be chastised publicly; it’s people who use a family member’s permit to cop a space they don’t need. Look around you: gee, you think society at large needs more excuses not to get routine exercise like walking a few more steps from a space that’s not right next to a store entrance?

They also could hold a Lazy Persons Convention in the parking lot of the Yorktown Post Office, where it’s not unusual to see people who get around with no problem at all pull into the handicap spot. Who can blame them, with the next available space at least five or six feet to the left. It’s an obvious hardship to have to trudge on hard pavement for that distance, especially when the weather is 60 degrees and sunny.

I’ve been known to heatedly double back towards the car, point emphatically to the handicap sign and shout, “Where’s your permit?!” Some people sheepishly look at you and drive away. Some understandably get defensive and respond as if they are in the right and you are wrong.

“Who are you?” the perpetrator might ask. “Oh,” I muse, “just some crazy person who thinks disabled spaces actually are meant only for those who truly need them to compensate for a compromised quality of life. I don’t know what got into me. Please don’t report me to the authorities.” Usually, they don’t.