Category Archives: Health / Community Services

Local veterans are given the opportunity to focus on health and resilience thanks to the 100 Day Transformation Challenge program created by Saratoga County in partnership with Purebred Athletics and Dig Deep Chiropractic & Massage Therapy PLLC.
Through the Veterans Peer Connection program operating under the county Veterans Service Agency, Saratoga County is currently sponsoring 15 veterans who will participate in the 100 Day Transformation Challenge, allowing them the opportunity to learn healthy stress management tools as well as establish a community with other veterans in the program.

A statewide plan to combat synthetic cannabinoids, also known as K-2, has been established. The multi-agency agenda includes wide-ranging prevention, education, treatment, and community engagement efforts, building upon the state’s commitment to add dozens of synthetic cannabinoids to the state’s controlled substances list.
These new initiatives will help remove these substances from circulation, raise awareness on the dangers of K-2, and provide additional guidance to healthcare providers on effective treatment and recovery services, officials said.

A positive decision by the Saratoga County Planning Board represents an important step forward for Saratoga Hospital’s plans to develop medical offices in close proximity to the its main campus, hospital officials said.
At a meeting in April, the board approved a change intended to align the zoning map with the city’s comprehensive plan. That would lead to a zoning change to allow for construction of medical offices on Morgan Street.

By Susan E. Campbell

Imagine calling for an ambulance and wondering when it will arrive, if at all. Yet that was the reality for first response some 50 years ago.

“Each township had different response territories, and it could take a long time for an ambulance to get from one end of a territory to another,” said William Smith, a recently retired career firefighter and chief of operations for Community Emergency Corps based in Ballston Spa.

Community Emergency Corps is a nonprofit organization Smith has been a member of since 1998. Founded in 1966 by a group of concerned citizens, it provides emergency transport for the Village of Ballston Spa, Milton, the northern part of Ballston, and Middle Grove, an abutting section of Greenfield.

By Rachel Phillips

For almost half a century, The Wesley Community, located at 131 Lawrence St. in Saratoga Springs, has offered care and housing for seniors and aging adults. Though the organization is well known for the services it offers to elderly patients, its outpatient therapy program is open to patients of all ages. 

The Wesley community is a 36-acre, nonprofit agency offering a broad variety of services. The senior-care services the organization is known for include providing market rate, affordable housing for independent seniors, as well as enriched living apartments for seniors who desire additional support, and in-home health care services, short-term rehabilitation and long-term nursing care. 

BlueShield of Northeastern New York has recognized Saratoga Hospital with a Blue Distinction Center+ designation for bariatric surgery as part of the Blue Distinction Specialty Care program. 

The Saratoga Bariatric Surgery and Weight-Loss Program at Saratoga Hospital, located at 1 West Ave. Suite 300, in Saratoga Springs, is the only program in the region to have earned this national distinction.

 “The Bariatric Team was  elated  when we heard the news,” said Dr. Dmitri Baranov, medical director of the Saratoga Bariatric Surgery and Weight-Loss Program. “We have earned the Blue Distinction Center for the last three years, but to earn the ‘plus’ distinction this year is a true testament to the quality, safety and care our dedicated team has been consistently providing for our patients at every stage of their weight-loss journey. This recognition is quite special, and we could not be more proud.”

Royal Philips, a health technology company, has integrated the Philips IntelliVue Guardian system—with automated Early Warning Scoring (EWS)—into the general care units of Saratoga Hospital to help improve patient safety and clinical outcomes. 

Since implementing Philips’ patient monitoring technology, Saratoga Hospital has reduced patient transfers to the intensive care unit (ICU) by 63 percent and eliminated patient codes within its 20-bed orthopedic unit, which dropped from three or four codes per year to zero, according to the company.