Category Archives: Healthcare

By Paul Post

A $340,000 renovation is positioning Southern Adirondack Independent Living (SAIL) to better serve the more than 7,000 clients it serves each year.

Project highlights include a new roof; a re-milled, regraded and resurfaced parking lot and a totally revamped grand entryway at the non-profit agency’s building, at 71 Glenwood Avenue in Queensbury.

“We’re really working to make SAIL a regular household name that promotes inclusivity, belonging and welcomeness,” Executive Director Tyler Whitney said. “This brand new, nice looking, welcoming environment really lends itself to our spirit right now.”

During construction, scheduled for completion by late June, SAIL continues to serve people at Aviation Mall, in a temporary space adjacent to Auntie Anne’s.

Founded almost 40 years ago, SAIL’s mission is to help people live more independently, and demand has grown almost exponentially in recent years because Warren County has one of the state’s oldest populations age-wise.

“As people are aging, they have more temporary disabilities and are using our services a lot more,” Whitney said.

Equipment loans for things such as wheelchairs, crutches and walkers is one of SAIL’s most well-known and popular services, totally free to eligible clients. But it’s one of just 15 services the agency provides in a territory stretching from Columbia and Greene counties north to the Canadian border.

In addition to Queensbury, SAIL has satellite offices in Plattsburgh and at Wilton Mall. Other services run the gamut from health insurance to advocacy, education about disability and health-related topics, and helping families understand options to avoid long-term nursing home stays.

By Rod Bacon

It’s a fact of life that as people age they often lose the ability to perform the daily tasks they once could. It’s also a fact that one’s home is what provides the greatest amount of comfort and peace of mind when dealing with life’s challenges.

Home Instead, founded in 1994 in Omaha, Nebraska, by Paul and Lori Hogan, is a non-medical senior care company with over 1,200 franchised locations in the United States and abroad.

In 2000, Nelson Carpenter, who had retired from a 33-year career in both the public and private sectors, became a Home Instead franchisee when he opened an office in Gansevoort serving Saratoga, Warren and Washington counties.

“He researched home care companies and decided Home Instead was the best one with which to partner,” said his daughter, Maureen Hopkins, R.N., general manager and co-owner. “I came on board  later to help out in the office for a while, discovered I loved it and never left.”

Carpenter was director of employee health benefits for the New York City Mayor’s Office of Labor Relations and later deputy director of the New York State Governor’s Office of Employee Relations. In the private sector he served as vice president of Value Health, Inc. and national vice president of Prudential Healthcare.

After moving to the area he served on the board of directors of the Senior Center of Saratoga Springs, the Visiting Nurse Services Foundation of Schenectady and Saratoga Springs, and the Alzheimer’s Association of Northeastern NY. 

By Susan Elise Campbell

Because he takes a non-surgical, non-drug, holistic approach to wellness, Dr. Joseph Gulyas of Northeast Spine and Wellness said he dismisses the one-pill-fits-all approach of traditional medicine. Rather, he looks at each patient as they truly are: a unique individual with any combination of physiological, nutritional, lifestyle, and other issues that bear on health. 

“We can’t just follow the old fashioned way of going to the doctor, prescribing a pill, and being told to come back in six months,” said the New York licensed doctor of chiropractic who has served the Capital District for more than 35 years. 

While some pains and complaints may be easy to diagnose, such as spinal misalignment due to a fall, Dr. Joe, as he is known by patients, said “the stuff underneath the iceberg can sink the boat.” 

Dr. Joe was born in New Jersey but his professional training and career was “everything Saratoga,” he said.  

Summers he worked at SPAC and at the race track. He was an aide in the ER, worked at a massage school, and was an EMT. He got his undergraduate education at Skidmore College and is a 1987 graduate of New York Chiropractic College.

His diverse experience and training informed the process Dr. Joe built for examining those icy layers below the patient’s surface and customizing a plan to help get ship-shape.

“We follow a doctrine of doing a thorough case history and examination, as every practitioner should do, and a structural evaluation,” he said.

“Like a car, if you hit a pothole it may shimmy to the left or to the right,” he said. “So we look at  alignment first and then metabolic factors, such as a rash, that may be present.”

By Susan Elise Campbell

Cooney & Tyner Orthodontics has opened a third office, giving patients in and around Saratoga Springs something new to smile about.

The newest location is at 46 Marion Avenue, Suite 2B, at the Fresh Market Plaza near Northway exit 15. It features good visibility, easy access, ample parking, a complimentary beverage station, and free wi-fi access, as does the flagship location in Troy and the office in Ballston Lake.

“Good businesses surround us at this new location and it is a great professional community to be part of,” said Dr. Brenden Cooney.

“It is a privilege to serve the community from our new location and we are excited about the opportunity to continue the legacy of our practice,” said Dr. Canaan Tyner.

The orthodontic practice goes back to 1960 and Dr. Michael Fleming. For 11 years, Dr. Cooney, a native of Troy, worked with Dr. Fleming until his retirement. He acquired the business, opened a second location in 2012, and brought Dr. Tyner on board six years ago. 

By Christine Graf

PA Medical Supply of Queensbury has opened a second location in the Wilton Mall next to JC Penney. Both stores carry an extensive selection of home medical equipment and soft good orthotics, boasting the largest showrooms and most extensive product selections in the area.

Established in 1995, PA Medical Supply was purchased by Lake George native Michael Gipson in July 2022. Prior to purchasing the business from John Bisceglia, Gipson spent more than a decade working in medical equipment sales.  

“I have been in the durable medical equipment industry for about 12 years,” he said. “I startedout on the manufacturer side, selling throughout New York state. I worked for one of the largest durable medical equipment manufacturers in the world.” 

After working his way up to regional manager for the Northeast, Gipson was promoted to vice president of sales for the company’s pediatric rehab division, a job that required extensive travel. 

“I  was traveling all over the country almost weekly, and my kids were getting to the age where school and sports were starting. I wanted to be able to stay closer to home,” he said. “I always knew I wanted to own my own business one day, and it got to the point where it was time to make a change.”

By Christine Graf

During the past decade, the number of board-certified physician assistants (PAs) has increased more than 75 percent, with more than 168,000 currently practicing in the field. Each year, PAs are responsible for more than 500 million patient interactions, collaborating with physicians and surgeons to diagnose and treat patients.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that the PA profession will increase 28 percent from 2021 to 2031. Currently, the demand for PAs is so high that 75 percent of graduates receive multiple job offers upon graduation.

In the late 1960s, Duke University established the country’s first physician assistant program. There are now 245 accredited programs in the United States, one of them at Albany Medical College where 42 PAs graduate each year from the 28-month program. Established in 1972, Albany Med’s PA program began as a collaboration with Hudson Valley Community College.

OrthoNY physician assistant James McGork III graduated from the Albany Med/Hudson Valley program, receiving his degree in 1998. A 1990 graduate of Mount Saint Mary’s College, he worked for Marriott Management Services before transitioning to health care. 

By Christine Graf

For more than 30 years, Malta-Stillwater EMS Executive Director Scott Skinner has been serving the local community, racing to the scenes of fires, accidents, and other emergencies. Skinner joined the Waterville Fire Department in 1993, and it was while there that he earned his Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) certification, later working his way up to become a paramedic. 

Appointed chief of the department in 2011, Skinner retired in 2014 after 21 years on the job. He joined the Round Lake Fire Department as a volunteer, and in 2018, he was hired as the executive director of the Malta-Stillwater EMS, a private, non-profit agency.

With stations in Malta and Stillwater, Malta-Stillwater EMS has 65 employees along with a dedicated crew of approximately 15 volunteers.  The agency’s staff is fairly evenly split between EMTs and paramedics.

“EMTs are trained at basic life support level. They do splinting, bandaging, oxygenation, CPR, and those types of things,” said Skinner. “Paramedics receive training that is heavier on cardiology and pharmacology. They also receive advanced airway and IV training.”

By Jill Nagy

HEBE Medical Spa will offer non-surgical medical treatments for face and skin. The facility is under construction at 28 Division Street in Saratoga Springs and expected to open in early July, according to co-owner and CEO Irina Damyanidu.

HEBE  has medical spas in Fishkill and Latham. 

Hebe, the company’s namesake, is the Greek goddess of eternal youth. Its treatments give the illusion of eternal youth with laser treatments, botox, facials, skin tightening, medical weight loss programs, hair restoration, and similar treatments.

Co-owner and medical director Dr. Zainad Ashraf is an internist also certified for cosmetic care. Known as “Dr.  Z,” she administers injectables, laser treatments, and other treatments that require medical certification. 

She received her bachelor’s degree from Binghampton University and her medical degree from the Ross University School of Medicine in Dominica. She did a residency at Winthrop Hospital in Mineola, N.Y. She is an internist at Vassar Hospital in Poughkeepsie in addition to her spa work. Most of the rest of the current staff are nurses or licensed medical aestheticians. 

By Susan Elise Campbell

Saratoga Hospital brought on a new CEO last fall, Jill Johnson VanKuren, who with the end of her first year approaching has expressed her goal to “protect the integrity of the hospital while advancing the future needs of the community.”

VanKuren left her position as COO of MedStar Franklin Square Medical Center in Baltimore to accept her first CEO role.

“I was looking for an opportunity more in line with a traditional community hospital,” she said. “Here in Saratoga, there is one hospital in the county and people live, work and play in the same area, so staff are truly committed to the community.”

Although Saratoga Hospital has been affiliated with Albany Medical Center since 2017, VanKuren said it is “right at the beginning of the journey” of joining forces with the Capital District’s top hospital system.

“I had been with MedStar since its early inception and helped facilitate its progress of becoming a larger system,” she said. “The relationship with Albany Medical Center and Saratoga Hospital forming as a system was a unique opportunity for me.”