Contact: 

Peggy Kalia
Epoch 5 Public Relations

(631) 427-1713
pkalia@epoch5.com

Oceanside, NY - March 24, 2008 - Myrna Alvelo, a registered nurse and nurse recruiter with South Nassau Communities Hospital, has been awarded a Town of Hempstead 2008 Pathfinder Award in Community Affairs for her dedication to the field of healthcare and creation of an innovative program for student nurses. The nursing program developed by Ms. Alvelo enables Hispanic students and graduate nurses from universities in Puerto Rico to come to Long Island and practice hands-on patient care at South Nassau Communities Hospital under the supervision of an experienced registered nurse.   

Contact:

Scott Orstad

Manager, Corporate Communications

(203) 276-5933

sorstad@stamhealth.org

Contact:

Karen Huxtable

Manager, Public and Media Relations

(607) 547-4581

karen.huxtable@bassett.org

Cooperstown, NY - March 21, 2008 - Marianne Stalteri, certified nurse-midwife and OB/GYN nurse practitioner, and currently Bassett Healthcare's cervical cancer screening coordinator, recently received a two-year term appointment to the state's Breast and Cervical Cancer Detection and Education Advisory Council (BCAC).

Contact:

Karen Huxtable

Manager, Public and Media Relations

(607) 547-4581

karen.huxtable@bassett.org

Cooperstown, NY - March 13, 2008 - Bassett Healthcare has been designated as a Center of Excellence for its weight loss surgery program by the Surgical Review Corporation (SRC), a sub-group of the American Society of Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery (ASMBS), the largest society in the world dedicated exclusively to bariatric (weight loss) surgery. Bassett Healthcare became one of 321 hospitals nationwide, and one of 24 in New York State, to achieve Center of Excellence status. 

Contact:

Leanna Mauro

Publications Specialist

(516) 663-2234

lmauro@winthrop.org

Mineola, NY - March 13, 2008 - Winthrop-University Hospital is pleased to announce the appointment of Collin Brathwaite, MD, to the position of Chief of the Division of Minimally Invasive and Bariatric Surgery and Director of the Bariatric Surgery Center. 

A board-certified surgeon and critical care specialist with expertise in a range of general surgery procedures, Dr. Brathwaite is highly regarded in the field of bariatric weight-loss surgery.  He has performed more than 1,400 procedures including Laparoscopic Gastric Banding, Laparoscopic Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass and the minimally-invasive Sleeve Gastrectomy - an operation that drastically reduces the size of the stomach. In addition, Dr. Brathwaite is highly-skilled in performing revision surgeries to correct and repair problems related to previous bariatric procedures. 

Contact:

Scott Orstad

Manager, Corporate Communications

(203) 276-5933

sorstad@stamhealth.org

Stamford, CT - March 4, 2008 - Recent news from the American Cancer Society shows a 50 percent relative decline in colorectal cancer death rates from 6 percent to 3 percent.  Local experience at Stamford Hospital's Bennett Cancer Center presents an even more optimistic picture.  The 16-year-old community cancer center surpassed national statistics for early diagnosis and survival rates of its late-stage colorectal cancer patients.

Specifically, physicians and administrators at the Bennett Cancer Center learned that it had:

• Higher Diagnosis Rates during the First Stage of Colorectal Cancer.  Stamford Hospital diagnosed 27 percent of its colorectal cancer patients in Stage I.  The national average was slightly lower at 20 percent.

• Higher Survival Rates for Stage III Patients.  Stamford Hospital's Stage III patients had a 74 percent five-year survival rate while the national average hovered at a much lower 56 percent.

• Better Outcomes also for Stage IV Patients.  In Stage IV, Stamford Hospital's patients had an 18 percent five-year survival rate, far exceeding the national average of 9 percent.

Contact:

Nancy Gold

The Gold Standard

(914) 232-6583

marketing@thegoldstandard.com

Mary Sernatinger

Marketing and Communications

(914) 366-3109

msernatinger@pmhc.us

Sleepy Hollow, NY - March 3, 2008 - Phelps Memorial Hospital Center announces the expansion of its capability to diagnose sleep disorders in children, with specialized diagnostic services provided by Dr. Nadav Traeger, a pediatric pulmonologist who is board certified in Sleep Medicine.

Dr. Traeger stated, "I'm happy to join the team at Phelps to expand its Sleep Center capabilities and address the unmet need in the community for sleep studies in pediatric patients.  Over the past few years, an increasing number of papers have been published on the negative effects of various sleep problems in children, especially with regard to obstructive sleep apnea.  With pediatricians' growing awareness of this disorder, there has been an increasing need to perform sleep studies in children to make a proper diagnosis and decide whether the child should have surgical treatment."