Flu Season Has Arrived

With Cindy Dion Noyes, MD, University of Vermont Health Network Medical Group, UVM Medical Center Infectious Disease

Influenza has arrived in our region and is considered to be widespread at this time. This means that at least half of the regions in the state of VT and NY are reporting laboratory confirmed influenza (usually with a nasal swab). Current Regional Strains The current strains we are seeing locally include two strains of influenza A (H3N2 and H1N1) as well as one strain of influenza B. Without laboratory testing, one can’t tell the difference between [...]

Family Sees Stroke Survivor's First Unassisted Steps Thanks to Telehealth Technology

There was not a dry eye in the hospital hallway -- or on the computer -- as Tom Delaronde took his first unassisted steps after surviving a stroke. Though unconventional, the virtual visit allowed Mr. Delaronde to share the recovery milestone with loved ones staying home to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus, COVID-19. Just weeks ago, Mr. Delaronde’s family cheered him on in person at the University of Vermont Health Network - Elizabethtown Community Hospital. Since [...]

Dr. Peter Weimersheimer

Meet Your Emergency Department Care Team

Dr. Peter Weimersheimer, who has taught and practiced emergency medicine at the University of Vermont Medical Center for the last nine years, says he is excited to be one of the physicians in the Ticonderoga emergency department of Elizabethtown Community Hospital. “I really enjoy working at the ECH-Ticonderoga campus. It’s a great community. The staff is enthusiastic, highly skilled, and they have a great team camaraderie.” Seeing patients in Ticonderoga is the la [...]

Meet our ED Team: Christina Saunders

Ask around for the “nurse who’s the ray of sunshine” in the Elizabethtown ED, and you’ll end up talking to Christina Saunders. Originally from southern New York, or, more specifically, “Yonkers in the Bronx,” Christina agrees that she has, for the most part, lost her regional accent – “except when you ask me about cawfee!” she jokes. She moved to northern Westchester in high school, then lived in Brooklyn for six years [...]

Meet our ED Care Team: Dr. David Markowitz

Patients who walk in to the emergency department at the Elizabethtown Community Hospital could have an Airline Mechanic of the Year setting their broken bone or assessing their EKG, should they arrive when Dr. David Markowitz is working. Markowitz, a lifelong aviation enthusiast, is equally recognized in the field of emergency medicine, having treated patients in upstate New York since 1995, and recruited to ECH by hospital president John Remillard. D [...]

Recovering from COVID

Rehabilitation Patient Gains Strength and Returns Home

On May 13, employees of the University of Vermont Health Network- Elizabethtown Community Hospital lined the hallway to send off a very special patient. Albert Laduke, the hospital’s first rehabilitation patient recovering from COVID, was strong enough to go home. The tearful farewell came four weeks after Mr. Laduke’s arrival. When Mr. Laduke, 86, first arrived at Elizabethtown Community Hospital (ECH), he was very weak and had trouble walking. He was transferred to ECH [...]

Dr. Katherine Dolbec

Meet Elizabethtown Community Hospital’s Emergency Department Care Team

Dr. Katherine Dolbec, one of the new docs in the Ticonderoga emergency department of Elizabethtown Community Hospital, liked the idea of being able to take care of anyone, at any time, whether in a store, on a plane, or by the side of the road. “That, to me, was what being a real doctor was all about, and that’s why I chose to focus on emergency medicine,” she says. She’s been doing just that since 2014, working in local emergency rooms in Maine, C [...]

Meet Elizabethtown Community Hospital’s Emergency Department Care Team

Dr. Laurel Plante

Dr. Laurel Plante, one of the new docs in the Ticonderoga emergency department of Elizabethtown Community Hospital, has always been focused on emergency medicine. “I worked in EMS before medical school, and I returned to emergency medicine as my specialty, after realizing that I liked every rotation during my training and knowing I didn’t want to be bored,” she laughs. “There is always something interesting in the emergency department.” Dr. P [...]

Meet our ED Care Team: Dr. James Rice

Dr. James Rice, a physician on Elizabethtown Community Hospital's Emergency Department care team, is a "small town boy" through and through. At nearly every turn of his medical career, it was confirmed for him – and continues to be, to this day – that a rural setting is the right place for this talented physician. Dr. Rice, who grew up in a rural community, said that he always anticipated, even before entering medical school, that he wo [...]

ECH steps up to provide COVID rehab care

When it comes to the hospitalization of patients with COVID-19, we hear a lot about intensive care units, but not so much about what happens after the ICU – and that’s a significant part of their recovery. Coming back from COVID is a long road, and patients need a tremendous amount of care and support after they are discharged from intensive care. For the staff at Elizabethtown Community Hospital, a small, critical access hospital that does not have an ICU, the need for [...]

A local doctor’s perspective on how COVID reshaped primary care

While “COVID fatigue” often makes us feel that the disease has been with us forever, the reality is that the pandemic has brought about tremendous systemic and societal change within a very short timeframe. Prior to the pandemic, if one were to propose enacting wholesale changes to our health care delivery system in the span of 12 months, we would have said “not possible.” Yet, here we are – and according to Rob DeMuro, MD, medical director f [...]

Surviving Stroke

Gayle Alexander started noticing the symptoms of a stroke in the first week of January, 2020. “I was at work and my back was sore, and I was having trouble reaching for my SHIFT key while typing. A couple days later I was losing fine motor control. I held my arm out and I asked my husband to push down on my arm and it went right down.” By that point, she knew just what to do. “We said, OK, we’re going to the Emergency Department.” Upon arriving at UVM H [...]

Taking Care of the Community, One COVID Vaccine Dose at a Time

Between late December and the end of April, UVM Health Network - Elizabethtown Community Hospital (ECH) helped vaccinate more than 1,400 people in Essex County, N.Y. – an impressive feat for the small, critical access North Country hospital. At the heart of the effort were Chief Nursing Officer Julie Tromblee, MSN, and Heather Reynolds, MSN, director of quality. The dedicated duo adopted a personalized approach to educating staff and community members [...]

'I'm right where I want to be'

If not for Star Trek’s Dr. Spock, Johnnie Wren, MD, might not be practicing family medicine at the Au Sable Forks Health Center in northern New York. Fresh out of medical school and hoping to find a residency program to launch her career into family medicine, Dr. Wren attended a regional recruitment conference in Massachusetts. She remembers the conference was held shortly before Halloween. “I saw one group of program recruiters, head-to-toe in full costumes – incl [...]

Heart Care Hits the Road

The earlier Gavin Noble, MD, can discover a problem with a patient’s heart, the better. But when that patient lives in a rural community, where specialty care like cardiology isn’t available close by, discovering that problem can be impossible. “From Ticonderoga, it’s more than an hour drive to Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital in Plattsburgh, and nearly as far to Middl [...]