Littauer presents check to Make-A-Wish Northeast New York Posted on January 30, 2015 by Dakota PikeGLOVERSVILLE – The Nathan Littauer Hospital & Nursing Home’s Courtesy Counsel annual Holiday Basket raffle raised $5400 for Make-A-Wish Northeast New York this year. The donation remains local for a medically eligible child. Over 20 baskets were donated from departments throughout the hospital and nursing home. “The employees here at Nathan Littauer are very giving and willing to help their community” said Moshgan Jones, NLH Courtesy Counsel Chairperson. “Each department is so creative.” “Every year we support a local community non-profit organization, and typically raise $5000,”said Jones. “We are thrilled that Make-A-Wish gives back so greatly to those in our community. We met the recipient of last year’s donation, and it meant to world to our employees.” For the second year in a row, the NLH Courtesy Counsel has partnered with Make-A-Wish Northeast New York. In the course of two and a half days on Dec. 10, 11 and 12, 2014 employees and guests of NLH brought $5400 for the fundraiser. Receiving the check for Make-A-Wish Northeast New York was the foundation’s CEO, Dr. William Trigg. He told the crowd gathered at the celebration, “Know that you are bringing hope, strength, and joy to a special child with this generous donation.” Adding “We can’t thank you enough for your generosity and this money will be used locally to make a child’s wish come true.” Make-A-Wish grants the wishes of children with life-threatening medical conditions to enrich the human experience with hope, strength and joy. Since 1987, Make-A-Wish Northeast New York has granted nearly 1,500 wishes in the 518 area code and currently grants 90 to 100 wishes each year. Littauer CEO and President Laurence Kelly, left, Littauer Courtesy Council Chairman Moshgan Jones and Make-A-Wish CEO Bill Trigg
Littauer announces Nicole Cleary, the latest Goodwill Award recipient Posted on November 26, 2014 by Dakota PikeGLOVERSVILLE – Nathan Littauer Hospital & Nursing Home has announced Nicole Cleary, a Registration Representative in Littauer’s Patient Registration is the recipient of the Goodwill Employee for the third quarter of 2014. Nicole’s positive attitude, genuine smile, along with her friendly and outgoing personality with patients, and co-workers made her an obvious choice for the honor. “Her willingness to go above-and-beyond her job details has created a total success story here at Littauer” said Littauer President and CEO Laurence Kelly. “Employees like Nicole allow us to do here at Littauer what we do best. Work sometimes behind the scenes is critical to our patient success, and allows us to strive with better programs and equipment for the community.” “This is pretty special” said Cleary. “It’s nice to be recognized for something you love to do.” Cleary went on to explain about a patient who was not feeling well and was understandably miserable. “He wasn’t responding to my questions, so I sang them to him. By the end of his visit he jokingly wanted to marry me!”The NLH Goodwill award is given out quarterly and once annually to an employee, recognizing goodwill and promoting “people caring for people.” Nicole received a plaque on the NLH Hall of Fame, a monetary award, and a preferred parking space. Recipients for the award are nominated by NLH employees, providers or patients, and submitted to the Goodwill Committee, where in a blind format they are selected. Quarterly employees are among other nominations for the NLH Goodwill Employee of the Year. PHOTO CAPTION:Littauer President and CEO Laurence Kelly with NLH third quarter Goodwill Award honoree Nicole Cleary
The Ferguson Fund supports Littauer and employees Posted on November 11, 2014 by Dakota PikeGLOVERSVILLE – Recently, the inaugural recipients of the Priscilla Parkhurst Ferguson and Robert A. Ferguson Fund for Education scholarship award were presented at Nathan Littauer Hospital & Nursing Home. Scholarships of $ 2,500 each were granted to Lisa A. Winchell and Brooke M. Nellis, both employees at Littauer. Lisa Winchell currently serves Nathan Littauer Hospital as an operating room technician and is pursuing an Associate’s Degree in nursing from the Belanger School of Nursing at Ellis Hospital. Upon completion Ms. Winchell will be trained as a Registered Nurse. Brooke Nellis currently serves Nathan Littauer Hospital as a Med / Surg. Registered Nurse and is pursuing her Bachelor’s Degree in nursing from Utica College. “The Littauer Foundation is honored to have the Fergusons create this prestigious and generous award for Littauer employees” said Geoffrey Peck Vice President / Executive Director Nathan Littauer Foundation. “They have become great benefactors.” Peck added it was important to the Fergusons that donations be used where they would have the most impact. “They chose Littauer, and we are so thankful.” Priscilla Parkhurst Ferguson is a Gloversville native. She and her husband Robert are both professors at Columbia University, Priscilla in the Department of Sociology and Robert is the George Edward Woodberry Professor in Law, Literature, and Criticism in the Law School. They own a house in Gloversville and are active in community life here. The Ferguson Fund comes out of a family tradition of support for the Hospital. Priscilla’s father, Richard B. Parkhurst, served as a longtime member and officer of the Nathan Littauer Hospital Board of Directors. As educators, Priscilla and Robert appreciate that learning never ends, and they know that the need for incremental learning is especially important and exciting in the medical field where necessary advances in health care take place all of the time. They also feel it is a good way to serve the community generally. Just as Littauer employees are the heart and soul of the Hospital, so the Hospital itself helps to sustain Gloversville as a vital and desirable place to live. Priscilla and Robert hope that the Ferguson Fund will grow to the point where it can help many employees to advance their own careers through continuing education while furthering the goals of ever better and safer patient care. “We need the best and brightest minds to enter and remain in the field of healthcare” said Laurence Kelly, Littauer President and CEO. “The field of healthcare must have our finest and most prepared people. This scholarship ensures that its recipients desiring to further their education will have the support to do so. It is hard to anticipate the demands that will be placed on hospitals in the future, but this scholarship helps us prepare our workforce for whatever that future will be. “. XXX Nathan Littauer Hospital and Family of Health Services serves Fulton, Montgomery, and Hamilton Counties in Upstate New York with a full-service 74-bed acute care hospital, eight primary care centers, a nursing home and a community education center. The hospital was founded in 1894, has 1,000 employees and recently hosted ground-breaking spine surgeries. For more information please visit www.nlh.org.
Sen. Schumer visits the NLH Speculator Primary & Specialty Care Center Posted on September 8, 2014 by Dakota PikeSchumer’s visit to Speculator focuses on rural health care August 16, 2014 By ARTHUR CLEVELAND , Leader HeraldSPECULATOR – Nathan Littauer Primary Care Center’s waiting room was filled as U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer visited with health and municipal officials on Friday afternoon, Aug. 15.The visit by Schumer, D-N.Y., was his second to the region this week. He spoke with representatives of Hamilton County, Speculator and Lake Pleasant as well as Nathan Littauer Hospital and Hudson Headwaters Health Network about local issues.Laurence Kelly, chief executive officer at Nathan Littauer Hospital in Gloversville, and Dr. John Rugge, CEO for Hudson Headwaters Health Network, the Queensbury-based health network, spoke with Schumer about some of the difficulties of providing health care in a rural county with a low population like Hamilton County.Rugge said there are no pharmacies within the county. For Speculator residents, the closest is in Northville, a half-hour away.Bill Farber, Hamilton County Board of Supervisors chairman and Morehouse town supervisor, said there were more hardware stores in the county than pharmacies.Schumer told Kelly he is co-sponsoring a bill that would increase the number of residencies for primary care doctors. Schumer said it would create about 15,000 new residencies, with half of them being general residencies.“There is a shortage of residences,. There are interns who can’t find residencies,” Schumer said. “That’s the kind of doctor we need in a place like this,” Kelly said. “Doing lots of things rather than a narrow specialty.”Farber said Hamilton County offers mental health services, certified home health agency and drug and alcohol services for residents.“We need to figure out how to maintain this integrated system,” Farber said. “If you think about it, we are really a microcosm of the healthcare system.”Rugge said not many doctors want to go out into civil practice any more.Schumer asked about the chances of a retiring local doctor being able to find a replacement. Kelly said he thinks Schumer understands issues the health care industry is facing and what members of his constituency are facing going forward.Neil McGovern, Lake Pleasant’s town supervisor, said he was pleased to see Schumer making another visit to the area.“It is always productive to have a United States senator come when there are issues [that are unique]. Most of our funding for local government are an amalgam of both state and federal [funding]. If the federal reps aren’t here and don’t touch down, they never have any scale or any idea what we are facing on that level,” McGovern said.PHOTO: Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., left, greets Nathan Littauer Hospital CEO Laurence Kelly, right, on Friday, Aug. 15. The Leader-Herald/Arthur Cleveland
