WAG February 2022

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CONTENTS FEB RUARY 202 2

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Editor’s letter Supporting health through nutrition ‘Scan’ning the future at Phelps Creating ‘a seamless network of care’ Making a ‘clean sweep’ of health ‘Salad days’ arriving in Eastchester One-stop living Hair apparent A ‘Crush’ on table tennis Food for thought on healthy eating Waist not, want not Covid at the top Documenting Covid’s ‘First Wave’ A culture of care at area hospitals Staying healthy in the golden years Your home as a healthy haven A ‘head’ for medical collectibles A short history of Long Island wines When & Where

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WAGGERS T H E TA L E N T B E H I N D O U R PA G E S

Dee DelBello

Dan Viteri

PUBLISHER dee@westfairinc.com

CO-PUBLISHER/CREATIVE dviteri@westfairinc.com

EDITORIAL Georgette Gouveia EDITOR-IN-CHIEF ggouveia@westfairinc.com JENA A. BUTTERFIELD

PHIL HALL

Jeremy Wayne FEATURE WRITER jwayne@westfairinc.com

LAURA JOSEPH MOGIL

ART Dan Viteri CREATIVE DIRECTOR dviteri@westfairinc.com

Sarafina Pavlak ART DIRECTOR spavlak@westfairinc.com

Alexandra Cali DIGITAL MULTIMEDIA DESIGNER acali@westfairinc.com

PHOTOGRAPHY DEBBI K. KICKHAM

WILLIAM D. KICKHAM

Alexandra Cali, John Rizzo

BRIDGET MCCUSKER

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Gina Gouveia, Phil Hall, Peter Katz, Debbi K. Kickham, Christina Losapio Doug Paulding, Giovanni Roselli, Gregg Shapiro, Barbara Barton Sloane, Jeremy Wayne, Cami Weinstein, Katie Banser-Whittle

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CIRCULATION

JEREMY WAYNE

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Daniella Volpacchio ADMINISTRATIVE MANAGER dvolpacchio@westfairinc.com

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WHAT IS WAG?

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Some readers think WAG stands for “Westchester and Greenwich.” We certainly cover both. But mostly, a WAG is a wit and that’s how we think of ourselves, serving up piquant stories and photos to set your own tongues wagging.

HEADQUARTERS A division of Westfair Communications Inc., 701 Westchester Ave., White Plains, NY 10604 Telephone: 914-694-3600 | Facsimile: 914-694-3699 Website: wagmag.com | Email: ggouveia@westfairinc.com All news, comments, opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations in WAG are those of the authors and do not constitute opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations of the publication, its publisher and its editorial staff.

No portion of WAG may be reproduced without permission.WAG is distributed at select locations, mailed directly and is available at $24 a year for home or office delivery. To subscribe, call 914-694-3600, ext. 3020. All advertising inquiries should be directed to Anne Jordan at 914-694-3600, ext. 3032 or email anne@westfairinc.com. Advertisements are subject to review by the publisher and acceptance for WAG does not constitute an endorsement of the product or service. WAG (Issn: 1931-6364) is published monthly and is owned and published by Westfair Communications Inc. Dee DelBello, CEO, dee@westfairinc.com

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EDITOR’S LETTER

BY GEORGET TE GOUVEIA

JANUARY MAY BE THE MONTH FOR NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS, but February is the month when the resolution rubber hits the reality road. Indeed, according to SWNS, an Anglo-American news agency, Feb. 1 is traditionally the day the average American quits his/ her New Year’s resolutions.

If they involve getting fit, WAG is here to help with our February health issue. WAG’s wellness columnist Giovanni Roselli is, of course, always on hand to assist readers. Here he weighs in as a Precision Nutrition coach with the “meal transformation game,” in which you gradually substitute poor choices with good ones and good choices with even better ones.

Speaking of nutrition, Jeremy visits with Dina Khader, whose Khader Center is just downstairs from the new Mount Kisco home of Westfair Communications, WAG’s parent company. As Jeremy writes in his cover story, “a registered dietician and integrative nutrition consultant, trained in both Eastern and Western philosophies…Khader has helped thousands of clients with a variety of conditions, from autoimmune disorders, diabetes and heart disease to blurred vision, multiple sclerosis and cancer.”

Jeremy also samples Sweetgreen, “the fast-casual, superior-salad restaurant group founded by three college chums just two months after they graduated from Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business in the summer of 2007.” The more than 140 franchises include one in Greenwich and one that opened last month at Eastchester’s Vernon Hills Shopping Center.

And Jeremy reports on a weight-loss success story, talking with Elisangela Dos Santos, the Brazilian-born, Danbury-based owner of Elisangela’s Cleaning Service, who turned a stressful situation (abusive marriage, new country, second marriage and divorce, single motherhood, a start-up) that packed on the weight into a professional and personal victory as she shed 41 pounds and counting while growing her business. (And may we say how wonderful it is to see someone who’s struggled find happiness at last.)

Sometimes, though, you want to give weight loss a little sculptural push. Debbi takes one for the team and delightedly tries Emsculpt Neo, the new fat-burning, muscle-increasing treatment that kills your fat cells. (There are

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Two related keys to health – nutrition and exercise.

some 15 physicians, medical spas and laser centers in Westchester and Fairfield counties that offer Emsculpt Neo.) Or you can burn those calories the old-fashioned way — move, move, move. Jeremy plumbs the plush new Crush Table Tennis in Greenwich, then stays in-town to check out the pampering, guy-style, at the equally new, equally plush Cave, Paolo Lanfredi’s men’s salon/man cave/ barbershop.

When it comes to your health, charity begins at home. From eliminating dust mites to getting rid of lead-based oil paints, Cami shows us how to keep our houses, and ourselves, healthy and safe. Katie suggests adorning them with a medical collectible or two, which can go for pretty big bucks on the auction block. And Abbe considers how we can age in place, sound in mind and body, heart and soul.

Despite our best efforts, we can fall ill, particularly in the age of Covid, as Peter discovered when he interviewed Westchester County Executive George Latimer and Deputy County Executive Ken Jenkins, both of whom were vaccinated — and came down with the virus. The two credit their vaccines with sparing them from the worst Covid has to offer. In this terrific story, Peter explores what it’s like to maintain high-profile jobs and Covid protocols and considers the men’s insights into why America has struggled so mightily with Covid: Could it be because we are no longer willing to play the long game?

Peter returns with a report on the PET/CT scanner at the heart of Phelps Hospital’s new $8.4 million imaging suite. (It means patients no longer have to go elsewhere for the scans

or have PET and CT scans in two different sessions.) And we learn how the new Ambulatory Surgery Unit and Endoscopy Suites at NewYork-Presbyterian Lawrence Hospital in Bronxville bring together outpatient services on one floor of the hospital in a private setting designed to be a seamless experience for patients and staff alike.

Hospitals have been on the frontlines in the war against the pandemic. Phil talks with Matthew Heineman, whose documentary “The First Wave” takes us inside Long Island Jewish Medical Center in Queens during the first four months of Covid-19. (It’s been short-listed for the Oscars.)

We pay tribute to our local hospitals in a special section in which their heads address a number of issues, not the least of which is the consolidation of hospitals into larger health networks that their leaders say increase the culture of care they provide to patients.

Whenever I think of hospitals, I think of an encounter at Greenwich Hospital more than 10 years ago now. My mother, Emily D. Gouveia — who spent the last 16 years of her life in a hospital bed at Greenwich Woods Rehabilitation & Health Care Center after suffering a massive stroke at age 69 — was a frequent visitor to the hospital. On one occasion, she told me she wanted to stay at least through Wednesday, because Wednesday was lobster night. When I told that to her primary care physician, James Brunetti, M.D. — a lovely man who spent many hours visiting her at the nursing home, even once fixing her TV’s remote control — he laughed and said, “Don’t worry.

Mrs. Gouveia will get her lobster dinner.”

And she thoroughly enjoyed it.

A 2020 YWCA White Plains & Central Westchester Visionary Award winner and a 2018 Folio Women in Media Award Winner, Georgette Gouveia is the author of “Burying the Dead,” “Daimon: A Novel of Alexander the Great” and "Seamless Sky" (JMS Books), as well as “The Penalty for Holding,” a 2018 Lambda Literary Award finalist (JMS Books), and “Water Music” (Greenleaf Book Group). They’re part of her series of novels, “The Games Men Play,” also the name of the sports/culture blog she writes.

Last year, her short story “The Glass Door” was published by JMS and exhibited in “Together apART: Creating During COVID” at ArtsWestchester in White Plains. Her latest story, “After Hopper,” is also available from JMS Books. For more, visit thegamesmenplay.com.

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Supporting health through nutrition

BY JEREMY WAYNE

When WAG and its parent company, Westfair Communications, recently relocated from White Plains to Mount Kisco, it was lucky to acquire not just a genial neighbor but a gifted one in her field — Dina Khader of Mount Kisco’s Khader Center.

A registered dietician and integrative nutrition consultant, trained in both Eastern and Western philosophies, Khader has helped thousands of clients with a variety of conditions, from autoimmune disorders, diabetes and heart disease to blurred vision, multiple sclerosis and cancer.

Dina Khader.

Photographs by Ally Cali.

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Of Jordanian descent (her father works with the United Nations), Khader spent much of her childhood in Africa. In Liberia, Libya, Tanzania and Uganda, malnutrition made an early impression on her. Interested in food from a young age, she took her first yoga class at age 11 or 12 when her father was posted to Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates. She learned from an Australian yoga instructor about the effect of meat on the joints and how it can cause arthritis and joint pain.

It sounded weird to her, because the reading she had done thus far — she references Robert Atkins M.D., in particular and his famed diet, popularized in the 1970s — had pointed to high-protein diets, with animal protein actually being healthy. “I decided I wanted to really investigate what she (the yoga instructor) was saying, to see if it was really true.” As she read more, she began to discover vegetarianism, “the opposite of the high-protein, Atkins approach,” and started experimenting with a vegetarian diet for herself.

But another element was about to come into play. Now in boarding school in England, she couldn’t seem to progress in ballet class and her instructor was noticing a stiffness on her left side. “Long story short, we finally found out years later it was a reaction I had to the polio vaccine years earlier.” (There had been a polio outbreak in North Africa when she was living there with her family, and she had been given the live polio virus.)

As Khader discovered, she was suffering from post-polio syndrome, in which the disease comes back to affect you years later. With her enduring interest in malnutrition and the new need to stay especially healthy, a career in nutrition was clearly calling.

Coming to the United States in 1982, she studied nutrition in college and got her master’s at New York Medical College in Valhalla, followed by a one year internship at neighboring Westchester Medical Center. Visiting different wards — renal, cardiovascular — she gained broad experience, and her strong clinical background gave her the courage to start her own practice. In 1990, she opened her first practice on Lexington Avenue in Mount Kisco.

For the first few years, Khader went it alone — answering the phones, dealing with all the administration and building up the practice without any help. Eventually, she hired a receptionist and, after 10 years, started to work with a business coach, who advised her that if she seriously wanted to grow the business, she needed a business manager. (She took the advice: That same business manager has now been with her for 21 years.)

But her post-polio illness was about to strike again. She began walking with a limp and was starting to trip. One day, after exercising at

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the gym, she had no energy even to walk up three steps and realized that something was seriously wrong.

A serendipitous introduction to Premier Research Labs based in Austin, Texas, and a meeting with its CEO and founder, Bob Marshall, Ph.D., would prove momentous. “Not all B-vitamins are equal,” he said. “Most of the stuff out there is junk.”

She took a course with the company and learned about its supplements. Marshall gave her a protocol to follow using the product line, and the results were dramatic. “The difference was night and day,” she says. She continues using the product line herself to this day, as well as dispensing Premier Research Labs products in her clinic.

As well as dietary supplements and individually tailored nutrition programs, Khader is a great proponent of targeted mud- or clay-packing, something the center is especially known for. “Mud-packing can restore the electrical circuit of the human body, which may have been interrupted by disease or trauma,” she says. “It’s a way to detox the body very gently but highly effectively.”

Mud-packing is also one of the treatments used in antiaging therapies, which also feature a combination of a low-inflammatory diet coupled with the avoidance of an excess of fat. For weight loss, she works with blood types. People who are blood type O do well with some animal product in the diet, whereas blood types A and AB, Khader says, do better with a more vegetarian diet. She also prescribes medical shakes (“not just shakes you can go and buy, but rather shakes that have a lot of medical science behind them,” she says),

which need to be supervised. Mudpacks, too, can play their part in weight loss.

Added to all of this, there is a hormonal component in most of these treatments, something that conventional medicine and doctors overlook. Although it is a slightly “how long is a piece of string” question, Khader says that typically patients will start to see changes within a month, although she advocates “giving it two or three months” in order to see significant results.

Around a third of her patients have been with her for more than 20 years, while others will come in for a specific issue and then “go on their way.” She sees an average five to six people a day as she spends a fair amount of time with each individual. Her online videos are powerful. One shows a patient diagnosed with MS, who had been told he would never walk again, now walking, thanks entirely to treatment at the center.

While Covid has brought fear to patients, it has also given Khader the opportunity to give advice and reassurance — despite, as she acknowledges, knowing little about it herself in the early days. But as the pandemic progressed, there has been more focus on immune support. “Knock on wood,” she says, “90% of my patients have not gotten the virus, while the ones that have seem to have done fairly well, with minimal side effects postCovid,” something she puts that down to a well-functioning immune system.

Whatever the reason, it’s an impressive statistic, speaking volumes for Khader and her nutrition center.

For more, visit dinakhader.com

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‘Scan’ning the future at Phelps STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHS BY PETER KATZ

At Phelps Hospital in Sleepy Hollow, turning the page on the calendar to the new year meant looking forward to the launch of the new $8.4 million high-tech imaging suite this month. The centerpiece of the facility is a new PET/ CT scanner built by Semens Healthineers. The machine simultaneously does Positron Emission Tomography (PET) and Computerized Tomography Imaging (CT) imaging. Obtaining both PET and CT images previously required two separate sessions using two separate pieces of equipment.

Phelps is a Northwell Health hospital and the new 3,800-square-foot imaging suite will be used by patients at the Northwell Health Cancer Institute at Phelps in addition to other patients being diagnosed and treated for issues such as cardiac problems, seizures and dementia. The new imaging suite is located on the first floor of the hospital, not far from the lobby at the hospital's main entrance.

“It's very exciting because we're able to fully enhance our radiological capabilities here, our imaging studies, but even more important we're going to be able to add to our cancer center and be able to provide care for our cancer patients that we otherwise weren't able to,” Eileen Egan, executive director of Phelps, tells WAG.

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The PET/CT scanner at the heart of Phelps Hospital’s new $8.4 million imaging suite means patients no longer have to go elsewhere for the scans, or have PET and CT scans in two different sessions.

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When ordinary X-rays or an MRI scan are not able to help physicians pinpoint problems affecting patients, PET/CT imaging may be useful. Egan says that one of the things the staff at Phelps is proudest of is that the new equipment makes it possible for patients needing PET/CT imaging no longer have to go into Manhattan or travel elsewhere to find an imaging source.

“It's an advanced level of imaging that really may help identify any problems that may otherwise not have been picked up by other imaging modalities,” she says. “The equipment is very expensive, but we anticipate with the volume of patients that we're going to be able to see and treat we know it's going to pay for itself very quickly.”

She says that a constant goal when designing the new imaging center was patient comfort.

“If they require this type of imaging, we want them to feel comfortable in the environment,” she adds. “This space is very spacious. It's open, there's light, there are windows. We want our patients not to feel claustrophobic when they're having their testing done.”

Egan says that the new imaging center coincides with other efforts at Phelps to expand the services it offers to the community.

“We are proud to be developing a Center for Advanced Procedures, which is going to be focused on neurosciences and neuroendovascular cases, so this is all part of that,” she says, referring to diseases of the nervous system and its blood vessels. “But this particularly is part of our plans to develop a comprehensive cancer center in Westchester on the Phelps campus, and this will greatly enhance our oncologists' ability to diagnose and treat cancer.”

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Eileen Egan, executive director.

Michael Glennon, assistant vice president, operations, ancillary services.

Michael Glennon, assistant vice president, operations, ancillary services at Phelps, tells WAG: “I've been in radiology most of my life. I actually started out hand-developing X-ray films in tanks. Now, it's all electronic, all digital. Everything can be sent and seen anywhere.”

Glennon explains that with digital files rather than pieces of physical film you can have an expert on Long Island or elsewhere at Northwell instantaneously see the images and collaborate in developing a diagnosis or treatment plan.

In the imaging center, adjusted lighting and added music can help the patient relax.

Glennon points out that the scanner uses a wide bore, or opening into which the patient is moved, to help reduce patient anxiety and overcome the claustrophobia that patients had with earlier scanners, which put them into a tight tunnel.

“Our technologists already know the CT scan technology and we've hired another nuclear medicine technologist who knows the PET side

of it, so combined there will be two experts in the room always working the equipment,” Glennon says. “You're getting a radiopharmaceutical injection (which emits radiation picked up by the imaging machine) in your arm and then you lie on the table. It's very easy. It used to be over an hour. It's down to about 20 minutes now for most procedures.”

Glennon explains that where standard X-rays show shadows, the PET/CT scans show not only distinct images but also the chemical makeup because the radiopharmaceutical agents actually attach to different cells within the body and thus show up in different colors and intensities.

“We can see the intensity; we can see the width, the depth, 3D. It's all calculated,” Glennon says. “We've come through so many levels of technology over the years. This is quite amazing. I never thought we'd be here. When you see the 3D imaging, it's quite amazing.”

For more, visit phelps.northwell.edu.

Creating a ‘seamless network of care’

BY GEORGETTE GOUVEIA

If there’s one word that recurs in a discussion of NewYork-Presbyterian Lawrence Hospital in Bronxville and its new Ambulatory Surgery Unit and Endoscopy Suites, it’s “seamless.”

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As part of what Timothy J. Hughes, the hospital’s vice president of operations, calls “a seamless network of care,” NewYork-Presbyterian Lawrence Hospital can draw not only on its own board-certified surgeons but specialists from ColumbiaDoctors, the faculty of Columbia University Irving Medical Center and surgeons and other physicians from NewYork-Presbyterian Medical Group Westchester.

“We’re not looking to replicate the university hospital model but to set standards and follow them across the board,” he says, “so the patient gets the right care at the right time at the right location.”

The same criterion of seamlessness applies to the 15,000-square-foot Ambulatory Surgery Unit and Endoscopy Suites — a twoyear, $18-million project that opened Dec. 15.

There on the hospital’s second floor, doctors in the NewYork-Presbyterian network can

The new Ambulatory Surgery Unit and Endoscopy Suites at NewYork-Presbyterian Lawrence Hospital in Bronxville bring together outpatient services on one floor of the hospital in a private setting designed to be a seamless experience for patients and staff alike. Photographs courtesy NewYork-Presbyterian Lawrence Hospital.

perform bariatric, breast, colorectal, endocrine, gastrointestinal and vascular procedures on an outpatient basis. These can include everything from a breast biopsy to a colonoscopy in one of three rooms, Hughes says — two for endoscopies of the upper GI (gastrointestinal) tract and colonoscopies (lower GI tract) and one for minor surgeries.

These feature state-of-the-art video equipment and radiological imaging that enable doctors to monitor the procedures.

Not only is everything now located on the same floor, Hughes adds, but all the prep and recovery is done in private rooms with sliding glass doors. (No drawn curtains that barely segment a larger space.) Though the unit and suites — which follow on the cancer center and eight operating rooms that opened in the fourth quarter of 2016 — were conceived of before Covid, the endlessly mutating virus has reinforced the hospital’s

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Left to right, Anthony Pucillo, M.D., associate chief medical officer and director of cardiac operations at NewYorkPresbyterian Lawrence Hospital; Laureen F. Wells, M.D., site medical director, anesthesia, NewYork-Presbyterian Lawrence Hospital; David Kauvar, M.D., medical director of gastroenterology, NewYork-Presbyterian Lawrence Hospital and assistant professor of medicine at Columbia University Irving Medical Center.

continuous awareness of infection. While the January surge in Covid cases has meant increased visits to the hospital’s emergency room and admissions, there have been fewer patients in the intensive care unit (ICU), Hughes says. As always, he adds, the best defense is “to get vaccinated and boosted” while maintaining Covid protocols of masking, social distancing and hygiene.

Though Hughes is a New York state-licensed Certified Public Accountant (CPA) with a Bachelor of Science degree from Fordham University in the Bronx, he observes, “I’ve spent more time in health care than in finance.”

He began as an auditor in the New York City office of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Ltd., a multinational professional services company, but went on to the Catholic Health Care

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Network of New York and the former, Armonk-based Stellaris Health Network, where he served as director of finance.

And while Hughes grew up in Pelham and raised his family in Yorktown Heights, he notes that his four children were born in Lawrence Hospital and his family has been cared for there. Today he lives in Yonkers, not far from the hospital, which he has been with for more than 22 years, serving seven-plus as director of finance and four-plus as vice president of business development. He has been vice president of operations since 2016.

“To me it’s really a way to give back to the community,” he says of his career. “Everyone should have access to high-quality health care. That gives me purpose.”

For more, visit nyp.org/lawrence.

Timothy J. Hughes, vice president of operations, NewYork-Presbyterian Lawrence Hospital.

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Elisangela Dos Santos turned a challenging life situation into a thriving cleaning service, then got herself in shape, losing 41 pounds. Photograph courtesy Elisangela Dos Santos.

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Making a ‘clean sweep' of health

BY JEREMY WAYNE

Moving from your native country is a hard-enough adjustment for any new immigrant, but when you have three young children to look after and a violent and abusive husband to contend with, the difficulty is seriously magnified.

That was the situation Elisangela Dos Santos found herself in soon after arriving in the United States from her native Brazil in 1998 and settling in Danbury. She joined the large immigrant community already established there — mostly domestic cleaners, construction workers and landscapers — a community that held the promise of employment and a better life.

But the fly in the ointment was her husband, a man so dangerous, she says, that the police were often called to the marital home.

Filing a restraining order, she was finally able to divorce him after 12 years of unhappy marriage.

As her newly ex-husband returned to what she calls “the homeland” to start a tomato cultivation business, Elisangela remained in Danbury, barely able to speak English and still with three children to support. But determined to show she could make it as a single mom, that her kids would not lose out, she wanted them to enjoy all the opportunities that their new life in the U.S. afforded. So one daughter was enrolled in karate, another in music and dance classes and her son, meanwhile, got to play soccer — but all of this had to be juggled. She would end her day shift as a cleaner at 7 p.m. and ensure dinner was on the table, before leaving for her night shift as a janitor shortly afterwards. Life was unbelievably tough.

A turning point came when one of her early employers, whose home in Lake Waccabuc Elisangela cleaned every Saturday, suggested that by bringing other cleaners on board she could form something akin to a cooperative. (She also sponsored Elisangela for a green card, which led later to full citizenship.) The lady in question — for whom Elisangela still works some 23 years later, and whom she says has always treated her “like family” — even printed business cards for her.

Elisangela’s Cleaning Service, as the business is called, was born.

Working with a team of four or more cleaners, Elisangela now looks after more than 60 houses throughout southern Westchester.

She arranges the schedules and drives her cleaners to their various houses or apartments, taking a modest share of their fee as a commission. New business comes by word of mouth. “It’s like a web,” she says. “One person uses us; they tell all their friends.”

Of course, there is cleaning — a quick dusting and a cursory sweep — and there is real cleaning and, by all accounts, Elisangela’s team brings real quality to the job. Elisangela herself takes the time to listen to a client’s needs, what’s especially important to them.

What’s more, she and her team don’t confine themselves to regular cleaning but act more as housekeepers. Need an item of dry-cleaning picked up or delivered? Have something for storage or need help moving your house?

Elisangela is there for you.

As well as removing dust from those impossible-to-get-at corners, or cleaning up immaculately after rowdy teenagers have all but trashed your pristine home following an illicit party, she will rearrange furniture, reorganize closets and generally “make people’s lives easier for them.” As she puts it, “I’m not a kind of ‘I don’t wash, I don’t fold, I don’t do this, it’s not in

my job description,’ kind of person. I’m there to help in whichever way I can.”

But while she was busy helping others, Elisangela started to need some help herself.

Working all hours, eating poorly and paying virtually no attention to her own health, after giving birth to a daughter with her second husband, her weight spiraled to nearly 200 pounds, which — standing at only 5’1” — signaled danger. Also, she could no longer easily bend or get into tight spaces, or meet the physical demands of the job. Depression set in and sadly a second divorce followed, but it was, as she said, another turning point.

One client, an artist, recognizing the problem, encouraged Elisangela to do squats on the job. An unusual cleaner/client relationship it may have been, but it was effective.

When the pandemic came along and every single one of her clients canceled her, she had time on her hands for the first moment in her adult life. She prepared healthier food.

She also took on a nutritionist and a personal trainer and began to exercise rigorously in a neighbor’s home gym in the garage.

Within a few short months, Elisangela’s weight dropped from 196 pounds to 155, a loss of 41 pounds — and she is still going strong.

(Her goal is to get to 140 pounds.) Asked for tips about her weight loss, she repeats a mantra that may not be original but is certainly true: “Less carbs, less sugar.” But her real sound-bite is simply this: Stay healthy while you’re healthy. Don’t wait until physical problems seem insurmountable.

At any rate, having taken care of her family and her many clients for so long, this model cleaner is now far leaner and all the happier for it.

For more, contact Elisangela Dos Santos at elisangela_spi@hotmail.com.

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Prioritize yourself and your health this year.

“Doctor, it’s been too long.” These are words we never want to hear, but unfortunately the pandemic has caused many people to postpone their annual check-ups and essential screenings. The start of a new year is the perfect time to take stock of your overall wellbeing and prioritize your health once again and make an appointment with your primary care physician.

Get Heart Healthy

Liver Disease Is On The Rise

Make Time For Your Mammo

According to the American Heart Association, nearly half of American adults have high blood pressure.

This develops slowly over time and can lead to heart attack, stroke and other serious health threats. “Most people with high blood pressure don’t know they have it,” says Dr. Jeannette Yuen, a cardiologist with Scarsdale Medical Group.

Your physician can help you understand the risk factors.

“The incidence of liver disease continues to grow largely due to an aging population, obesity, alcohol consumption and patients diagnosed with hepatitis C,” notes Dr. Sasan Roayaie. The good news is liver disease is often treatable if caught early. Tests such as imaging and liver function exams can check for damage and help diagnose potential liver diseases.

It’s essential for women to be proactive about breast health by keeping up with preventive screenings. “Unfortunately, no woman is at low risk of developing breast cancer,” says Dr. Caren Greenstein, Director of Women’s Imaging at White Plains Hospital. White Plains Hospital offers the latest in advanced imaging technology including 3D mammography, ultrasound and breast MRI.

NEARLY 50% OF ADULTS HAVE SOME FORM OF HEART DISEASE. BUT LIFESTYLE CHANGES CAN HELP.

THE NUMBER OF ADULTS IN THE U.S. WITH DIAGNOSED LIVER DISEASE IS 4.5 MILLION. DO YOU KNOW THE RISK FACTORS?

1 IN 8 WOMEN ARE DIAGNOSED WITH BREAST CANCER IN THEIR LIFETIME. EARLY DETECTION SAVES LIVES.

Prioritize your health and understand your risk factors.

VISIT WPHOSPITAL.ORG/HEALTHMATTERS AND TAKE A HEALTH ASSESSMENT

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• Chest•discomfort Chest discomfort or shortness or shortness of breath of breath • Discomfort • Discomfort in the arms, in the neck arms, or neck jaw or jaw Strenuous Strenuous physicalphysical activityactivity furtherfurther increases increases the workload the workload • Lightheadedness and cold and sweats cold sweats on the heart, on theso heart, whensocombined when combined with colder with temperatures, colder temperatures, • Lightheadedness it coulditbecould a recipe be afor recipe trouble. for trouble.

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Older people Older people with known with known heart conditions, heart conditions, decreased decreased mobility, mobility, or a history or a history of falls of fallsVisit wphospital.org/heartdisease Visit wphospital.org/heartdisease to to should avoid shouldactivities avoid activities like shoveling like shoveling snow entirely. snow entirely.

take our take cardiac our cardiac risk self-assessment risk self-assessment

Salad days arriving in Eastchester

BY JEREMY WAYNE

Call Sweetgreen in Greenwich and a clipped, slightly disembodied voice informs you that the store team is hard at work but that the “guest experience team” — whoever they might be — “has your back.” Quite where it has my back, or indeed what it is going to do with it, I’m not certain, but what I will say is that should you ever wish to get through to a live person at Sweetgreen’s Greenwich franchise, or for that matter at any of the three other local franchises I tried contacting by phone, then I wish you luck.

Full disclosure: Despite the over-reliance on automation, the overarching right-on-ness of the enterprise and the universal lack of sodium chloride (more on that later,) I’m kindly disposed toward Sweetgreen, the fast-casual, superior-salad restaurant group founded by three college chums just two months after they graduated from Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business, in the summer of 2007. That’s because many years ago, Sweetgreen co-founder Nicolas Jammet’s parents gave me — then a near-penniless food writer — an elegant dinner at their acclaimed Manhattan restaurant, La Caravelle, substituting what should have been the check with a simple card bearing the words “It was a pleasure having you as our guest” delivered under a silver dome at the meal’s end. How

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Sweetgreen, Greenwich2022 – exterior.

Courtesy Sweetgreen.

FEBRUARY WAGMAG.COM 25

Sweetgreen, Greenwich – interior. Courtesy Sweetgreen.

can you not love people like that or, for that matter, their entrepreneurial offspring?

Indeed, exuding a generosity of spirit as well as delivering a superior food experience, it can be reasonably argued that the Jammet seniors’ genes are directly reflected in the Sweetgreen business model. Portions at Sweetgreen are large — make that massive — and the general sense of plentitude and cheeriness is palpable. The organic apple has not fallen far from the ecologically sound tree.

What started, in Nicolas Jammet’s words, as “a salad shack” in Washington, D.C. (“we nearly ran out of money; we had no idea what we were doing,”) has now burgeoned into a nationwide, organically minded, eco-aware chain, with more than 140 franchises and growing, with the newest one in our region having opened at the Vernon Hills Shopping Center in Eastchester on Jan. 25.

At a recent sampling at the Greenwich franchise, which opened in December 2020, four of us enjoyed crispy chicken salad with a remoulade dressing; a farmhouse Caesar; a warming “Harvest Bowl” (with yet more roast chicken); and a “Super-Green

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Goddess,” a veritable trencherman’s bowl brimming with lentils and chickpeas. Salad greens were fresh without being fridgecold, and flavors for the most part were clear and distinct. Our only gripe was a universal one across the dishes. For all their intrinsic flavors, a lack of salt and seasoning left the salads bland. (Of course, you can add salt yourself, but in cooking generally a lack of seasoning at the prep and procedure stages can never be fully compensated for later on.)

With a heavy emphasis on online ordering for takeout, along with a sophisticated delivery service (businesses with more than 25 employees are encouraged to create Sweetgreen “outposts,” with corresponding benefits), eating in at Sweetgreen is happily still possible. Décor differs subtly among the franchises, with Greenwich perhaps best described as utilitarian chic. The people from Architectural Digest would feel quite at home here. (The Eastchester franchise opened after our deadline for this issue.)

Sweetgreen pursues affiliations with local charities and causes (such as low-income families and the homeless,) while collabora-

tions with food celebrities — restauranteurs David Chang and Dan Barber among them — attest to serious food credentials and intent.

The website, too, is right-on, with a banner featuring Sweetgreen’s “youngest investor” and its first athlete ambassador, the tennis star Naomi Osaka.

Technology plays a substantial part in the operation as well. Sweetgreen is an exacting customer and its suppliers — leaf and vegetable growers along with dairy, poultry and cattle farmers — must measure up. But it’s a two-way street, with Sweetgreen facilitating and often funding new technology to develop a riper, tastier, healthier end-product.

At Sweetgreen, world cuisines are fused without a shred of self-consciousness (Californian beds down with Middle Eastern; Asian steps out with Mediterranean), and culinary solecisms abound as tomatoes storm a Caesar salad and almonds and sweet potato infiltrate a classic cobb. But there’s no mistaking the enthusiasm behind the creative process. And, after all, if a “salad” is not an amalgamation by another name, then what is it?

For more, visit sweetgreen.com.

YONKERS 191 ACUTE CARE BEDS MEDICAL/SURGICAL PEDIATRICS INTENSIVE CARE 29 ADULT PSYCHIATRY BEDS 14-BED PSYCHIATRY INTERMEDIATE CARE UNIT EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT INPATIENT SURGERY AMBULATORY SURGERY ENDOSCOPY RADIOLOGY CARDIOLOGY PHYSICAL THERAPY LABORATORY NEW YORK MEDICAL COLLEGE FAMILY MEDICINE RESIDENCY PROGRAM PODIATRY RESIDENCY THOMAS & AGNES CARVEL FAMILY HEALTH CENTER FAMILY MEDICINE PRIMARY CARE OUTPATIENT SPECIALTY CARE SURGERY NEUROLOGY PODIATRY GI ENT VASCULAR UROLOGY ORTHOPEDICS CARDIOVASCULAR CENTER ONLY CARDIAC REHABILITATION CENTER IN YONKERS IMAGING CENTER IN RIVERDALE COMMUNITY-BASED MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES COMMUNITY-BASED SCHOOL SERVICES YONKERS SPECTRUM SCHOOL HEALTH PROGRAM SCHOOL-BASED REHAB PROGRAM HARRISON ST. VINCENT’S HOSPITAL 109 PSYCHIATRY BEDS 13-BED PSYCHIATRIC ADOLESCENT UNIT PSYCHIATRIC GERIATRIC UNIT 30 DRUG AND ALCOHOL REHABILITATION BEDS BEHAVIORAL HEALTH 24/7 EVALUATION AND REFERRAL SERVICE CRISIS INTERVENTION AND RESPONSE TEAM DESIGNATED MOBILE CRISIS TEAM FOR WESTCHESTER COUNTY 24/7 TELEPHONE COVERAGE PARTIAL HOSPITALIZATION PROGRAM OUTPATIENT MENTAL HEALTH INDIVIDUAL AND GROUP THERAPY MENTAL HEALTH CLINIC AT WHITE PLAINS HOSPITAL PERSONALIZED RECOVERY ORIENTED SERVICES (PROS) IN WESTCHESTER PERSONALIZED RECOVERY ORIENTED SERVICES (PROS) IN STATEN ISLAND LATINO TREATMENT SERVICES ASSERTIVE COMMUNITY TREATMENT TEAM HEALTH HOME CARE COORDINATION IN WESTCHESTER, STATEN ISLAND, BROOKLYN, QUEENS AND THE BRONX OUTPATIENT ADDICTION TREATMENT SERVICES POSITIVE DIRECTIONS OUTPATIENT ADDITIONAL RECOVERY SERVICES (OARS) IN HARRISON, YONKERS, BROOKLYN AND QUEENS MAXWELL HOUSE IN TUCKAHOE PORTCHESTER RECOVERY CENTER RESIDENTIAL SERVICES SENIOR HOUSING GRIFFIN HOUSE 81 UNIT COMPLEX FOR SENIOR CITIZENS SETON MANOR 83 UNIT COMPLEX, AFFORDABLE HOUSING FOR FRAIL ELDERLY MARY THE QUEEN 77 UNIT COMPLEX, AFFORDABLE HOUSING FOR FRAIL ELDERLY SPECIAL NEEDS RESIDENTIAL SERVICES 1,250 BEDS IN STATEN ISLAND, BROOKLYN, QUEENS, BRONX AND WESTCHESTER EMPLOYMENT AND VOCATIONAL SERVICES YONKERS 191 ACUTE CARE BEDS MEDICAL/SURGICAL PEDIATRICS INTENSIVE CARE 29 ADULT PSYCHIATRY BEDS 14-BED PSYCHIATRY INTERMEDIATE CARE UNIT EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT INPATIENT SURGERY AMBULATORY SURGERY ENDOSCOPY RADIOLOGY CARDIOLOGY PHYSICAL THERAPY LABORATORY NEW YORK MEDICAL COLLEGE FAMILY MEDICINE RESIDENCY PROGRAM PODIATRY RESIDENCY THOMAS & AGNES CARVEL FAMILY HEALTH CENTER FAMILY MEDICINE PRIMARY CARE OUTPATIENT SPECIALTY CARE SURGERY NEUROLOGY PODIATRY GI ENT VASCULAR UROLOGY ORTHOPEDICS CARDIOVASCULAR CENTER ONLY CARDIAC REHABILITATION CENTER IN YONKERS IMAGING CENTER IN RIVERDALE COMMUNITY-BASED MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES COMMUNITY-BASED SCHOOL SERVICES YONKERS

HERE FOR YOU.

Building on a Legacy of Community-focused Care YONKERS

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MANHATTAN

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saintjosephs.org

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STATEN ISLAND

One-stop living

BY PHIL HALL

The old real estate mantra of “location, location, location” resonates with Sara Humphreys, the executive director of The Club at Briarcliff.

“The Club at Briarcliff Manor is the premier senior living community in Westchester County,” says Humphreys. “Our location is a pretty spectacular spot in the absolutely beautiful village of Briarcliff Manor overlooking the Hudson River, and the views from our apartments and the common areas of our community are really pretty breathtaking. When you're up in our room called “The View” on the eighth floor, you can see the Hudson River, the Manhattan skyline and the Tappan Zee Bridge. Sorry, it'll always be the Tappan Zee to me.”

While the views from the grounds are clearly a selling point, Humphreys observes that the interior design of the community en-

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sures visual serenity.

“We wanted to have beautiful amenities throughout our apartments, with top-level appliances and countertops,” she continues.

“We have large windows, so all of the apartments are really bright with lots and lots of light.”

The 288-unit community is divided into three residential categories — independent living, assisted living and memory-care options. Humphreys notes that while each category represents very different requirements and needs, it was important for The Club at Briarcliff to maintain a sense of connectivity among its residential population.

“Our community is designed to be as inte-

grated as possible,” she says. “The way the building was designed was that if you start at independent living and, at some point, you evolve and need more care, you move over to assisted living. The benefit is that you don't have to leave the building. You're just moving apartments and you still have access to the same amenities you did when you were an independent.”

The Club at Briarcliff opened in 2019 on a location that had a colorful history. It was originally the site of the Briarcliff Lodge, an exclusive resort that opened in 1902 as Westchester County’s first hotel. In its heyday, it was among the largest hotels in the world and hosted prominent guests, including

The Club at Briarcliff offers endless activities, spectacular Hudson River views and a caring staff to transition residents seamlessly from independent to assisted living, if need be. Photographs courtesy The Club at Briarcliff.

Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, Thomas Edison, Mary Pickford, Crown Prince Wilhelm of Prussia and Babe Ruth.

The lodge discontinued its hotel service in 1933 and briefly became a "health-diet sanitarium" until Edgewood Park School for Girls took over the grounds in 1937. In 1955, The King’s College took over the property, which it occupied through 1994.

“We actually have an alumnus of King's College who lives here,” adds Humphreys.

Nothing of the original lodge remains — the wooden structure was destroyed in a 2003 fire — and the new construction that went into the community was honored by the trade journal Senior Housing News with

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its Best in Architecture & Design Award.

“It was designed in the image of the original lodge property, so it fits with the architecture of the area,” Humphreys says. “And it's a bit of an homage to the original property.”

Within The Club at Briarcliff, Humphreys continues, there is always something taking place to keep the residents physically and intellectually active. An in-house cinema offers two screenings a day, with an evening show that is repeated the following afternoon for a matinee presentation.

“You have an opportunity to see every movie twice and you can see two different movies a day,” Humphreys says. “As far as our programming, we have live music typically three to four days a week in our community. We have cooking classes; we have a book club; we have a knitting club; we do trips.

We’ve got it all. You name it, we’ve got it.”

The Covid-19 pandemic created an unprecedented challenge, but Humphreys says the community met the situation head-on.

“In this community, we will never sacrifice resident well-being for the almighty dollar,” she states. “We spared no expense to ensure that we had this community staffed appropriately. And we're staffing with incredible individuals. We have a pretty low turnover rate for staff, which is great. We've been working hard to bring in terrific people to join our team so we can provide the best possible service to our residents and their families. I have to say our community has had incredible growth, even during a global pandemic.”

Looking ahead, Humphreys points out a waiting list for the community’s memory care units, and she is eager to coordinate activities with other independent and assisted living developments in the region.

“The Hudson Valley Alzheimer's Association will have events here at our property,” she says. “We're looking forward to engaging more with the community and having more events in-house for our residents and family members.”

The Club at Briarcliff Manor is at 25 Scarborough Road. For more, call 914-3732545 or visit seniorlifestyle.com/property/ new-york/the-club-at-briarcliff-manor/.

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Hair apparent

BY JEREMY WAYNE

In his pin-dotted dark navy shirt, black and gold Apple watch and tan Oxfords (sans socks), Paulo Lanfredi is a picture of relaxed urban style when WAG meets the Brazilian-born hair-salon owner for a tour of Cave, his new men’s barbershop in Greenwich.

Located in a former branch of Subway on Greenwich Avenue, downstairs from his highly regarded, eponymous women’s salon, Cave is more than a barbershop, with its images of brilliantine, Barbasol and a crew-cut or Princeton clip. Lanfredi has envisioned the new space not only as a modern men’s hair salon but also a lively cultural hub. Along with men’s hairstyling and other salon services, he plans to show the work of world-class artists and host events — regular, member-only exclusives, he says, that will enliven members’ minds as well as help them look and feel amazing.

His route to hairdressing was an unusual one.

Growing up near São Paulo, the fourth largest city in the world, Lanfredi was working as a physical therapist for ICU patients, a job he did not especially enjoy, when an opportunity to come to the United States presented itself in 1999. He leapt at it, settling in Greenwich where he already had friends but then had to find work. One friend, whose father was “big” in Clairol, suggested he train as a hairdresser. “So I did,” says Lanfredi. “I signed up at hairdressing school the following Monday.”

After working in New York City and then setting up his own salon, he was well-aware of a gap in the market. A few guys might come into a women’s salon for a cut, but they were not really comfortable doing so. And while boys would come in with their moms, beyond a certain age they would no longer want to.

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Paulo Lanfredi.

Photographs by Laura Huertas FEBRUARYand 2022 WAGMAG.COM 33 Mike Schmidty.

Cave reception area.

Lanfredi wanted to give men their own space, one that was the equivalent of a women’s salon in terms of luxury and pampering. And he wanted them to have their grooming needs attended to with a degree of privacy and to be able to have conversations without being overheard — in short a man cave.

Although walk-ins are welcome, the new salon operates mainly on a membership basis and rates typically include a monthly or bi-monthly cut, with a “clean-up” in between.

Fathers can stop by with sons after school or on a weekend and, as well as bonding over a haircut, make use of the stand-up arcade machine, with its selection of 4,700 games. Members can even stop by for a cup of coffee at the bar — no hair treatment necessary — if they just happen to be “on the avenue.” There’s a handy row of hooks for hanging coats and bags, as well as plug outlets and USB ports under the marble-topped counter, so that the space is laptop — and device — friendly.

If coffee doesn’t quite hit the spot, members can keep their own bottles of liquor at the salon, where they sit in a glass display cabinet, the owner’s name discreetly attached to the back of the bottle. How civilized to enjoy a shot (or two) of your favorite Laphroaig or Copper Dog while your hair is being crimped or during the “dead” time you might wait during a color treatment.

Also envisaged are member events like poker games and charity drives, all adding luster to a salon membership. “We’ll raise some money and we’ll also have some fun,” says Lanfredi.

In the salon itself, there are Italian cus-

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tom-made leather chairs facing mirrors with built-in TV screens — think very swish, stateof-the-art, luxury hotel bathrooms. Gone are the salon chairs of old in which you could almost break your neck angling your head into the basin. At Cave, the free-standing basins glide effortlessly up to the customer in his reclining leather chair, ensuring maximum comfort. “We even have cushions if someone has a back problem,” Lanfredi says.

Greenwich designer Brittany Snyder has made bold use of stone and wood accents throughout. Slate-gray hardwood floors and great expanses of gray and black granite and marble render the space subtly masculine and timelessly elegant. A changing display of distinguished artists’ work enlivens the walls, with the North Carolina-born artist Roger Hsia’s work being currently on view.

In addition to cut and color services, full body massages are already being offered in a well-appointed, soundproof treatment room, and manicures and pedicures will join the list of available services soon, along with oxygen therapy facials and eyebrow shaping (which are already offered in the women’s salon upstairs.) It’s a veritable one-stop shop for men’s

grooming.

Adding to that experience will be a men’s product, currently being developed in Dubai, that Lanfredi is about to launch. It will comprise an all-in-one shampoo, moisturizer and after shave — perfect for most men who, according to Lanfredi, can’t be bothered with a complicated, multiproduct grooming regimen.

With an aesthetic as well as a practical sensibility, Snyder and Lanfredi seem to have thought of everything. Even the LG washing machine and dryer, in a service area off the main salon, match the black, gray and chrome color scheme — as does the Jura coffee machine that delivers a rich espresso or cappuccino.

Lanfredi is also a stickler for hygiene, which is especially reassuring at the present time, and points out the stylish receptacles that are well-positioned for the hair that is constantly swept from the floor.

“Hair,” he says earnestly — seemingly unaware of the exquisite irony — “is something I really don’t like to see.”

For more, visit cave.club.

Kensington Senior Living is Proud to Sponsor

HFC’s 2nd Annual CareCon

A FREE, virtual event designed to educate, inspire and empower Alzheimer’s and dementia family caregivers by offering support, knowledge, and community

Join Us on National Caregivers Day

Friday, February 18, 2022 • 3:00pm EST A learning & support event hosted by Lauren Miller Rogen of HFC To register, go to bit.ly/hfccarecon

CareCon is back! Join us for a free, live-streamed event that’s packed with celebrity- hosted, expert-led panels and workshops for the comedy-loving caregiver. Connect with others around the globe as you learn tools for resilience and best practices to help ease the stressors that often come with the caregiving experience. Also... The Kensington is proud to sponsor The Scotty, an award in honor of Scott Miller, who was the caregiver for Lauren Miller Rogen’s late mother Adele. Be sure to nominate an extraordinary unpaid caregiver you know, in recognition of their loving support during a challenging time, their patience and perseverance, and their creativity.

(914) 390-0800 | 100 Maple Avenue | White Plains, NY 10601 | www.TheKensingtonWhitePlains.com

Upstairs action at Crush.

Photograph

by Steven Briante.

36 FEBRUARY 2022 WAGMAG.COM

A ‘Crush’ on table tennis

BY JEREMY WAYNE

Table tennis has come to Greenwich, with a spacious, brand new club located in the former Greenwich Propane building on Field Point Road.

But leave behind any thoughts of a downat-heel social club or that slightly grungy bowling alley experience of old. Crush Table Tennis feels more like a five-star hotel than a sports facility. Covid-aware check-in is done electronically at the entrance downstairs, and contactless payment is taken via touch screens.

The club occupies more than 6,000 square-feet over two floors, with four separate playing areas between them. To the left of the entrance are three of the club’s eight tables. Head upstairs and you’ll find another five tables, leather sofas, ever-so-chic Barcelona chairs, a professional sound system and a large-screen television. There’s also a selfserve bar with ice-cold domestic and imported beers, exotic canned cocktails, red and white wine by the bottle and a small selection of premium spirits. (On the night WAG visited, Woodford Reserve bourbon was a favorite “pour.”)

Owner and Larchmont-resident Michael Tolle, whose clients in his 25-year career in consultancy have included IBM, Mastercard and The New York Times, grew up overseas and gravitated toward the sport because of what he calls the “socialization” aspect. A table tennis club, he says, is somewhere people can get together in a friendly and relaxed atmosphere.

Before this venture, he had tried to get into telemedicine but did not pursue it in the face of regulatory obstacles. Having always loved table tennis, he had a vision for Crush that fell somewhere between Spin, the New York City club in which, Tolle says, “Hard Rock meets table tennis,” and (Times’ crossword puzzle editor) Will Shortz’s competitive but somewhat utilitarian table tennis center in Pleasantville.

Many facilities, Tolle points out, have rubber floors, barebones decoration and a questionable level of cleanliness. By contrast, floors at Crush are porcelain tile with rugs in the seating areas; walls are decorated with Toulouse-Lautrec posters,and ambient lighting is provided by attractive wall sconces.

(Perhaps the facility should have been name “Plush.”) Upstairs, by day, the space is flooded with natural light from rows of window on either side of the room. The tables themselves, meanwhile — Chinese tables downstairs and American-made Killerspin tables upstairs — are lit by top-of-the-line, eight-foot, linear LED light fixtures. Overall, the club feels far more like a lounge than a gymnasium.

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Michael Tolle.

Photograph by Jeffrey Damberg.

Photograph by Steven Briante.

The place is also spotless, with heavy emphasis on regular cleaning, which is reassuring in the age of Covid. The facility is fitted with four contactless handwashing stations with antibacterial soap, two new HVAC systems that separately treat each floor and two HVAC ionization systems for eliminating airborne mold, bacteria and allergens.

“The thing I find fascinating about table tennis,” says Tolle, “is that when you’re here, you may have come with just one person, but you meet other people and have conversations. That doesn’t happen in the movie theater or at the bowling alley. You don’t even do that in restaurants.”

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Players, he says, “cross all generations and backgrounds. They’re a nice bunch.” One of his regulars — actually a “Guinness Book of Records” record-holder for the longest-ever volley in ping pong — comes in alone three nights a week and will play with anyone looking for a game. A group of four has a monthly subscription, and comes in every day to play, always opting for a specific table. Yet another regular is an 80 year old, who had called up the club, saying he’d been a good player in high school but hadn’t picked up a table tennis paddle in years. He wondered if he should come in and give it a try. Tolle said he most definitely should.

For those who want to take their game to the next level, Crush’s professional coaches offer both group clinics and customized individual training.

“We designed the business and space to specifically offer an enjoyable experience for families, private parties, corporate team building exercises, fundraisers and corporate special events,” Tolle adds. The convivial space and friendly nature of the game make it an ideal venue for almost any get-together, including bar and bat mitzvahs, and there is even outdoor space with a firepit, which will come into its own in warmer weather. A great venue itself for a dedicated table tennis summer camp, Crush will be hosting the Greenwich Camp expo this month.

It’s a great facility, too, for schools. “I had a group of juniors come in from Greenwich High School the other day,” Tolle sats. “Yes, they were loud as hell but there was no profanity; they didn’t break any equipment; and they had a great time.”

And a great — one might even say a smashing — time is exactly what Crush is all about.

For more, visit table-tennis.com.

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Food for thought on healthy eating

BY GIOVANNI ROSELLI

“Your diet is a bank account. Good food choices are good investments.”

— Bethenny Frankel, author

As a certified Precision Nutrition coach, I firmly believe in the company’s philosophies. One of them is that meal plans don’t usually work and aren’t the best solution to your dietary problems. I’d like to summarize a recent article on this topic written by Brian St. Pierre, director of nutrition for Precision Nutrition.

“DO I GET A MEAL PLAN?”

This is one of the most common questions from people who are considering, or just started out in PN’s nutrition coaching program.

Traditional meal plans are an explicit prescription: Eat this exact thing in this exact amount at this exact time. You might be thinking, “Good. I want a plan. I’m sick of trying to figure all this stuff out. Just tell me what to eat.” Unfortunately, when we try to follow rigid prescriptions like this, lots can (and often does) go wrong. No matter how enthusiastic you are, meal plans can be tough to follow.

This is normal. Life can get in the way.

• People get busy; • We’re not always prepared; • Kids get sick; • Bosses expect you to work late; • It’s always someone’s birthday (or a special holiday); and • Sometimes you just don’t feel like having a protein bar at 10 a.m.

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THE MEAL TRANSFORMATION GAME

You need to think about what you’re already eating, and how you could make it a little bit better. Think about a spectrum of food quality rather than “bad” or “good” foods. Think of this as a game. How can you play “make this meal just a little bit better” in every situation? In which situations is that easier or harder? When your choices are limited, how can you shoot for “a little bit better” while still being realistic and without trying to be “perfect”?

Here’s how that “food spectrum” might look in daily life for dinner.

STAGE ONE

It’s 8 p.m. You’ve just gotten home after an insane day at work. All you want to do is put food into your face and zone out in front of the TV. You can’t even imagine making anything more complicated than boxed macaroni ’n’ cheese right now. Ketchup and hot dogs are as fancy as it gets.

STAGE TWO

Same concept, but: • You’re adding some extra protein with the help of a rotisserie chicken leg that you grabbed at the grocery store on the way home.

• You’ve added a side salad, just grabbing a few handfuls of prewashed greens out of a bag.

• You’ve whipped up your own pasta.

• Work is still on your mind, and a couple drinks will take the edge off.

STAGE THREE

Things are getting fancy: • You’re upping the protein with a little more chicken.

• You’re having a little less pasta.

• You’ve also added a nice big salad to the mix.

• You’ve cut the booze to 1 drink.

• Plus, you’re sitting at the dinner table, instead of flopping down on your couch or standing over the sink.

STAGE FOUR

We’re playing at pro level here.

With your meal planning and prep strategies, even a weeknight dinner looks good.

The author at a recent presentation on wellness.

Courtesy Roselli Health & Fitness.

• You can whip up a delicious salad in three minutes flat and you have some pre-cooked quinoa on hand.

• That rotisserie chicken is still a fast, convenient option, but now it’s got some healthy buddies.

• You’re indulging in a single glass of good wine these days, and you take time to savor it.

WHAT TO DO NEXT

Start small, taking one step at a time. Pick one meal to transform and focus on that. Concentrate on improving that one meal each day.

You might think about things like: • adding protein;

• adding veggies or fruits; • eating less processed food; • eating more nutrient-dense, whole foods; • drinking less alcohol or fewer sweet drinks; • drinking more water; • eating in a calmer, more relaxed setting; and/or, • eating more slowly and mindfully.

Of course, don’t try to do all these at once.

Try just fiddling with one or two, and see which ones work best for you.

Add things slowly. Once you’ve improved one meal a day, try another. Or, once you’ve improved one factor in a meal (such as add-

ing more protein), try another. Be patient and know that small steps add up.

Set yourself up for success. Notice what makes it easier and simpler for you to eat better. Then figure out how to do or get more of that. For instance: • Is planning helping you? How could you do more of that?

• Is a healthy meal-delivery service making it easy? Could you set aside a little more cash to get two meals a day instead of one?

• Is setting aside time on Sunday afternoon to cook some protein a good idea?

Great, keep on doing that. Book it in your calendar.

There’s no “right” way to do this. Do what works for you.

Think long-term. What do you want to happen over the next few months? Year? 10 years? Do you want to be on a meal plan for the next few decades? Today, if you were to take one small step toward the “better” end of the meal spectrum, what might that look like?

How can you start playing the “meal transformation game” today?

Experiment with systems, skills and strategies that work for you and your life. The real goal of a meal plan is to stop using a meal plan.

Fit, healthy people who have a good relationship with food don’t need other people to tell them exactly what to eat at all times. Living a fit and healthy life doesn’t require perfection either.

Reach Giovanni at giovanniroselli.com.

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This patient experienced waist reduction with Emsculpt Neo in about seven weeks. Courtesy Emsculpt Neo.

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Waist not, want not

BY DEBBI K KICKHAM

Fat: Don’t you just hate that word and all that it implies?

That’s why I tried Emsculpt Neo — a revolutionary new fat-burning, muscle-increasing treatment that kills your fat cells.

Now I work out every single day — many days doing 40 minutes of jumping rope — and I still have little pockets of fat that just won’t go away. Especially around my abdomen. I hate it. So I decided to try some science to complement all of my efforts.

There are some 15 physicians, medical spas and laser centers in Westchester and Fairfield counties that offer Emsculpt Neo. But since I live in the Boston area, I visited Vega Vitality, a Med Spa and Wellness Center on Boylston Street in Boston’s tony Back Bay section of town. In Boston, Vega Vitality owner Ashley Hilmes, a nurse practitioner, administered the treatment to my abdomen.

I was to undergo a half-hour treatment, with the hope that I could tolerate the machine at 100%. “In 30 minutes, it’s the equivalent of doing 24,000 sit-ups,” Hilmes told me.

She had me lie down and put a special belt around my midsection. Then she took the Emsculpt “iron” and put it on my stomach and switched on the machine.

Emsculpt Neo simultaneously delivers heat and magnetic energy to your body, thanks to radiofrequency and a high-intensity electromagnetic field. This results in, on average, 25% more muscle and 30% less fat over about six treatments. In less than four minutes, the temperature in fat cells reaches levels that cause their permanent damage, and then the muscle temperature rises by several degrees, similar to what a warm-up activity does before a workout.

Then you experience supramaximal con-

tractions, as your muscles are contracted at intensities that are not achievable during routine exercise. After a treatment, your fat cells are slowly removed from the body and strained muscle fibers initiate a growth process. The results? Fat elimination and muscle building. A single 30-minute session of this treatment is equivalent to around 24,000 crunches as opposed to the 20,000 delivered by its predecessor, classic Emsculpt.

There was no discomfort at all, although I could definitely feel every contraction in my abdomen. “It takes about three months to see total elimination of the fat cells,” Hilmes says. “This treatment achieves what you can’t achieve in the gym, and it also can work on your obliques and flanks.” My resulting waist is definitely smaller, and my love handles turned into more of love “grips.” I was delighted with the results.

Another benefit is tightened skin, she told me. Emsculpt NEO is noninvasive, and it requires no recovery time or any pretreatment preparation. In seven clinical trials, the process showed consistency in eliminating fat and/or building muscle.

A couple of things you may want to remember in your quest for a new waist.

Temper Fasting Mints are a great product that contains citravarin — orange peels — and THCV cannabis that blocks the munchies so you don’t want to eat and take effect in about 30 minutes to an hour. I tried the Temper mints and they definitely helped me to deal with hunger and allowed me to fast comfortably.

“Temper helps people change their eating habits through fasting,” says Matt Mayberry, co-founder of Temper. “With Temper, you won’t want to eat and you have increased focus on your fasting….”

And here is another wonderful product in your quest for a slimmer shape. Joe and Megan Johnson are the founders of Vade Nutrition, and the inventors of the world's first and only portable protein and pre-workout packs (patent pending). Vade Nutrition Dissolvable Packs were created to bring convenience and portability to everyone by providing a wide range of portable supplements in the health and wellness industry. Now it’s easy to have a protein shake on the go, thanks to a dissolvable vegetable-grade wrapper that you simply pop in water or milk.

The couple originally thought of these dissolvable packs for protein powder when they realized that scooping protein powder in the car after a workout covered the seats and console of their car in powder. Taking protein powder on the go was impossible without prepping it ahead of time in a plastic baggie or bottle compartment.

After appearing on “Shark Tank” and landing a deal with Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and former New York Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez in 2018, Vade started growing exponentially. Due to the overwhelming success of the 100% Whey Isolate Protein, the Johnsons soon developed other nutritional products with the same dissolvable technology. Vade Nutrition now offers a wide range of products.

The Johnsons’ goal is not only to help make people's lives easier with their packs but to give back to their community by creating jobs and donating Vade's products to feed the hungry.

They are delicious, I can vouch for that.

For more, visit emsculptneo.com, bodybybtl.com/find-a-provider/, usetemper. com and vade-nutrition.com. And follow Debbi on Instagram @DebbiKickham.

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First Awake Spinal Fusion in New England: Patient, 82, Says Back Pain Gone Eighty-two-year-old Edith Gooch suffered for years from a debilitating spine disability.

On Oct. 1, she finally received the lifechanging treatment she needed when she became the first patient in New England to receive an awake spinal fusion.

“There were tears. There were frowns.

I couldn’t get my groceries, no cooking, basically just hanging out on the couch or the chair,” Edith said of her life before surgery. Her comments came during an October press conference at the Ayer Neuroscience Institute Spine Wellness Center in Westport.

The surgery, performed at St. Vincent’s Medical Center by Dr. Vijay Yanamadala, used spinal anesthesia and local nerve block to numb an area of Edith’s spine to remedy her chronic disability caused by spondylolisthesis, a degenerative condition causing bones in the spine to press against nerves. In doing so, Edith did not need to be intubated.

“About 10 surgeons in the country are now offering spinal fusion without general anesthesia, like what we were able to do for Ms. Gooch and she was never intubated for this procedure,” said Dr. Yanamadala, Medical Director of Spine Quality and Surgical Optimization at the Spine Wellness Center. “We know that this type

of procedure avoids the risk of true general endotracheal anesthesia and also leads to faster recovery for patients.”

Dr. Yanamadala added that there have been 10 awake spine surgeries performed at St. Vincent’s Medical Center with more scheduled in the coming months. While Edith’s spinal fusion was the first in New England, awake spinal surgery is not new.

It is, however, uncommon.

“It’s not very common for a reason; it takes a whole team,” said Dr. Khalid Abbed, Co-Physician-in-Chief of the Ayer Neuroscience Institute and Medical Director of Spine Wellness Center. “It takes surgeon champions; it takes anesthesiologists who are willing to think outside the box and catch up with the surgical techniques which have advanced and have become less invasive with time.

For the right patient, minimizing the risk of anesthesia as well is prudent.”

Dr. Vlad Frenk, Co-Director of Anesthesia at the Ayer Neuroscience Institute/ Connecticut Orthopaedic Institute at St. Vincent’s Medical Center, said the nerve block process used on Edith is called erector spinae block.

“The medication that we use lasts up to 36 hours, and it allows patients to decrease or completely abolish the use of

To learn more about the Ayer Neuroscience Institute Spine Wellness Center, visit hartfordhealthcare.org/spinewellness or call 203.226.2499

strong opioids for the first day and a half or so after surgery,” Dr. Frenk said. “This procedure is done after the patients are sedated, so it’s comfortable and they don’t feel any pain or discomfort.”

Dr. Frenk added the advantages of spinal anesthesia allow patients to eat and drink in the recovery room within an hour of surgery. It can also save patients from opioid-related side effects such as confusion, nausea and constipation that can be worse in elderly patients.

Nearly six weeks after surgery, Edith is no longer using a walker or cane for assistance and says she has had no leg or back pain.

Slow dancing or speed walking.

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George Latimer, Westchester County Executive. Ken Jenkins, Deputy County Executive. Vaccinated against Covid-19, both caught mild cases of the new Omicron variant but kept going while isolating. Photographs courtesy Office of the Westchester County Executive.

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Covid at the top

BY PETER KATZ

Hoda Kotb and Savannah Guthrie of “The Today Show”; Jimmy Fallon of “The Tonight Show”; “Late Night’s”Seth Meyers; “The Late Late Show” host James Corden; Whoopi Goldberg; LL Cool J; Sen. Lindsay Graham; Rev. Jesse Jackson; Ellen DeGeneres; Hugh Jackman; and Khloé Kardashian.

They’re just a few of the people who have something in common with Westchester County Executive George Latimer and Deputy County Executive Ken Jenkins.

They were all vaccinated against Covid-19, contracted mild cases of the virus from which they’ve recovered and credit the vaccine with preventing what could have been a much worse illness.

For Latimer and Jenkins, the county’s top two government officials, there was a certain irony in being infected with the virus. After all, they had put in so much time and effort leading the county’s response to the pandemic. They were continuing to provide guidance for Westchester’s more than one-million residents on how best to cope with not only the disruption to daily routines but the very real threat to life.

“When I tested positive on Dec. 12, I was surprised because at that point in time we still weren’t dealing with the explosion of positives due to the Omicron variant,” Latimer tells WAG. “Now, so many people I know that hadn’t gotten it have gotten it.”

Latimer said his first reaction was to try to figure out how seriously ill he might become as a result of the virus.

“I was asymptomatic at the time of my testing and I ultimately developed no fever,” he says. “I developed no loss of taste or smell. I did not have any chills. I did not have any respiratory problems. I had a slight cough and a little bit of a runny nose.My second reaction was that ‘I can’t go into the office.’ I have a dynamic job with lots of things to do.”

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George Latimer

Latimer says that he was able to make a smooth transition to working from home in isolation, including using his computer to originate Zoom conferences and telecasts of events such as Covid briefings and signing the new county budget: “I knew that I could manage having to be off by myself. I talked to the office and went over what was coming up, what would I have to be involved with, what could be postponed. What happened over the course of the 10 days of my isolation was that a lot of events were cancelled, postponed or turned to virtual.”

Latimer notes that he had been out in the community at various times since the pandemic started. He was routinely taking precautions — including wearing a mask, maintaining social distancing, avoiding poorly ventilated spaces, frequently washing hands or using hand sanitizer and making whatever schedule adjustments seemed appropriate.

“It did occur to me that I was lucky it didn’t happen sooner. It could have been the Alpha or Delta variants and I was lucky I got a milder version of it,” he adds.

For Jenkins, coming down with Covid served to underscore that society is going to have to learn to accept the existence of the virus well into the future. He says he feels fortunate to having been able to isolate at home, in the basement, while recovering.

“I had body aches, chills, no fever, but I had a cough. The first few days it was mild and then the symptoms went away. I felt like I could have come back to the office, but the rule was to stay away for 10 days,” Jenkins tells WAG. “We can do everything we can possibly do to protect ourselves as best as we can, but at the

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Ken Jenkins

end of the day it’s a virus and you can contract it through no ill-will of anyone or despite not doing anything wrong,” Jenkins says. “We have to navigate through this. We have to learn how to live with this particular virus because right now it doesn’t look as if it’s going to get eradicated like polio.” (According to the CDC, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, polio hung around the United States for 24 years after the introduction of the polio vaccine in 1955.

The last reported case was 1979.)

Jenkins recalls that from the beginning of the pandemic both he and the county executive were out in the community while observing whatever the health and safety guidance happened to be at the time.

“The feedback I’ve been getting recently is the frustration overall from people who are trying to understand how best to continue with their lives in whatever is going to be our new normal,” Jenkins says. “We don’t want to be in a place where we have to shut down again. We went from a very bad scenario where people were dying at an extraordinary rate from contracting this disease…to a place where people get vaccinated so that if and when they contract it they’ll be able to survive it.”

Jenkins says that one of the reasons 92.85% of Westchester residents received at least one vaccination shot as of Jan. 10 was that he, Latimer, the county health department and others concentrated on communicating facts rather than rhetoric: “We said, ‘Here’s what we know and here’s what we don’t know.’ We utilized everything in our toolbox from politics, government experience, professional experience in the private sector to be able to use communica-

tions and relationships to reach out and help people to understand.”

Latimer emphasizes that the Omicron variant is extraordinarily communicable.

“We’ve had an explosion in the number of infections,” he says. “Early on, the most active cases of known Covid we had was about 12,000 on a given day. We hit that peak twice. Today, we’re three times the amount of active cases.

This thing is everything they’ve billed it to be.

It’s so communicable there’s nothing you can compare it with in the past.”

Latimer says that the impatience that’s common among so many Americans has surfaced with respect to the pandemic: “We have never lived through two years of a pandemic like this. We are not a nation of people that loves going through long, enduring difficulties,” he says. “We want to get something over with: ‘Let’s fight it, let’s do it, let’s get it behind us.’ That’s not what this is. This is analogous to what my parents talked about living through the Depression and the (World War II) years in which there was a long period of sacrifice and a long period of not knowing how things were going to turn out.”

Latimer bemoaned the fact that dealing with the pandemic has become politicized for many and caught up in the divisions that exist in the country.

“I think we could have Covid as a regular disease that we’re going to have to worry about,” Latimer said. “If you’re vulnerable to it, there’s a very good chance it could pose real problems for you and you’re going to get an annual shot, the way people of my age get an annual flu shot. You’re going to have to be prudent and pragmatic about it.”

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Documenting Covid’s ‘First Wave’

BY PHIL HALL

One of the films that has been short-listed for this year’s Academy Award for Best Documentary is “The First Wave,” a study of how health-care workers at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in Queens faced the difficult first four months of Covid-19. The film is directed and co-produced by Matthew Heineman, who had been previously nominated for the Best Documentary Oscar for his feature “Cartel Land,” which explored the actions taken by vigilantes against the Mexican drug cartel.

Heineman, who has a Fairfield County connection — he is a Darien native who attended New Canaan Country School (Class of 1998) — recently spoke to us about “The First Wave” and his goals for this film: What inspired you to create this film?

“I woke up in March 2020, like everybody did and was terrified by this potential tsunami that was about to sweep over us. And I felt this enormous obligation to try to document it, to try to put a human face to it.

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“I reached out to hospitals all around the country and ended up getting access to a hospital in Queens, in my backyard here in New York. I spent the next four months attempting to put a human face to this thing that we were trying to understand. “ How did you get the hospital to allow your camera crew inside during the early days of the pandemic?

“I think they felt an obligation or necessity to try to show the world what was actually happening inside hospitals. We were being

Producer-director Matthew Heineman at the world premiere of National Geographic Documentary Films' “The First Wave.”

Photograph by Mark Sagliocco/Getty Images for National Geographic.

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From left: film subjects Karl Arabian, Alexis Ellis, Ahmed Ellis, Kellie Wunsch, Nahalie Douge, M.D., and Jenna Millman, producer-director Matthew Heineman and HIFF Artistic Director David Nugent at the world premiere of National Geographic Documentary Films' '”The First Wave’ at the Hamptons International Film Festival. Photograph by Mark Sagliocco/Getty Images for National Geographic.

so inundated with stats and headlines and misinformation, so they felt it was really important to show firsthand what was happening.”

How did the doctors and the other hospital staff react when you first showed up with the cameras and began filming?

“There was a host of different reactions.

Overall, people were grateful that someone was there to document this historic, life-altering time.”

What were some of the more interesting experiences you had during the production of this film?

“It's hard to say. We naively thought that we were going to film for two or three weeks and then this would all be over. Little did we know that we'd be filming for four months straight — and that two years later, we would still be living with it.

“It was definitely the hardest film I've ever made, by far, and it was also the most terrifying. But I think despite the horror that we saw every day, despite the large amount of deaths that we witnessed, I think the overall, overwhelming feeling that we had was inspiration

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— being inspired by the incredible dedication and the passion of the health-care workers that we witnessed every single day. I think that's what pushed us to keep making this film, despite all the different challenges.”

How did the hospital staff react when they finally got to see the finished film?

“It's been an amazing response to the film.

Screening the film for them has been extremely emotional. I think people felt it was somewhat cathartic to watch the film, especially with others, when (one of the) most insidious aspects of Covid was in isolating everybody.”

Most of your cinematic output has been nonfiction films as opposed to narrative features. What is it about the nonfiction genre that you find attractive?

“I didn't wake up one day and decide what genre to enter. I love making docs. I think it's an incredibly powerful medium. I've tried throughout my career to try to take big subjects and humanize them whether it's the Mexican drug cartels or ISIS in Syria or human trafficking or, in this case, Covid. It's about trying to take this thing that is often plastered across headlines and trying to bring

some humanity and deeply personal stories to the discussion.”

What are the next projects that you're working on?

“One of them is a film about the end of the war in Afghanistan. I was there throughout the summer.”

It is safe to say that must have been pretty scary, yes?

“Yeah, it definitely was.”

Your film is short-listed for the Academy Award, and one of your earlier films was Oscar- nominated. At the risk of sounding like a fanboy, what is it like to be an Oscar nominee and to attend the Oscar ceremony?

“Humbling. We don't make films to get awards, but it is nice to get recognition. If we get nominated, it helps to amplify and increase the amount of discussion and eyeballs around the film, and that's always my principal goal.”

The 94th Academy Awards will be presented March 27.

A culture of care at area hospitals

BY GEORGETTE GOUVEIA

If there’s one thing we've learned over the last two years, it’s that your health is indeed your wealth. Among those securing that “wealth” are those who lead the hospitals in Westchester and Fairfield counties and their environs.

What follows are snapshots of these institutions and the CEOs, presidents and executive directors who make them hum. Two big takeaways here: First, the name of the game is consolidation. Virtually all of these institutions either belong to a larger network of hospitals or are seeking to become part of a bigger health-care system. (The exception is Stamford Hospital, which remains independent

of other hospitals, although it is part of Stamford Health, which includes Stamford Health Medical Group, an ambulatory network, and Stamford Hospital Foundation.)

Despite what critics have said about impersonality and rising costs, these hospital heads say health networks increase patient care by providing services in the patients' own backyards while decreasing costs.

“Care” is a word you will read over and over again here. What makes these institutions distinctive, their leaders say, is their approaches to the culture of care that each seeks to nurture.

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FAIRFIELD COUNTY

BRIDGEPORT HOSPITAL (part of Yale New Haven Health) 267 Grant St., Bridgeport 203-384-3000 ANNE DIAMOND, J.D., PRESIDENT (also executive vice president, Yale New Haven Health)

W

What was your path to becoming a hospital president?

“I began my health-care career as a certified nuclear medicine technologist (CNMT) and radiation safety officer. My first job was at University Hospitals in Cleveland, where I had the opportunity to participate in nuclear medicine research and work with PET, an emerging technology at the time. My first leadership role was at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn. I think I got the research ‘bug’ working in academic medical centers and decided to leave acute care for a decade to work for an international research and development company. I had the opportunity to travel the world learning about health care and to improve the environment where hospitals care for their patients through research and innovation. When I came back into acute care, my career progressed through a series of promotions leading to the C-suite and three CEO roles. I have a B.S. in nuclear medicine technology from Cedar Crest College, a Juris Doctorate from Purdue University, Concord Law School, and an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from the University of Bridgeport.”

What makes Bridgeport Hospital distinctive?

“Bridgeport Hospital is a member of Yale New Haven Health with 501 licensed beds on two campuses in Bridgeport and Milford. The main campus is located in Connecticut’s most populous city, primarily serving patients from Fairfield and New Haven counties. Burn patients are seen in the Connecticut Burn Center — Connecticut’s only burn center — from throughout the state and neighboring states. Bridgeport Hospital has more than 3,000 employees, more than 1,100 active physicians representing more than 60 subspecialties and 230 medical/ surgical residents and fellows. We admit over 23,000 patients and provide nearly 350,000 outpatient treatments annually. What makes Bridgeport Hospital distinctive besides the excellence in care is the people who work here. We take care of you like you are part of our family.”

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What are its specialties?

“As I mentioned, Bridgeport Hospital has Connecticut’s only Burn Center. Our cancer program is affiliated with Smilow Cancer Hospital at Yale New Haven and Yale Cancer Center, one of only 71 National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated cancer centers in the country and the only one in Connecticut. The Yale New Haven Hospital Heart and Vascular Center (HVC) provides general and specialty care for all types of cardiac disease. Bridgeport Hospital is also recognized for its expertise in pulmonary diseases, including sleep medicine; OBGYN; pediatrics, including a Level 2 neonatal intensive care unit (NICU); and other surgical specialties in orthopedics, bariatrics, gastroenterology, neurosurgery and critical-care surgery.”

Increasingly, hospitals are becoming part of health-care systems.

What are the advantages of such networks?

“There are many advantages to being part of a health-care system like Yale New Haven Health. One of those is the ability to access national and worldranked specialists, thanks to our affiliation with Yale New Haven Health and Yale Medicine. Being part of an academic health system means bringing the best research to our patients and providing cutting-edge treatments close to home. The size of our health system also offers economies of scale, enabling us to buy products even when there are supply-chain challenges. The Covid-19 pandemic has emphasized the necessity for scale. The ability to share resources and expertise among the hospitals in the system ensures that our patients are getting the very best care possible, and our patient outcomes have validated that.”

What do you see in the future for Courtesy Yale New Haven Health.

Bridgeport Hospital?

“Since the pandemic began, we have made great strides, such as identifying the best treatments and methods for flexing volume up and down and caring for patients with a novel virus. We also have improved our relationships with community and health-system partners, which will continue to benefit the hospital and community well into the future. I see robotics, telehealth and artificial intelligence playing a vital role in the future of Bridgeport Hospital and the health-care industry. Once Covid-19 is behind us, Bridgeport Hospital can soar into the next level of acute care, using technology and innovation to drive excellence in clinical outcomes as well as superior patient-centered care.”

For more, visit bridgeporthospital.org.

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FAIRFIELD COUNTY

DANBURY HOSPITAL (part of Nuvance Health) 203 Hospital Ave., Danbury 203-739-7000 SHARON ADAMS, PRESIDENT

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What was your path to becoming a hospital president?

“I started my career as a registered nurse before transitioning to hospital administration. I have held various roles, including vice president of patient care and chief nursing and quality officer at Mercy Medical Center in Massachusetts, and vice president and chief nursing officer of Western Connecticut Health Network before we formed Nuvance Health. Each of Nuvance Health’s hospitals is committed to caring for our unique communities.

That is why local, community-based leadership and separate boards of directors oversee each hospital. I am proud to serve as president of Danbury Hospital and its New Milford Hospital campus. Patient care, quality outcomes, operational efficiencies and developing and supporting staff and community partnerships are my top priorities.”

What makes Danbury Hospital distinctive?

“Danbury Hospital features advanced facilities and technologies, making it a destination for innovative health-care services. For example, our surgeons perform minimally invasive and robot-assisted surgeries that benefit patients, including faster recoveries.

The Surgical Review Corp. has designated Danbury Hospital as a robotic center of excellence. Danbury Hospital earned The Joint Commission’s gold seal of approval as a primary stroke center and a center of excellence in total joint replacements.

Orthopedic and neurological patients who have had joint replacement, brain or spine surgery heal in spacious, comfortable rooms with specialized nurses and care teams. Danbury Hospital offers advanced heart and vascular care in the state-ofthe-art Yoriko McClure Surgical Suite. Praxair Cancer Center staff wrap patients in compassionate, comprehensive and innovative care throughout everything from chemotherapy, radiation and surgical oncology to genetic counseling, nutritional guidance and other support services. Danbury Hospital provides women and children with services that begin with pregnancy and range through giving birth,

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breastfeeding and beyond in the modern family birth center, the Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Pediatric Unit and the Spratt Family Neonatal Intensive Care Unit – the region’s only level III NICU. Danbury Hospital is proud to train and shape the future of health care as a teaching hospital. We also have a robust research program to improve patient care and advance the field of medicine.”

What are Danbury Hospital’s specialties?

“In addition to what makes Danbury Hospital distinctive, we offer the latest cancer, cardiovascular and neurology and neurosurgery care through Nuvance Health’s Cancer Institute, Heart and Vascular Institute and Neuroscience Institute, including: • Cancer screenings, diagnostic tests and treatments for all types and stages of cancer; • Cardiovascular disease preventive care, heart and vascular medical and surgical treatments and rehabilitative services; and • Brain, spine and nervous system neurosurgical care and neurological care for headache, movement disorders and stroke, to name a few of the many conditions we treat.”

Increasingly, hospitals are becoming part of health-care systems.

What are the advantages of such networks?

“There are many benefits to operating as a health system. Danbury Hospital is able to collaborate with cross-functional teams across New York and Connecticut to enhance quality of care, improve patient experience and achieve cost savings. Nuvance Health hospitals and medical practices supported each other during the Covid-19 pandemic by sharing supplies, resources and ideas and protocols, which greatly benefited our patients.

We were able to swiftly introduce the latest treatments and stand-up, drivePhotograph by John Halpern. through test sites and vaccine clinics at multiple locations, because we were working together.

Being part of a health system offers patients convenient and comprehensive care.

They can get care at our different hospitals and medical practices and see their complete medical records in their patient portal.”

What do you see in the future for Danbury Hospital?

“Danbury Hospital will continue improving access to health care, which will include executing more digital health strategies. We will also continue recruiting and developing skilled staff, investing in facilities, resources and technology and expanding our institutes and services so individuals in our communities can stay close to home for all their health-care needs.”

For more, visit nuvancehealth.org/locations/danbury-hospital.

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FAIRFIELD COUNTY

GREENWICH HOSPITAL (part of Yale New Haven Health) 5 Perryridge Road, Greenwich 203-863-3000 DIANE P. KELLY, DNP, RN, PRESIDENT (also executive vice president, Yale New Haven Health)

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What was your path to becoming a hospital president?

“I did not start out with a plan of becoming a health-care executive, let alone president of a hospital. I come from a family of physicians and nurses but actually made a clear choice to begin my career in business. I wanted to blaze my own path. Like many college students, I was looking for part-time employment and, after taking the advice of my family, started working at a long-term care facility, close to the college campus. (Clearly, they had not given up on seeing me in health care). The rest is history. I was completely moved by the experience of caring for others.

To this day, I continue to feel what a privilege it is to be allowed into someone’s life in such a meaningful way. This experience led me to change my course and become a registered nurse. As a nurse, I saw the value of thinking about how all matters should be approached by considering ‘how does this affect those who are depending on us for their care?’ This perspective afforded me leadership opportunities along the way, which led me to returning to my original career goal of business while still in health care. I found that to completely understand the complexity of health care, I could better serve those depending on me if I understood the business side, which is what led me to pursing my MBA in health care. I often think I have come full circle. I do know that for me, working in health care has been much more than a career; it has been a way of life. “ What makes Greenwich Hospital distinctive?

“There are many things that make Greenwich Hospital distinctive, from our world-class alliance with Yale New Haven Health System (YNHHS) to our ability to provide our patients with highly specialized care close to home. Our partnership with YNHHS enables Greenwich Hospital to provide research-based, cutting-edge care within an academic health system environment. A hallmark of our hospital is the compassionate, patient-centered care our clinicians deliver. Year after year, Greenwich Hospital is nationally recognized for its top

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performance in patient experience and quality.”

What are its specialties?

“Greenwich Hospital is a full-service acute care hospital, with signature services across multiple clinical areas, including heart and vascular, oncology (part of the Smilow Cancer Hospital network, which is Connecticut’s only comprehensive cancer center by the National Cancer Institute), neurosciences and children’s and women’s health. In addition, we are continuing to grow our behavioral health and psychiatric services in partnership with Yale School of Medicine’s department of psychiatry. All these core clinical areas enable our highly trained physicians to provide technologically advanced, board-certified subspecialty care, affording our patients enhanced, complex services such as minimally invasive procedures to reverse symptoms of stroke, pediatric 24/7 emergency care and diagnostic and interventional cardiac services.”

Increasingly, hospitals are becoming part of health-care systems.

What are the advantages of such networks?

“There are many advantages to being part of YNHHS that directly impact our patients, including access to clinical trials, state-of-the-art research, a multitude of board-certified specialists and review panels consisting of the country’s most esteemed physicians for complex cases. At some of the most challenging moments during the global pandemic, Greenwich Hospital had immediate unfettered access to life-saving equipment and skilled medical staff throughout the entire health system. I witnessed firsthand how scarce resources can become and how a larger health-care system has the ability to be highly agile, working together to ensure supplies and staff are directed to those patients and Courtesy Yale New Haven Health. communities that need them most.”

What do you see in the future for Greenwich Hospital?

“Greenwich Hospital has the unique opportunity to continue to provide the personalized, compassionate care in a community setting as part of an academic health system. In the immediate few years, we will see further refinement of our core growth areas, increased access to clinical trials, specialty and subspecialty services and more seamless transitions of care. In addition, we will see the realization of a new Smilow Cancer Hospital Care Center in Greenwich, where our current board-certified medical, radiation and surgical oncologists use the most innovative approaches, research and technology to provide exceptional cancer treatment tailored to each patient in partnership with Smilow Cancer Hospital and Yale Cancer Center.”

For more, visit greenwichhospital.org.

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FAIRFIELD COUNTY

NEW MILFORD HOSPITAL (part of Danbury Hospital and Nuvance Health) 21 Elm St., New Milford 860-210-5000 SHARON ADAMS, PRESIDENT

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What was your path to becoming a hospital president?

“I started my career as a registered nurse before transitioning to hospital administration. I have held various roles, including vice president of patient care and chief nursing and quality officer at Mercy Medical Center in Massachusetts, and vice president and chief nursing officer of Western Connecticut Health Network before we formed Nuvance Health. Each of Nuvance Health’s hospitals is committed to caring for our unique communities. That is why local, community-based leadership and separate boards of directors oversee each hospital. I am proud to serve as president of Danbury Hospital and its New Milford Hospital campus. Patient care, quality outcomes, operational efficiencies and developing and supporting staff and community partnerships are my top priorities.”

What makes New Milford Hospital distinctive?

“Most people who are familiar with New Milford Hospital will say that its size is what makes it distinctive. New Milford Hospital is one of the smallest hospitals in the Nuvance Health system, but it is mighty – from the Arnhold Emergency

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Department to inpatient care and the Diebold Cancer Center. The intimate hospital is a place where everyone knows each other’s name and where patients, visitors, staff and community members alike enjoy Plow to Plate meals in the quaint café.”

What are New Milford Hospital’s specialties?

“A Nuvance Health Medical Practices Primary Care office is located directly in the hospital, which offers patients convenient access to primary care and hospital-based services such as New Milford Hospital Diagnostic Imaging and Radiology, where board-certified radiologists interpret all images. New Milford Hospital recently opened a new multispecialty unit that includes cardiovascular, gastroenterology, general surgery and pulmonology services. At the Diebold Cancer Center, you can find everything from chemotherapy and immunotherapy to radiation therapy and support services.”

Increasingly, hospitals are becoming part of health-care systems. What are the advantages of such networks?

“New Milford Hospital is able to share resources, supplies and talent with its sister hospitals and Nuvance Health Medical Practices. Being part of a health system greatly benefited patients during the pandemic, because Nuvance Health was able to keep New Milford Hospital a Covid-19 free facility.”

What do you see in the future for New Milford Hospital?

“New Milford Hospital has been an icon in the community for 100 years Photograph by John Halpern. and will continue evolving to meet the needs of the communities it serves.

This includes employing strategies for prevention and wellness to keep our communities healthy.”

For more, visit nuvancehealth.org/locations/new-milford-hospital.

FAIRFIELD COUNTY

NORWALK HOSPITAL (part of Nuvance Health) 34 Maple St., Norwalk 203-852-2000 PETER R. CORDEAU, PRESIDENT

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What was your path to becoming a hospital president?

“I began my more than 30-year health-care career as a registered nurse before moving to hospital administration. I developed care management, operations, nursing leadership and service line management before becoming president of Norwalk Hospital. Prior to Norwalk Hospital, I held administrative roles at Sharon Hospital, which is also now a part of Nuvance Health. At Sharon Hospital, I was chief nursing officer, chief operating officer and CEO. As Norwalk Hospital’s president, I prioritize enhancing the patient experience, developing our workforce and achieving operational efficiencies.

Connecting with our community partners is also a top priority and I am thankful for the opportunity to be a Norwalk Hospital Chamber of Commerce board member. Together, we can promote the health and safety of those we serve.”

What makes Norwalk Hospital distinctive?

“Norwalk Hospital has been devoted to the communities we serve for nearly 129 years. Today, Norwalk Hospital is an acute care, academic hospital that offers patients the latest medical, surgical and wellness services. The hospital includes a level II trauma center, primary stroke center and joint replacement center of excellence. The caring staff at the C. Anthony & Jean Whittingham Cancer Center provides expert medical, radiation and surgical oncology to tens of thousands of patients every year. Patients also have access to navigators, therapists, social workers, dietitians, complementary medicine and support groups. Norwalk Hospital recently transformed heart and neuroendovascular care with

a new biplane angiography system to diagnose and treat cardiovascular and neurological conditions, such as heart disease, brain aneurysms and stroke.

Norwalk Hospital regularly earns national cardiac and stroke recognitions from the American Heart Association and American Stroke Association. In addition, Norwalk Hospital has achieved thrombectomy-capable stroke center certification from The Joint Commission.”

What are Norwalk Hospital’s specialties?

“In addition to what makes Norwalk Hospital distinctive, we offer advanced cancer, cardiovascular and neurology and neurosurgery care through Nuvance Health’s Cancer Institute, Heart and Vascular Institute and Neuroscience Institute.”

Increasingly, hospitals are becoming part of health-care systems. What are the advantages of such networks?

“Norwalk Hospital has greatly benefited from being part of Nuvance Health and in turn, so have our patients. For example, Norwalk Hospital has had adequate capacity and supplies and been able to care continuously for patients throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, because we are a part of a health system. At Nuvance Health, we share supplies, resources and skills and know-how of our colleagues throughout New York and Connecticut – all with the aim to improve the health and well-being of the communities we serve and enhance access to excellent, affordable health care.”

What do you see in the future for Norwalk Hospital?

“Nuvance Health is investing $250 million in the Norwalk Hospital community over the next five years in order to transform the patient experience. Nuvance Health plans Photograph by John Halpern. to construct a new 180,000-squarefoot patient pavilion and renovate areas throughout the hospital. The pavilion will be equipped with advanced technology, modern facilities and state-of-the art intensive care and birthing and infant units and services. Norwalk Hospital will continue investing in new approaches to cancer, cardiovascular and neurological conditions that affect our communities so they have convenient access to the latest care.”

For more, visit nuvancehealth.org/locations/norwalk-hospital.

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FAIRFIELD COUNTY

ST. VINCENT’S MEDICAL CENTER (part of Hartford HealthCare) 2800 Main St., Bridgeport 203-576-6000 WILLIAM M. JENNINGS, FAIRFIELD REGION PRESIDENT

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What was your path to becoming the president of Hartford HealthCare’s Fairfield region and St. Vincent’s Medical Center?

“I’ve been called to this work. I am in health care because I’ve always wanted to help people, but clinical work isn’t for me. I repeatedly passed out at the sight of blood while in high school working as an orderly in the ER. So, I had to figure out a different way to help people and I feel so fortunate that I am here, leading this amazing team. It is a perfect fit.

Leading the Fairfield region is one of the greatest privileges I have known.

And I stand on giants. I’ve been lucky to have many distinguished mentors and sponsors along the way and do my best every day to give back to the community however I can.”

What makes St. Vincent’s Medical Center distinctive?

“We have the perfect blend of caring for the community and the best expertise. Fairfield is so lucky to have Hartford HealthCare and St. Vincent’s Medical Center here. Our expertise is second to none. Our model is different: We have clinical institutes that are specifically designed around patients. The institute model brings all the disciplines together – neurosciences, orthopedics, urological diseases, cancer and heart and vascular – and brings groups of experts directly to patients when they need them most. This history of a Roman Catholic institution and traditions, coupled with the values of Hartford HealthCare, make for a really unique and positive culture.”

What are its specialties?

“Specialties include our institutes: the Ayer Neuroscience Institute, Hartford HealthCare Cancer Institute, Heart and Vascular Institute, Connecticut Orthopaedic Institute, Tallwood Urology & Kidney Institute and our Behavioral Health Network. But we also have other specialties – the Birthing Center and women’s health, advanced gastrointestinal disease, breast care, emergency

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medicine, trauma, psychiatry and mental health.”

Increasingly, hospitals are becoming part of health-care systems. What are the advantages of such networks?

“Covid has highlighted the important advantages of being part of a healthcare system. Smaller hospitals looked to us for help – for nurses and equipment, which we were happy to provide. In the peak, we were able to move people and resources where they were needed most. If we have a care team down because of Covid, our colleagues from another hospital jumped in to help. That’s who we are – people caring for people. We were able to partner with the community.

And we are working hard to lower the cost of care. By opening new access points in the area, we give our community lower-cost options than a hospital. So, the advantages are many. We just signed on our one-millionth ‘MyChartPlus’ user.

This means our community members have their electronic medical records in the palm of their hands.

Remember when you had to bring folders with you wherever you were?

Being part of an integrated delivery health-care system means that we have been able to bring hundreds of experts to the area. We are adding multiple new points of access to health care in the region like urgent care sites, surgery centers, imaging centers, medical specialty offices, infusion centers, cardiac testing offices and surgical specialty offices, as well as the Spine and Wellness Center in Westport. All of this alleviates pressure on hospitals, lowers costs and improves access to care.

Finally, the values of Hartford HealthCare bring multiple advantages to our colleagues and to the patients we serve – equity, excelCourtesy Hartford HealthCare. lence, caring, safety and integrity.

It's woven into everything we do.

We say: We do the kind thing, we do the best thing, we do the safe thing, we do the right thing and we do the equitable thing.”

What do you see in the future for St. Vincent’s Medical Center?

“We are committed to access. We know that access to the highest-quality care improves the health of our communities and lowers the cost of care. Everyone – no matter who you are or where you live – deserves world-class care. That’s what we are bringing to Fairfield. My colleagues are remarkable. We are in health care, because we are called to this work. We are making a difference in so many lives.”

For more, visit stvincents.org.

FAIRFIELD COUNTY

STAMFORD HOSPITAL, BENNETT MEDICAL CENTER One Hospital Plaza, Stamford 203-276-1000 KATHLEEN SILARD, PRESIDENT AND CEO, STAMFORD HEALTH

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What was your path to becoming a hospital CEO? “I started my career as a pediatric and neonatal ICU nurse at the Albert Einstein Hospital in the Bronx. From there, I took a role as director of clinical operations at Einstein and went on to become the executive director of the Montefiore Medical Group. Before joining Stamford Health, I was the executive vice president and chief operating officer at St. Joseph’s Regional Medical Center in New Jersey. I joined Stamford Health in 2003 as executive vice president and chief operating officer. In that role, I was responsible for clinical and operational leadership and led the development and building of the new Stamford Hospital. During that time, I also led several other initiatives, including the development of Stamford Health’s Heart & Vascular Institute, the Bennett Cancer Program, our relationship with Dana-Farber Brigham Cancer Center, the collaborative for orthopedics with Hospital for Special Surgery, the Women’s Breast Center, Children’s Specialty Center and pediatric emergency department. In 2018 I became president and CEO, responsible for our 305-bed acute care hospital, Stamford Health Medical Group, an extensive ambulatory network and Stamford Hospital Foundation. I am responsible to our board of directors for the development of high-level strategy, major corporate decisions regarding operations, financial performance and human resource talent management. While my role is now administrative, I credit my early years as a nurse at the bedside as my most formative experience.

What makes Stamford Hospital distinctive?

“I like to say that we offer the communities we serve expert care, from compassionate caregivers in beautiful settings. We treat complex cases and collaborate with renowned healthcare partners. “I am so proud that because of our dedication to quality and compassionate care, we’ve been recognized by many institutions. Our flagship hospital is recognized as a “High Performing Hospital” by U.S. News & World Report. In April 2021, we were the only Fairfield County hospital to receive an A grade for safety from The Leapfrog Group and a five-star (out of five) overall quality rating from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). We are among the 7% of hospitals nationwide awarded magnet status by the American Nurses Credentialing Center for the highest levels of safety, quality and patient satisfaction. We genuinely treat patients differently and that’s because we are rooted strongly in our value-based culture, providing person-centered care.

What are its specialties?

“Our programs and services cover all the major areas. Our Heart & Vascular Institute is the only full-service cardiac program in lower Fairfield County with a newly forged partnership with Columbia Irving Medical Center for cardiac surgery. Our Bennett Cancer Center is a collaborative member of the Dana-Farber Brigham Cancer Center, which means that our physicians follow the same treatment protocols and our patients benefit from facilitated second opinions from the No. 4 cancer program in the U.S. We collaborate with Hospital for Special Surgery, the No. 1 provider of orthopedic care in the nation. And our sophisticated neurosciences programs include neurology and neurosurgery services. We were recently awarded The Joint Commission’s gold seal of approval and stroke rehabilitation certification. Finally, our robust programs for women and children include the first-ever breast center accredited by the National Accreditation Program for Breast Centers from the American College of Surgeons; the area’s most comprehensive women’s specialty center; our Press Ganey “Guardian of Excellence”-awarded NICU; and the Steven & Alexandra Cohen Children’s Institute, which is comprised of the Cohen Children’s Specialty Center, the area’s only pediatric emergency department and the Cohen Children’s Inpatient Unit. Meanwhile, our maternity care and labor and delivery units feature all private rooms.

Increasingly, hospitals are becoming part of health-care systems. What are the advantages to these networks – or to being independent?

“We are unique in today’s health-care environment in that we are an independent institution. That independence helps us maintain our strong culture and close ties to the community. We also feel that it helps us best serve the unique needs of our community, which has been reinforced as we’ve responded to the Covid-19 pandemic. Every year, we provide more than $90 million in uncompensated care to members of the Courtesy Stamford Health. community who are in need. On the flip side, we are an economic engine for Fairfield County. Stamford Health contributes about $1 billion to the local economy and is the largest employer in the city of Stamford. We feel strongly that high-quality, accessible health care adds to the quality of life and attracts quality employers and employees to Fairfield County.”

What do you see in the future for your hospital? ...Community health, telehealth, digital transformation, affordability, access and a focus on the patient as consumer represent the foundation of the three-year strategic plan Stamford Health just launched to ensure that these goals are met, our community is taken care of and that we can offer the services required of this new, shifting landscape. This pandemic has made clear that we need to rethink the old ways and build new models of health care, catering to consumers who have the option to shop for their health-care needs. We know this will take time and a lot of elbow grease, but we’ve got our plan in place, our sleeves rolled up and we’re ready to do the work that will help us achieve our vision of being the most trusted health-care partner for the communities we serve.”

For more, visit stamfordhealth.org.

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NEW HAVEN COUNTY

YALE NEW HAVEN HOSPITAL (part of Yale New Haven Health) 20 York St., New Haven 203-688-4242 KEITH CHURCHWELL, M.D., PRESIDENT (also executive vice president, Yale New Haven Health)

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What was your path to becoming a hospital president?

“I’ve always considered my path in leadership akin to one of the circuitous city roads in San Francisco. There is a path, but it has not always been straight. It has always included a number of twists and turns, but the journey has been both interesting and fulfilling.

I started my career after a cardiology/ nuclear cardiology fellowship in private practice cardiology, but in partnership with Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, I developed a hybrid model of clinical and academic practice that created a heart and vascular institute for the medical center. With this work, I took on a number of leadership roles, helping to develop programs and initiatives that ultimately led to a fulltime faculty position in cardiovascular medicine and an executive leadership position at the Vanderbilt Heart and Vascular Institute. Over the past seven years, I have worked at Yale New Haven Health (YNHHS) in a number of roles that led to my current position as executive vice president for the health system and president of Yale New Haven Hospital.”

What makes Yale New Haven Hospital distinctive?

“Yale New Haven Hospital is part of a unique group of hospitals in this country – an academic/clinical institution in an urban setting that also serves as the community hospital for the city and surrounding region. We provide care to everyone, regardless of their ability to pay. Our mission is manifold – training the next generation of leaders in academic and clinical medicine for the region and nation, utilizing our resources to help evaluate and establish the new and best lines of research and therapies for our patients and providing the longitudinal care for the general population of patients that we serve.”

What are its specialties?

“We offer pretty much every subspecialty there is. We are everything from the largest birthing center in the state to its largest heart, kidney and liver transplantation program. We have representation in all of the major domains for specialty surgical and medical care.”

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Increasingly, hospitals are becoming part of health-care systems. What are the advantages of such networks?

“I think most if not all hospital systems…are working to evolve a true system of care for the populations that they serve. Also important, increase in scale can and should lead to a decrease in costs to our patients. We have worked actively and continue to work on developing a true system of care across our system. Our objective is to provide the right place for patients at the right time to maximize their best medical and surgical outcome. We are working to remove redundancy and have clear, thorough communication on information and plans of care. The investment in and implementation of one common EMR (electronic medical record) ensures that information that is needed to affect the best outcome for patients is readily available and should help drive down the costs of care. We believe in delivering the greatest amount of care locally with the investment in skills and capabilities but having high tertiary and quaternary care available at the highest skill level for those across our network who need this expertise. All of us across Yale New Haven Health are aligned in these goals. How we’ve been able to continue to treat patients in the state of Connecticut during this pandemic with remarkable ongoing care is a prime example of this work.”

What do you see in the future for Yale New Haven Hospital?

“Keeping abreast with new developments for the care of our patients will need significant investments in both inpatient and ambulatory spaces.

We have restarted the construction of our Neuroscience Center of Excellence on the Saint Raphael’s Campus of Yale New Haven Hospital. This largest project of its kind in the state will provide two new patient facilities, Courtesy Yale New Haven Health. additional medical and surgical beds and innovative care for patients with neurological issues from movement disorders to neuroregeneration. This is just one example of a large investment we are committed to make in buildings and space. An even more important part in our future is the investment in our people. It is critical for us to make the investment in time, professional development and wages that are competitive to the market, which should lead to their believing this is the only place they should work. This will then lead to the stabilization and growth of our workforce, which is needed to take care of a growing and aging population. We are weathering the present storm of this pandemic and will emerge from it smarter, more agile in adapting to change and having an even deeper belief in the vision, mission and values of YNHH and of our health system.”

For more, visit ynhh.org.

PUTNAM COUNTY New York

PUTNAM HOSPITAL (part of Nuvance Health) 670 Stoneleigh Ave., Carmel 845-279-5711 MARK HIRKO, M.D., FACS, PRESIDENT, PUTNAM HOSPITAL AND SHARON HOSPITAL IN SHARON, CONNECTICUT

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What was your path to becoming a hospital president?

“I started my health-care career as a double, board-certified peripheral vascular surgeon and general surgeon. I have served in various clinical and senior administrative positions, including chief of vascular surgery at Western Reserve Hospital, Western Pennsylvania Hospital and Baystate Medical Center; program director, general surgery residency at Western Reserve, Monmouth Medical Center– RWJBarnabas Health, Vassar Brothers Medical Center; associate medical director, heart and vascular program, Baystate Medical Center; and chair of the department of surgery, Monmouth Medical Center–RWJBarnabas Health. With each position, there was an increase in levels of oversight and responsibility.”

What makes Putnam Hospital distinctive?

“Putnam Hospital is the only hospital in Putnam County and the county’s largest employer. Recognizing the need for a health-care facility, the community banded together in the early 1960s to raise the monies needed to build the hospital. Since its founding in 1964, Putnam Hospital has grown exponentially, providing innovative services while maintaining a strong sense of community and personalized care. Many of our employees live nearby and, as such, know and treat our patients like family.”

What are Putnam Hospital’s specialties?

“Putnam Hospital is committed to providing safe, compassionate care to meet each of our patient’s unique health-care needs. We are a 164-bed, acute-care hospital, offering innovative technologies and advanced bariatrics, general surgery, urology, ophthalmology, orthopedics and spine surgical services. In addition, we offer advanced pulmonary management, progressive labor/delivery and maternity care and a robust and renovated emergency department. Patients also count on Putnam Hospital for blood management, cardiac, cancer and

stroke care and outpatient physical rehabilitation. We also provide psychiatric care, including a partial-hospitalization program and home for our GME-accredited psychiatry residency.”

Increasingly, hospitals are becoming part of health-care systems. What are the advantages of such networks?

“The Covid-19 pandemic is just one example of the advantages of being associated with a larger system. We have been able to balance the load among our seven facilities, moving the most seriously ill to tertiary care centers and the reverse, transferring recovering or less ill patients to facilities with reduced service capabilities. Another example is cardiac and stroke management. We are able, through telehealth, to evaluate patients, diagnose any conditions, stabilize them and then transfer them to a tertiary facility for definitive care if necessary. Then, after discharge, patients return to our care for services we can offer, such as physical/occupational/ speech therapies, cardiac rehabilitation, post-discharge imaging and lab testing. Finally, the ability to leverage service line care, such as oncology, neurosciences and heart and vascular, are all areas in which smaller, community facilities have a difficult time in recruiting specialists to their regions. Having the larger system allows these specialists to rotate to the communities in which we serve, utilizing technology, including telemedicine, to see patients, offer acute/chronic consultations and render follow-up management.”

What do you see in the future for Putnam Hospital?

“Putnam Hospital has a bright future.

We need to retool and reinvest in a facility in which care is mostly ambulatory. (Outpatient care accounts Photograph by John Halpern. for almost 75% of current health care.) Most hospitals were built in an era where care was primarily hospital-based. By working as a “cog” within a larger system, we will be able to increase primary care, develop behavioral care support systems and programs, increase outpatient surgical procedures, further integrate our emergency department with primary/specialty care services, develop a systemwide women’s health program, increase oncology service capabilities and more. This allows for increasing efficient care, improving patient outcomes and, most important, maintaining a safe, health-care environment for the communities we have the pleasure of serving.”

For more, visit nuvancehealth.org/locations/ putnam-hospital.

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HOSPITAL FOR SPECIAL SURGERY WESTCHESTER

1133 Westchester Ave., White Plains 914-359-2924; 877-279-3846 LOUIS A. SHAPIRO, FACHE, PRESIDENT AND CEO OF HOSPITAL FOR SPECIAL SURGERY

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His path to CEO as per the hospital’s website: “He has served in this role since October 2006, overseeing all strategic and operational aspects of the hospital and fulfilling its mission – to advance the field of musculoskeletal medicine through world-class patient care, research and education.

Under Shapiro’s leadership, HSS has experienced significant growth, expansion of facilities and recognition as the world leader in its specialty areas of orthopedics, rheumatology and their related disciplines…. Shapiro has more than 30 years of health-care experience, including as executive vice president and chief operating officer of Geisinger Health System in Pennsylvania, and as a leader in the healthcare practice at McKinsey & Co. He began his career at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh, where he served in a number of capacities.”

What makes HSS Westchester distinctive? “(It) offers the best orthopedic, rheumatologic and rehabilitation care for area residents. Providing the same unmatched experience as our Manhattan campus, our world-class team treats the full spectrum of musculoskeletal conditions, with radiology and imaging services, including ultra- low dose radiation EOS imaging

(Photograph from the HHS’ website.)

– available on-site. Patients can expect flexible scheduling options, such as sameday sports medicine appointments.”

What are its specialties?

“Foot, ankle, hand and upper extremity care; joint replacement; neurology; pediatric orthopedics; pediatric rheumatology; physiatry; physical therapy; rheumatology; spine care; sports medicine; and sports psychology.”

For more, visit hss.edu/hss-westchester.asp.

MEMORIAL SLOAN KETTERING

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500 Westchester Ave. West Harrison 914-367-7000; 833-921-2959 CRAIG B. THOMPSON, M.D. PRESIDENT

His path to CEO as per MSK’s website: Thompson became president and CEO of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center — the world’s oldest and largest private institution devoted to cancer prevention, treatment, research and education — in November 2010. Previously, he was with the University of Pennsylvania, joining it in 1999 as a professor of medicine, scientific director of the Leonard and Madlyn Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute and the first chairman of the department of cancer biology. In 2006, he was named director of the Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania and associate vice president for cancer services of the University of Pennsylvania Health System. Thompson received his bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth College and his medical degree in 1977 from the University of Pennsylvania Medical School. He received clinical training in internal medicine at Harvard Medical School and in medical oncology at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Institute at the University of Washington.

What makes Memorial Sloan Kettering Westchester distinctive?

“MSK Westchester offers residents of New York’s Hudson Valley and Connecticut the same expert cancer care they expect from MSK, just closer to home.

Patients can receive much of their treatment — including chemotherapy, immunotherapy and radiation — at our (Westchester) location. These are set in an amenable atmosphere that includes everything from valet parking to an art

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(Photograph from MSK’s website.)

gallery, a garden and a café.”

What are its specialties?

“Surgical, medical and radiation oncology consultations; chemotherapy; immunotherapy; radiation treatment; intervention radiology procedures, including image-guided biopsies and venous access placement; mammography, ultrasound, MRI, CT and PET imaging; clinical trials; a cancer-specific retail pharmacy; and supportive services, including integrative medicine, genetic counseling, pain management, lymphedema therapy, social work and nutrition.”

For more, visit mskcc.org/locations/directory/Westchester.

CELEBRATING LIFE, LOVE, & THE POWER OF FLOWERS SINCE 1925 4th Generation, Locally Grown & Locally Owned

www.BlossomFlower.com 914.237.2511 FEBRUARY 2022

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WESTCHESTER COUNTY

MONTEFIORE NEW ROCHELLE HOSPITAL

New Rochelle (MNR) is the primary source of care for the city of New Rochelle. We proudly partner with the city of New Rochelle for initiatives such as the HOPE Community Services Homeless Program. Sponsoring this initiative allows access to food and shelter 24/7. Collaborating with New Rochelle Parks & Recreation Department on the Sunscreen Program ensures that children and adults visiting beaches, parks and 16 Guion Place, New Rochelle fields have access to free sunscreen from May through September. And through our 914-632-5000 partnership with the New Rochelle Board of Education and the New Rochelle High TONY ALFANO, VICE PRESIDENT AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR School’s Project SEARCH Program, we’re preparing students for competitive employment through a combination of classroom instruction and hands-on training with the hospital. What makes Montefiore New RoWhat was your path to becoming an execuchelle and the above programs that much tive director of a hospital? more special is that about 40% of our asso“Prior to joining Montefiore, I worked as a ciates live in the community. So, we’re not senior administrator for several New York just partners in care; we live here and are City hospitals, like New York-Presbyterian’s collaborating to enhance the overall health Downtown Hospital, Brooklyn Hospital Cenand well-being of the region.” ter and St. Vincent’s Catholic Medical Center What are its specialties? in Greenwich Village. I also held corporate “As one of the busiest emergency departpositions at large organizations like Pfizer, ments in lower Westchester County, we’re Mobil and was vice president of labor relaquite proud of our emergency and trauma tions at Cablevision, overseeing Madison care. We also specialize in OB/GYN and Square Garden and Radio City Music Hall. women’s health, behavioral health care, priI joined Montefiore New Rochelle in 2013, mary-pediatric and adult care, orthopedics, right after Montefiore acquired what was podiatry, cardiology, endocrinology, gasthen called Sound Shore Health System. troenterology, hematology/oncology and With Montefiore’s vision of ensuring that rheumatology services. With our new renohealth care be easy to access and tailored to vations, we have significantly expanded our the needs of the community and mission of primary- and specialty-care capacity and our retaining the majority of employees, I made emergency and radiology services to meet it my responsibility to support my employees the diverse needs of New Rochelle residents with an eye to the future. Shortly after joining and people in surrounding communities.” as (vice president and executive director), we Increasingly, hospitals are becoming part began the journey of Montefiore New Roof health-care systems. What are the adchelle’s physical makeover and expansion of vantages of such networks? services like renovations to the emergency “Being a part of Montefiore Health System department, ambulatory care and the raenables us to provide the highest-qualidiology department. In October of last year, ty, cutting-edge care available, including we unveiled a comprehensive $44.3 million access to some of the country’s top physiCourtesy Montefiore New Rochelle Hospital. campus project, funded in full by the Capician-researchers. Whether it be through our tal Restructuring Financing Program (CRFP) technology or clinical trials, we’re delivering awarded by New York state, to ensure the science-driven, patient-centered care and very best, state-of-the-art care is provided to New Rochelle and its surrounding comraising the bar for expectations surrounding health-care expertise and services throughmunities — both within the hospital and outside of our doors.” out Westchester. Now, each day, more Westchester residents are accessing clinical trials What makes Montefiore New Rochelle Hospital distinctive? led by Montefiore. Montefiore and Einstein’s renowned physician scientists, who are also “Montefiore was founded by philanthropic leaders of New York’s Jewish community in embedded in our local hospital-care teams, advise on treatments and care for patients who may have more complex or rare conditions. This also includes the Montefiore School 1884 to care for chronically ill people other hospitals of the era would not help. As part of Nursing being directly affiliated with MNR. We’re training the nurses of tomorrow who of Montefiore Health System, we stay true to our roots. Our hospital doesn’t just focus do clinical rotations at both MNR and in the Bronx. Lastly, we’ve injected millions into on treatment; we’re hyper focused on preventive care, with the mindset of keeping Westchester community organizations to address the most pressing public health issues people out of the hospital. Studies have shown that patients fare better and it’s more facing the county, such as substance use disorder, homelessness and obesity. cost-effective, if symptoms — especially for chronic health conditions like diabetes, What do you see in the future for Montefiore New Rochelle Hospital?

COPD or congestive heart failure — are addressed in outpatient settings. I believe “As the primary health-care provider in New Rochelle, Montefiore will continue to evolve this approach to ‘population health’ makes us unique in the region. What else makes with the needs of the community, including how care is delivered. With the growth of us unique is that Montefiore is home to Albert Einstein College of Medicine (in the telemedicine and our outpatient clinical care teams, we’re able to best meet patients Bronx), which ranks among the nation’s top medical schools and is a research powerwherever they are and identify the care and treatment plans most tailored to their needs. house. With Einstein, we’re ensuring the latest care innovations are delivered to people The future is infinite with possibilities.” throughout the Bronx and Westchester. This expertise also supports our integrated For more, visit montefiorehealthsystem.org/NewRochelle. health-care network of nursing homes and senior-care facilities. Lastly, Montefiore

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NEWYORK-PRESBYTERIAN HUDSON VALLEY HOSPITAL 1980 Crompond Road, Cortlandt Manor 914-737-9000 STACEY PETROWER, PRESIDENT

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What was your path to becoming a hospital president?

“I began my career in health-care operations in 1992, as a unit coordinator on (labor and delivery) at a major New York City academic medical center. I don’t think I sat down for two years, because I was always running for supplies, stocking the ORs and labor and delivery rooms. I learned early the value of unconditional respect, as I was supervising seven very experienced unit clerks who’d been working in their roles longer than I’d been alive. I moved on to other leadership roles and then settled at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital (NYP), leading a corporate department and growing into senior hospital operations on various campuses of NYP. I’ve been incredibly fortunate to have the most phenomenal mentors and that’s how I came to be named president of New York-Presbyterian Hudson Valley Hospital in 2016.”

What makes NewYork-Presbyterian Hudson Valley Hospital distinctive?

“At NewYork-Presbyterian Hudson Valley we provide expert health care just a few minutes away from your home. We have experts across specialties so that you don’t have to go to New York City for a special consultation with an expert. However, we also have the benefit of the highly regarded medical faculty of Columbia University Irving Medical Center for those cases that

need additional expertise. Our motto at NYPHVH is that we are caring for our neighbors each and every day.”

What are its specialties?

“Our physicians provide care in more than 60 specialties. Over the last several years we’ve made significant investments in growing and supporting our cancer, orthopedics, sports medicine, cardiology, digestive health and women’s health-service lines. We offer a robust robotic surgery program, which uses the latest technology for minimally invasive procedures.”

Increasingly, hospitals are becoming part of health-care systems. What are the advantages of such networks?

‘Being part of the NewYork-Presbyterian enterprise gives us unique access to a large network of resources.

We’re transforming how care is delivered, making it more convenient, accessible and equitable for all, bringing the same physicians who practice at NewYork-Presbyterian Columbia University Irving Medical Center in the city to also see patients at NewYork-Presbyterian Hudson Valley Hospital and at their medical group offices.”

What do you see in the future for NewYork-Presbyterian Hudson Valley Hospital?

“Despite the challenges of the 2020 and early 2021 Covid surge, we opened a magnificent Maternal & Newborn Care Unit in January of 2021. This year will be just as exciting, as we are preparing to open our new cardiac catheterization laboratory (cath lab) in the first quarter. The cath lab will provide a variety of advanced cardiac services, including diagnostic cardiac catheterization, percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), endovasCourtesy NewYork-Presbyterian cular peripheral arterial revascularHudson Valley Hospital. ization and electrophysiology (EP) procedure services for residents of Westchester, Putnam, Dutchess and Orange counties.”

For more, visit nyp.org/hudsonvalley.

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NEWYORK-PRESBYTERIAN LAWRENCE HOSPITAL 55 Palmer Ave. Bronxville 914-787-5000

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(Editor’s note: At press time, the hospital had not yet announced its new executive director.)

What makes NewYork-Presbyterian Lawrence Hospital distinctive?

“Established in 1909, the hospital serves residents of Westchester County and the Bronx. It is part of NewYork-Presbyterian’s health-care system, which includes 10 hospital campuses across the greater New York area.

NewYork-Presbyterian Lawrence Hospital is a 288-bed acute-care facility that provides emergency care to approximately 35,000 individuals and delivers nearly 1,400 babies each year.”

What are its specialties?

“NewYork-Presbyterian Lawrence Hospital is home to a cancer center, maternity center, breast health center, two cardiac catheterization labs and a state-designated stroke center. We provide advanced services such as minimally invasive surgery, state-of-the-art orthopedic care and access to clinical trials.” (See story on its new Ambulatory Surgery Unit and Endoscopy Suites on page 16.)

Increasingly, hospitals are becoming part of health-care systems.

What are the advantages of such networks?

“Additional support and care are provided to the community through NewYork-Presbyterian Medical Group Westchester, a multispecialty physician practice with extended hours and offices in convenient locations offering patients seamless access to leading experts from ColumbiaDoctors, the faculty practice of Columbia University Irving Medical Center and Lawrence Community Health Services, which provides home care, hospice and bereavement services to adults and children.”

For more, visit nyp.org/lawrence.

Photographs courtesy NewYork-Presbyterian Lawrence Hospital.

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NORTHERN WESTCHESTER HOSPITAL

orthopedics and spine, neurosurgery, Robotics Center of Excellence, bariatric and vascular. Additionally, we offer 24/7 comprehensive cardiac care, including cardiac catheterization and electrophysiology services, which can serve emergency cardiac care.

Our obstetrics and gynecology program is one of the largest in the region with a level (part of Northwell Health) III neonatal ICU program, an OB attending physician and neonatologist physician in the 400 E. Main St., Mount Kisco hospital 24/7/365. The cancer program at Northern Westchester Hospital offers the 914-666-1200 full continuum of cancer care in partnership with the Northwell Cancer Institute and DEREK D. ANDERSON, FACHE, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR our sister-hospital, Phelps in Tarrytown. Working together as a health system, patients have access to nearly every type of subspecialty cancer care, clinical trials and innovations in radiation medicine, including What was your path to becoming a the only Gamma Knife in this region here hospital executive director? at Northern Westchester Hospital.”

“My path started when I spent my college Increasingly, hospitals are becoming years working at Intermountain Healthcare part of health-care systems. What are in Utah in surgical services at its major the advantages of such networks? trauma center. Between my time at Inter“Our hospital is part of the Northwell mountain, studying public health in college Health family of health care, which spans and also living in Cambodia (Southeast from upper Westchester to Staten Island to Asia) for a few years, I learned to appreciRiverhead, Long Island, and everywhere in ate the complexity of health care. I learned between. The strength and value of a truly the value of building relationships with integrated health system, like Northwell, communities, local economies, the culture has been most clearly defined and proven of an organization or community and the during the time of the Covid-19 pandemneed to have access to great care. My inic. At a time when independent hospitals troduction to New York came with my struggle on their own to procure PPE, graduate studies at Columbia University create bed capacity, research and outline in public health. At the time, however, I did clinical protocols and treatment options not have a clear idea or path in mind, nor while managing workforce issues, we did did I think that I would end up running a all of this (and much more) with significant hospital. I simply enjoyed the challenges to benefit to thousands of patients in our rebe solved in health care. After more than gion and beyond. There is nothing more re10 years working at a major institution in assuring to me as a leader that at any time, Manhasset, Long Island (North Shore Uniday or night, I can call an expert or team at versity Hospital, part of Northwell Health), Northwell and work through a problem in I gradually grew from being an intern, to a matter of minutes. This builds trust and various operations’ positions and finally a gives our communities the reassurance senior leadership role, all the while workthat we arrived at the safest, best solution, ing with colleagues across Northwell on because that expert or team is working system-based projects and initiatives. I am across 23 hospitals, 800-plus ambulatory Courtesy Northern Westchester Hospital. grateful to have transitioned to Northern locations and 77,000 team members. UltiWestchester Hospital in the fall 2019 – just mately, an effective health system fosters enough time to get settled before rolling up our sleeves for early 2020 when the pancollaboration and helps everyone arrive at a better, stronger solution. demic began and our communities needed us the most.”

What do you see in the future for Northern Westchester Hospital?

What makes Northern Westchester Hospital distinctive?

“Our drive is to provide the highest-quality health care possible close to home, while “What makes Northern Westchester Hospital unique is our emphasis on culture and fulfilling the needs of our community. We are learning and working to improve access to our most vulnerable patients by transitioning health care to the home and, with people. As a ‘Planetree Gold Certified Hospital With Distinction,’ with some of the highthe help of our community partners, we are unrelenting in our focus on health equity. est customer and patient satisfaction in our area, our processes and culture promote Health care needs to be more focused outside of the hospital and on preventative care. person-centered health care. Our extraordinary people make this happen and provide Simultaneously, we continue to find ways to bring more innovation, the latest techevidence-based, compassionate care every day. There is an incredible amount of innology, modernized facilities, better access to clinical trials and the best physician and vestment in the organization on the well-being and satisfaction of our team. We still health-care talent to our region. All of this results in improved quality services, close to have strides to make and the pandemic introduced new challenges on this front, but where people live. Northern Westchester will continue to grow and serve as a regional it’s a priority for us to listen to the voice of our team and help it grow professionally. destination for advanced health care. Additionally, we take our responsibility as a major This culture of truly prioritizing the patient, their families and our team is what sets economic driver in our communities very seriously and are continuing to find more Northern Westchester Hospital apart.” ways to give back to the communities we serve.”

What are its specialties?

For more, visit northwell.edu.

“We specialize in several surgical services, including, but not limited to thoracic surgery,

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PHELPS HOSPITAL NORTHWELL HEALTH

State Park Preserve, which not only provides aesthetic scenery, but also walking areas for staff and the community who elect to take advantage of the stunning landscape.

Phelps encourages a holistic, healing environment.”

What are its specialties?

“Phelps is a community hospital that also enjoys the benefits of being part of New York 701 N. Broadway, Sleepy Hollow state’s largest health care provider, Northwell Health. Our medical expertise is top-notch 914-366-3000 and supported by some of the latest technology, infrastructure and equipment available EILEEN EGAN, RN, JD, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR today. While a complete list of our specialties can be found on our website, below are a few highlights: • Orthopedics; • General surgery; What was your path to becoming a hospital • Cancer care (with PET CT capabilities); executive director?

• Neurology, neurosurgery and stroke “I started my career as a critical-care and emercare, which includes thrombectomies, a gency medicine nurse at Phelps. I worked here delicate, innovative surgical procedure as an ER nurse for more than 17 years before that removes blood clots from arteries my ER director and friend, Emil Nigro, M.D., enand veins to prevent life-threatening concouraged me to follow my dream of getting a ditions such as strokes; and law degree. I think those were my initial steps • Our behavioral health program, which on the path that ultimately led to the role of includes inpatient psychiatry, behavioral executive director at Phelps. After becoming rehab and outpatient services. We also an attorney, I worked in medical malpractice have access to telepsych services: Reflux defense law for three years before returning Center and Spine Institute.” to Phelps as director of risk management. My Increasingly, hospitals are becoming predecessor, Daniel Blum, saw my potential part of health-care systems. What are and promoted me to associate vice president, the advantages of such networks? then vice president of quality assurance/risk “Northwell provides a great deal of support management and clinical operations, which and resources to its member hospitals. gave me the experience I needed for the next Phelps has benefited from Northwell’s supstep in my career. Dan recommended that I port in developing many new programs become the interim executive director after his and services, upgrading our physical plant, departure, since a formal replacement had not funding new equipment like PET and CT. yet been identified. Although it thrust me into Northwell is also in a strong position to the midst of the pandemic – the first Covid-19 negotiate rates with commercial insurance patient came to Phelps just hours after I offipayors and to create economies of scale cially took on my new role – it ultimately led to when purchasing supplies and equipment. me being offered the position permanently.”

Member hospitals are incentivized to mainWhat makes Phelps Hospital Northwell tain high-quality and patient-satisfaction Health distinctive? standards through healthy competition beCourtesy Phelps Hospital Northwell Health.

“What makes Phelps stand out is that we are tween system hospitals. We look at commore than just a great hospital with high stanparative data all the time and always strive dards; we have a special culture at Phelps. I receive letters from our patients regularly to outperform our sibling hospitals. When there is a specialized service that cannot be telling me of the staff members who made a difference in their hospital experience by offered by the system hospitals, we know there is almost always another system hostreating them with kindness and respect. I walk the halls and make rounds on our papital that can provide that service. Therefore, when a patient needs to be transferred to tients and team members and see these values put into action every day. These are difanother facility for a service, procedure or surgery that we do not offer at Phelps, the ficult times for health-care workers at every level of the organization. But at Phelps, we patient benefits from all the increased continuity of care that’s possible when they can receive that care at another Northwell facility.” support each other and maintain our commitment to providing the best possible care What do you see in the future for Phelps Hospital Northwell Health? for everyone who walks through the door. We meet weekly to review the comments “Phelps has been modernizing and expanding services for quite some time. We we receive on patient experience surveys, because we care deeply about resolving the have big plans to continue growing our cancer center, which will eventually occupy issues that impact how they feel before, during and after their hospital visit. We also much more physical space on the hospital campus. Our new state of the art PET-CT have a very strong connection to our community. During the pandemic, our team has will support this service by providing imaging that patients previously had to travel worked closely with local organizations, EMS and volunteer ambulance corps to provide a distance to obtain. We are also continuing to modernize our inpatient units to vaccinations to our community members, including homebound seniors throughout the provide more single-bed, private rooms. This is one of the most important items county. And, lastly, our beautiful grounds – 69 acres of land bordered on the western on our patients’ wish lists. We are also excited to see continued growth of Phelps’ edge by the Hudson River – make Phelps a truly special place to be. We take every neuroscience program and our Center for Advanced Procedures.” opportunity to maximize the view by placing patient areas facing the river to provide a For more, visit phelps.northwell.edu. serene, calming view. We are also surrounded on three sides by the beautiful Rockefeller

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SAINT JOSEPH’S MEDICAL CENTER

diagnostic imaging, ambulatory surgery and behavioral health. The hospital has a network of primary care offices in Yonkers, the Bronx and Manhattan. Saint Joseph’s Medical Center has consistently received the prestigious annual American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement 127 S. Broadway, Yonkers Award, which recognizes our commitment to ensuring stroke patients receive timely 914-378-7000 and evidence-based stroke care.”

MICHAEL J. SPICER, PRESIDENT AND CEO Increasingly, hospitals are becoming part of health-care systems. I think you’ve discussed the advantages to this in talking about Saint Joseph’s acquisition of St. Vincent’s. So, tell us how your hospital is addressing disparities in the care of minorities and What was your path to becoming a CEO? the underserved?

“I have more than 35 years of hospital and “As the only remaining Catholic hospital in long-term care experience. I am the first male the five boroughs and Westchester County, and first lay president of Saint Joseph’s, a Saint Joseph’s has been true to its mission Roman Catholic health-care facility founded of providing excellence in health care to all by the Sisters of Charity in 1888. I began my those in need, no matter what the need for career with Saint Joseph’s in 1984, serving as more than 133 years. Saint Joseph’s prides executive vice president and chief operating itself on being part of the community by officer and was named president prior to providing affordable housing for seniors at assuming the title of CEO in 2000. I’ve been Griffin House in Yonkers and supportive and instrumental in the hospital’s dramatic exaffordable housing at the recently completpansion and development over the past 20 ed Landy Court housing complex in downyears. Today’s Saint Joseph’s includes a 194town Yonkers. To combat the social deterbed acute care hospital; a 138-bed psychiatric minants of health, the hospital also provides hospital; St. Vincent’s Hospital Westchester; a monthly mobile food distribution center two affordable senior-housing facilities; 1,500 with it partners at Feeding Westchester and supportive housing apartments throughout last year opened a food pantry in its Family New York City and Westchester County; and Health Center to meet the food insecurity numerous out-patient programs and services needs of its patients. Saint Joseph’s tagline for the residents of Westchester and New “Here for You” was no more evident than York City. Recently, I was elected chairman during the terrible Covid-19 pandemic when of the Healthcare Association of New York its courageous health-care heroes rose to State (HANYS) for the 2022 term. HANYS is the challenge, saving countless lives.”

New York’s statewide hospital and continuWhat do you see in the future for Saint ing care association, representing nonprofit Joseph’s Medical Center? and public hospitals, nursing homes, home“What began over a century ago as a small care agencies and other health-care organicommunity hospital on the corner of Vark zations.”

Street and South Broadway in downtown Courtesy Saint Joseph’s Medical Center.

What makes Saint Joseph’s Medical Yonkers has emerged as a robust and Center distinctive? growing health-care system serving pa“What makes Saint Joseph’s Medical Center unique is its ability to integrate pritients with programs and services in cities, towns and villages from Port Chester to mary and behavioral health and that its vast scope of outpatient care results in Yonkers, the Bronx, Manhattan and Staten Island. Saint Joseph’s plans to continue to over one million visits a year across its broad spectrum of services. Saint Joseph’s build on its 133-year legacy and looks forward to continuing to meet the medical and Medical Center has been a leader in the area of behavioral health services. Through behavioral health needs of all those in need and continue to combat the social deterits 2010 acquisition of St. Vincent's Hospital Westchester, Saint Joseph’s became minants of health and remain adaptable in the ever-evolving arena of health care.” one of the largest providers of behavioral health in New York state. With that For more, visit saintjosephs.org. acquisition, the hospital expanded it inpatient behavioral beds by 139 and added a full spectrum of behavioral health services, including supportive housing. In recognition of its ongoing commitment to mental health services, Saint Joseph’s SAINT VINCENT’S HOSPITAL recently received a $250,000 grant from the Westchester Community Foundation (a division of Saint Joseph’s Medical Center) to increase access to its behavioral health crisis services at St. Vincent’s, which has 275 North St., Harrison 914-967-6500 become the home of Westchester County’s Suicide Hotline.”

MICHAEL J. SPICER, PRESIDENT AND CEO What are its specialties?

(See also Saint Joseph’s Medical Center.)

“The hospital’s high-quality, specialized programs include orthopedics, cardioloFor more, visit stvincentswestchester.org. gy, family medicine, wound care with hyperbaric oxygen therapy, state-of-the-art

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ST. JOHN’S RIVERSIDE HOSPITAL 967 N. Broadway, Yonkers 914-964-4444 RONALD J. CORTI, PRESIDENT AND CEO

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What was your path to becoming CEO? “I started as a Medicare auditor for Blue Cross Blue Shield. I did various audits for about three years and while I was working on the Mount Sinai (Medical Center) audit, they offered me a job with a significant salary increase, which is what brought me to the hospital side. Working for Mount Sinai, this world-famous institution, I just saw so many opportunities on how my skill-set could help them. When you work for a big organization, you have influence, but it is limited. With the knowledge that I had gained working those five years at Mount Sinai, I wondered if I could be a game-changer for some smaller hospitals that I had audited earlier in my career. I ended up at Yonkers General Hospital, which later merged into St. John’s Riverside.

Then they appointed me to CEO at Community Hospital at Dobbs Ferry and, ultimately, I was appointed CEO of St. John’s Riverside Hospital. My background is in finance. I consider myself a fixer, particularly on the financial side. However, one of my strongest leadership qualities is my ability to create teams that improve things, which attracted our board to hire me.”

What makes St. John’s Riverside Hospital distinctive?

“The key to every organization is the corporate culture and the corporate culture at St. John’s is ‘we are a family.’ We are community oriented. We care about each other and we care about the community we serve. We are blessed to have the best nurses, physicians and health-care professionals. And I think that’s the magic of St. John’s and when people come into our facilities, that is what they feel and that is our greatest success. Although I can’t take credit for creating that culture, I can tell you that our culture has maintained itself despite all the challenges. We were able to bring that culture to Dobbs Ferry and the former Yonkers General.”

What are the specialties at St. John’s? “…Let’s start with our access points. Most people come through our doors into our emergency room. We are blessed to have the best physician staff in our ERs. Most of them are multiboarded. Many of them came from (NewYork-Presbyterian).

They are seasoned, intelligent, proficient practitioners. “The other access point is maternity. We are the only maternity service in the city of Yonkers. We have great OB/GYNs. We have delivered the most babies in (Westchester) county and it’s an area in which we thrive. Another area of expertise is orthopedics. Our orthopedic

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surgeons are talented, and they bring in the latest technology – MAKOplasty Robotic hip and knee replacements. No one in New York state had it and we were the first in Westchester to have it. Frankly, it was a game-changer for us. We do probably as many joint replacements as any other hospital in the region and our outcomes have been fantastic. Unfortunately, when you look at disease classes in Westchester County, you will see cardiac disease and cancer with the most significant prevalence. We have great cardiologists and we have the best oncologist in the county in Norman Rosen, M.D. The health of our community depends on our primary-care physicians and our community having access to care. What is wonderful about St. John’s is the large number of primary-care physicians, who have done a great job keeping our community healthy. We also started several services that have excelled and produced fantastic outcomes. For example, we have led bariatric surgeries with Dominick Artuso, M.D., and Jonathan Arad, M.D. They continue to do great work and improve the health of those who are morbidly obese and get them on the road to achieving a healthy lifestyle.

Increasingly, hospitals are becoming part of health systems. What are the advantages of such networks?

“We continue to be an independent hospital. We want to join a larger system, because it would give us access to more subspecialists and a vast ambulator delivery system. We realize that most individuals would rather be cared for in the community where they live rather than have to travel to another area with which they are unfamiliar. If you think of that from a patient perspective, anxiety is heightened by dealing with an illness. Then you have to leave the community where you live and receive health care, which takes you Courtesy St. John’s Riverside. to a stranger environment, where you probably get great care. Still, if the same care were available in the patient’s community, it’s a much better experience. We want to join a bigger system, one that has a similar culture to ours. We like the Montefiore Health System Inc. We were very close to joining it. Then, the Covid outbreak occurred. Maybe one day in the future we will. We believe that if we could partner with a bigger system, it would give us more resources, more ability to access capital for technology and subspecialists so the people who live in Yonkers and the river towns could stay here to get the best care in the metropolitan area.”

What do you see in the future for St. John’s Riverside Hospital?

“If I had a crystal ball and you asked me to look into the future, what do I see for St. John’s? I see more subspecialists in surgery being available to this community.

I see more ambulatory-care delivery sites as more services move from inpatient to outpatient settings and I see us as part of a bigger system. I think we would be a great partner. I think we are blessed by geography. We are blessed by population density and we are blessed by our culture in this hospital. And I think any larger system would want us to be part of it, because we would only enhance reputation.”

For more, visit riversidehealth.org.

WESTCHESTER COUNTY

WESTCHESTER MEDICAL CENTER

vices, many of which are offered nowhere else in the Hudson Valley. Our hospital is home to the region’s only Level I adult trauma center; a burn center that serves patients from 100 Woods Road, Valhalla our region and much of upstate New York; organ transplantation of the heart, kidney 914-493-7000 and liver; cardiac surgery, cardiac catheterization and other advance heart and vascular MICHAEL D. ISRAEL, PRESIDENT AND CEO, WESTCHESTER services; a high-risk OB-GYN care program, and an array of neuroscience care offerMEDICAL CENTER HEALTH NETWORK (WMCHEALTH), OF WHICH ings that includes a New York state-designated comprehensive stroke center and more.

WESTCHESTER MEDICAL CENTER AND MARIA FARERI CHILWestchester Medical Center is also a specialty center in the treatment of Long-Covid DREN’S HOSPITAL ARE BOTH MEMBERS. Syndrome. Our doctors were among the first in the nation to identify this post-infection illness, and launched a program to provide multidisciplinary care tailored to each patient. Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital is an acute care center What was your path to becoming a health for pediatric patients. This specialty hospital, network CEO? the only one of its kind in the Hudson Valley, “I’ve spent the majority of my career in healthis home to the region’s only pediatric intensive care administration. One of my earlier roles care unit; a level IV neonatal intensive care unit was in Houston where I was executive vice (NICU); comprehensive pediatric cardiology and president at St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital/Texneuroscience services; and a pediatric hematolas Heart Institute, and then I was fortunate to ogy and oncology program known around the serve as the CEO of Duke University Hospital, world as a leading center for care and research.” as well as the university’s vice chancellor for Increasingly, hospitals are becoming part of health affairs, and vice president of the Duke health-care systems. What are the advanUniversity Health System. I was also the COO tages of such networks? of the then North Shore Long Island Jewish “Health-care networks like WMCHealth provide Health System. “While all of these roles where many benefits to the communities they serve, in health-care administration, each was unique, such as making advanced care more accessible due to circumstances surrounding each organito a greater number of communities. By doing zation during the time I was there as well as the so, we are supporting a continuity of care for cultural differences of the communities each our neighbors in the region. For example, via served. I worked with many smart, savvy and telemedicine specialists from Westchester Meddedicated health-care professionals and the ical Center and Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital many lessons learned during my career I apply support care at member hospitals around the to my daily work at WMCHealth.

Hudson Valley. Also, our WMCHealth Physicians What makes Westchester Medical Center provider practice employs hundreds of physiand Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital distinccians who share information and collaborate tive? on patient care. So if an individual is in need of “Westchester Medical Center and Maria Fareri inpatient care, we can provide either a seamless Children’s Hospital are regional hubs for teradmission to one of our WMCHealth hospitals, Courtesy Westchester Medical Center tiary care (advanced subspecialties) as well as or an in-network transfer to either Westchester Health Network. highly-specialized (quaternary) care such as Medical Center or Maria Fareri Children’s Hospiorgan transplantation. The hospitals are the primary referral facilities for all other hostal for advanced care. “Lastly, the ‘strength in numbers’ phrase is certainly true when it pitals in the Hudson Valley and perform as academic medical centers, playing host to comes to health-care systems. Hospitals are the anchors of many communities, particuboard-approved medical research and bedside trials. “Both hospitals are members of larly the smaller ones, from both support and economic standpoints. Many hospitals are our WMCHealth Network, a health-care system with 10 hospitals, skilled nursing facilities a community’s largest employer.” and over 800 providers at numerous locations around the Hudson Valley. “WestchesWhat do you see in the future for your hospital? ter Medical Center is the flagship hospital in our WMCHealth Network and in 2021, we “The future is bright for Westchester Medical Center, Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital and were honored to partner with New York and serve as the Hudson Valley Region Hub our network as a whole. “From a network standpoint, later this year we are scheduled to open a reimagined HealthAlliance Hospital in Kingston and will move to complete the in the state’s Regional Vaccine Network. As such, we’ve led a group of more than 300 transformation project at WMCHealth’s Bon Secours Community Hospital in Port Jervis. hospitals, health-care organizations, faith-based groups and community associations “Here on our Westchester campus we have exciting plans in place for a new critical care that have helped ensure the equitable and efficient distribution of Covid-19 vaccines to tower, which is a key component of a larger strategy to increase community access to Westchester, Rockland, Orange, Putnam, Dutchess, Ulster and Sullivan counties. In this our tertiary services.” important role, we’ve coordinated the distribution of more than 2.5 million vaccine doses For more, visit westchestermedicalcenter.org. to date, plus we’ve supported the operation of all state-run mass vaccination centers in the Hudson Valley. Currently, Westchester Medical Center and Maria Fareri Children’s MARIA FARERI CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL Hospital are serving as New York state vaccination centers for adults and children. (part of Westchester Medical Center Health Network) What are the specialties of Westchester Medical Center and Maria Fareri Children’s 100 Woods Road, Valhalla Hospital?

914-493-7000 “Westchester Medical Center is known for offering a wide array of advanced care serFor more, visit mariafarerichildrens.org.

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WESTCHESTER COUNTY

WHITE PLAINS HOSPITAL (part of the Montefiore Health System) 41 E. Post Road, White Plains 914-681-0600 SUSAN FOX, PRESIDENT AND CEO

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What was your path to becoming a CEO? “I began my career in health care as a pediatric ICU nurse after earning a B.S. in Nursing from Columbia University. Taking care of patients prior to becoming an administrator gave me important insight into what it takes to provide truly great care to patients.

In order to become a catalyst for change and improve patient care and outcomes, I set my sights on a path toward health-care administration. After earning an M.B.A. in that field from Baruch College/Mount Sinai School of Medicine (now the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai), I became a healthcare consultant at Ernst & Young – an experience that provided me with further insight into the financial, organizational and strategic challenges and opportunities involved in providing better patient care. In 1997, I joined what is now Northwell Health, where I worked at the corporate level as senior vice president for physician and ambulatory care.

In that position I helped in the formation of the health system with a focus on clinical program development, integration and physician management. In 2010, I was presented with the opportunity to join White Plains Hospital and work with its board of directors to develop a strategy that would include solidifying the hospital’s importance to the community. Within three years, I was asked to take on the role of president of the organization with the understanding that I would succeed the retiring CEO. That occurred in 2015.”

What makes White Plains Hospital distinctive?

“Our leadership, medical staff and 4,000 staff members have a strong commitment to our community and that shows in how we care for our patients. Ours is a culture that nurtures growth and opportunity and we have world-class talent that truly delivers on our brand promise of 'Exceptional, Every Day.' We continue to transform our hospital and expand our geographic footprint to be able to provide our growing community with the high-quality care it needs, provided by local physicians whom they know and trust. In addition, we have worked incredibly hard to add new programs and services and enhance the scope of care we provide – close to home – and, as a result, our hospital continues to be recognized nationally for achievements in patient satisfaction, safety and quality of care.”

What are its specialties?

“We are a full-service provider and treat everything from preventative and routine care to the most complex of needs. We have become a destination for comprehensive car-

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diac care in the Hudson Valley – with two cardiac catherization labs, a world-class electrophysiology program and a recently launched cardiac surgery program. For many years, we were the only hospital in Westchester to have a standalone cancer center. We have since expanded our dedicated cancer facilities and built on the care we provide by offering the latest in diagnostic approaches – including PET MRI, the most advanced treatment options such as the Varian EDGE to target and treat tumors precisely, innovative procedures and novel drugs to create a successful clinical trials program. We have been a leader in bringing advanced surgical procedures to our hospital and have expanded programs in surgical oncology and many other areas such as vascular, neurosurgery and orthopedics to meet the evolving needs of our community. Additionally, we have a comprehensive Maternal Child program – featuring a level III neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), one of the most advanced in the Hudson Valley.”

Increasingly, hospitals are becoming part of health-care systems. What are the advantages of such networks?

“In 2015, we became a member of the Montefiore Health System. White Plains Hospital was part of the Stellaris Network with three other Westchester-based community hospitals prior to this new partnership. Our goal with Montefiore is to offer a higher level of care to our community, providing our patients with the right level of care in the right location. For example, if a patient needs a liver transplant, our physicians will see the patient for all their presurgical and postsurgical care in Westchester, but we utilize the expertise of the transplant surgeons at Montefiore for the actual surgery. Regarding our new cardiac surgery program, we have internationally renowned surgeons from Montefiore performing those procedures right here in White Plains. This partnership has imCourtesy White Plains Hospital. proved access to care and contributes positively to the overall cost of care.”

What do you see in the future for your hospital?

“In addition to addressing the evolving needs of our community and bringing more complex and advanced care to the region, we understand that good care is not limited to care provided in the hospital. Over the last few years, we have worked to make sure that patient care is coordinated both outside and inside the hospital. We have established a new division, WPH Cares, to stay connected with our patients after they leave the hospital to allow for the continued coordination of care. In this way we work to ensure patients are able to follow their plan of care and, as important, are connecting with their physicians in the ambulatory environment – giving the patient the benefit of the entire team caring for them. Innovations like telehealth and remote monitoring for patients with certain chronic conditions, like hypertension, are examples of patients with ongoing needs that can be monitored 24/7 to ensure a swift path back to good health, or to assist patients with the burden of managing chronic conditions. At White Plains Hospital, we are always focused on providing the best care possible. This mindset has allowed us to grow and expand at a rapid pace and provides our patients with confidence that they will receive the highest-quality care, when and where they need it.”

For more, visit wphospital.org.

WESTCHESTER COUNTY

NUVANCE HEALTH JOHN M. MURPHY, M.D. PRESIDENT AND CEO OF NUVANCE HEALTH (Editor’s note: Nuvance Health chose to interpret WAG’s request for hospital information by also having its CEO answer the questions:)

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What was your path to becoming a CEO? “I started my career in health care nearly four decades ago as a practicing neurologist.

For 20 years, I thoroughly enjoyed caring for patients with neurological concerns and I continue to see patients at a community clinic. I also developed a passion for healthcare administration to affect positive change for even more community members and patients. As a clinician, I held various administrative roles at Danbury Hospital, including president of the medical staff. When I became an administrator, I was executive vice president and chief operating officer, before becoming CEO. Today, I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity to be president and CEO of Nuvance Health. We formed Nuvance Health in 2019 to improve the health and well-being of the people we passionately serve in the Hudson Valley and western Connecticut. Nuvance Health has convenient hospitals and outpatient locations, including Danbury Hospital and its New Milford campus, Norwalk Hospital and Sharon Hospital in Connecticut; Northern Dutchess Hospital, Putnam Hospital and Vassar Brothers Medical Center in New York; and many primaryand specialty-care practices and three urgent care offices. Nuvance Health also has Home Care and rehabilitation and skilled-nursing services affiliates. It is imperative that health care, public health and government agencies collaborate to ensure the health and safety of our communities — which has become increasingly paramount during the Covid-19 pandemic. That is why I am also thankful for the opportunity to be involved with the Connecticut Hospital Association as a former Board of Trustees chair and to participate on the board of the Value Care Alliance, of which I am a founding member.”

What makes Nuvance Health distinctive?

“As a network of mission-driven, nonprofit hospitals deeply rooted in our communities, Nuvance Health’s foundational values of being personal, imaginative, agile and connected make us distinctive. We have repeatedly proven during the pandemic how our integrated health system has benefited our communities, patients and staff — which was the intention of forming Nuvance Health. Our hospitals, Nuvance Health Medical Practices and Home Care connect daily to leverage each other’s processes, resources and skill sets to provide continuous, personalized care to patients. At the beginning of the pandemic, Nuvance Health quickly implemented telehealth in our primary-care and specialty practices across New York and Connecticut in a matter of weeks to continue caring for patients. During the initial peak of the pandemic, nearly 90 percent of all

medical practice visits were remote. Today, Nuvance Health continues to offer telehealth visits at all our medical practices so patients can get the care they need wherever is most convenient for them. Nuvance Health has not been immune to the staffing challenges caused by Covid-19, especially in clinical areas. We reimagined how to get through this tough time by swiftly launching a process to identify and train administrative staff who wanted to volunteer in other clinical areas that needed support. Staff volunteers have prepared hundreds of Covid-19 test kits for employee testing, supported drive-through testing sites and stocked emergency department supplies. The support for each other has been incredible and ensured continuity of care for our patients.”

What are Nuvance Health’s specialties?

Nuvance Health recruits top medical and surgical talent and collaborates with leading experts to bring excellent services to our communities through a variety of channels, including our cancer, heart and vascular and neuroscience institutes and primary care.

Cancer patients have access to a team of fellowship-trained surgical oncologists and skilled medical and radiation oncologists, nurses, dietitians, social services and support groups at each of our six cancer centers. Nuvance Health heart and vascular specialists perform traditional open-heart surgeries.

They also perform less-invasive options to give patients who qualify an alternative to open-heart surgery, offering many benefits, including faster recovery. Highly trained neurologists and neurosurgeons provide innovative headache, movement disorders and stroke care, resulting in better outcomes for patients, and treat complex disorders of the brain, spine and nervous system. At the core of our care is Nuvance Health Medical Practices Primary Care, where we focus on effectively managing chronic conditions and prevention and wellness through initiatives like the community Get Fit challenge. Our Photograph by John Halpern. primary-care clinicians connect patients with specialty outpatient and hospital care.

Through our electronic medical record system, teams across the health system have a complete picture of a patient’s medical record to inform comprehensive-care decisions.”

Increasingly, hospitals are becoming part of health-care systems. What are the advantages of such networks?

“There are many advantages to operating as a health system, including sharing resources and providing more access to the latest treatments, technology, services and care teams. There are economies of scale and intellect that allow us to provide higher-quality, cost-effective care. We have persevered throughout the pandemic, because we are a seven-hospital health system. We had sufficient capacity for our patients, developed patient-care protocols and playbooks together and shared supplies with each other. Our Nuvance Health Medical Practices greatly helped reduce the overwhelming volume of people coming to the emergency departments for routine Covid-19 testing by offering telehealth visits and testing with a doctor’s order at our labs. One of our intended outcomes of forming Nuvance Health is to provide more affordable care to patients by having a system of clinicians and services in the same network and through volume cost savings.”

For more, visit nuvancehealth.org.

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Staying healthy in the golden years

BY ABBE UDOCHI

Betty White once said, “I may be a senior, but so what? I'm still hot.”

She was known for her unstoppable attitude and great wit, qualities that doubtless contributed to her long and robust life.

I recently spent several wonderful days with my parents, siblings, daughter, stepson and husband. Since my octogenarian parents take a “Betty White” approach to life, the time together was filled with joy and laughter. With three generations under one roof, I found myself surrounded by great strength of spirit. Some had the advantage of youth on their side while others had the benefits of longevity. All of us understand the importance of cherishing our minds, taking care of our bodies and nourishing our souls. When our time together ended, I was grateful for the parents who raised me and the example they still provide.

Yet even a positive outlook, healthy diet and physical activity won’t prevent all ills. My family is managing high blood pressure, high cholesterol and type 2 diabetes, much like more than half of U.S. adults. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), chronic conditions affect approximately 52% of the adult population.

Illness is not failure Developing a health condition or illness with age “is not failure. It’s an inevitable part of the life course for most of us,” says Mark Lachs, M.D., co-founder, executive vice president and chief gerontological officer of Compass Care in Stamford and chief of geriatrics and palliative medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine.

By age 75, people generally develop two to three chronic medical conditions, some serious, some not. He sees his role as an orchestra leader who interprets needs and harmonizes the advice of specialists, allowing patients to “continue doing what they love.”

Lachs advises older patients to avoid unnecessary hospitalizations and take control of their care. Know what meds you take — generic and brand name — and carry a copy of your cardiogram and the latest set of lab results. A geriatric

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care manager can be your advocate. Partner with a primary care doctor to understand the rationale for every specialist and avoid dangerous overtreatment.

Keep enjoyment in your diet Eating healthfully becomes increasingly important as we age.

Pat Talio, a registered dietitian with Westmed Medical Group, says, “While nutrition guidelines for older adults must be individualized, research shows us that energy efficiency decreases in older adults. To ensure proper nutrition as we age, we need to focus on the nutrient density of the foods we eat and avoid taking in discretionary calories that lack nutritional value.”

For most people, the enjoyment of food influences quality of life. While medical conditions often dictate choices, restrictions should not inhibit pleasure. Skillful recipes make the most of “quality” foods — vegetables, whole grains, legumes, fruit, fish and other lean proteins such as poultry and low-fat dairy.

“If you experiment, you’re bound to discover that a food you’ve never tried will become a favorite and a staple,” says Talio.

Stay active Joseph Hunt, CEO and owner of Elite Fitness Professionals, is a personal trainer and corrective exercise specialist in New Rochelle who works with many older clients. He says, “As we age, the goal of physical activity becomes more focused on mobility to avoid disability so adults can age and function independently.”

A fall and possible hospitalization can significantly restrict day-to-day functioning. Reduced mobility or even losing the ability to bathe or cook for oneself may affect a person’s overall confidence and self-esteem and could lead to depression.

While many seniors stay active in their 80s and beyond, it is common to encounter some limitation. To counteract this, identify the source: Is it strength, balance, coordination, flexibility, joint range of motion, gait or cardiovascular health?

Says Hunt, “Even the least mobile individual can start training in a chair or use a railing for assistance and balance. The body is highly adap-

tive. Learn your body. Don’t try to transform it initially. The consistent effort alone will boost your self-esteem and morale.”

Healthy mind = healthy body Neglecting mental health imperils a person’s total well-being.

Faith Gunning, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology in psychiatry with the Weill Cornell Institute of Geriatric Psychiatry in White Plains, says, “There is strong evidence that individuals with untreated mental-health issues also suffer from the common health conditions that increase with age, including diabetes mellitus and heart disease.”

While the link could be genetic, a depressed person may be less likely to keep doctors' appointments, adhere to medications, engage in regular exercise, follow a healthy diet and maintain good sleep habits.

There is, she says, a paradox: “While many older adults have an increased sense of emotional well-being, those who are depressed may be less likely to respond to standard approaches, such as antidepressants. A subset of older adults with depression also experience some cognitive difficulties.”

Consequently, Gunning says, “We and others have designed and are testing cognitive and psychotherapy approaches to improve cognitive and mood symptoms.” Simple steps such as improved diet and regular exercise and remaining cognitively and socially active can aid in normal aging.

Nourish the soul Feeding the soul is equally important to all, be they people who belong to an organized religion or those who shun belief and worship.

Connections & Equipping Pastor at New Life Fellowship Church Sherin Swift notes, “Most religions challenge us to look beyond ourselves, to find our place in a larger purpose. Culture in the U.S. exalts the individual, often with disregard for others or at the cost of the larger community.”

She points out that while there is value in a shared faith that provides a clear set of values, history and a purpose for gathering, “a cure for our myopic attitude can also be found around a shared cause.”

Becoming active by joining a nonprofit organization can “keep the spirit from languishing and protect the heart from bitterness.”

Yet the self should never be neglected. Swift advises us to “invest both in ourselves and others. Some seasons of life will require more of one and less of the other, but ultimately our best work for our community comes when we’ve invested time understanding and healing our internal world.”

Caring for one’s mind, body and soul throughout life will reap rewards. It is never too late to start.

For more, visit concierge-care.com.

Actress Betty White – who died on New Year’s Eve, just 17 days short of her 100th birthday – left us a legacy of laughter and love – particularly for her feathered, furried friends – that were undoubtedly key to her longevity.

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Your home as a healthy haven

BY CAMI WEINSTEIN

With the pandemic still swirling around us, the idea of home as haven continues to have a poignant meaning.

Not only do we want to keep Covid out of our homes, we want them to be safe, healthy environments in general. Many readers have left New York City and are living in the suburbs, managing their own homes for the first time.

Perhaps it was always something they planned on doing, but the virus pushed up the timetable.

Besides hand wipes and sanitizers, there are other elements we need to keep in mind for our homes to be healthy.

If there is a presence of Radon in your prospective home, you should address it before moving in. Radon can cause lung cancer even in nonsmokers. Usually this is checked prior to a mortgage lender giving you a mortgage — as is the removal of an oil tank from the ground, where it can leak into the environment — but should you do an all-cash deal, these things would need to be addressed before any money changes hands.

Similarly, asbestos should be removed or wrapped immediately. Use a licensed professional for this job. I would not even consider removing it without a proper professional.

Your oil or gas furnace should be serviced once a year. During the service, your oil and gas company will clean your furnace and let you

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know if your burner is working properly or if it needs to be replaced.

The same goes for your chimney. Soot can build up if it’s not cleaned and cause a spontaneous fire. If the soot is building up in your chimney, you can get a smoky smell in your home. Don’t wait until that happens. (And while we’re on the subject, don’t forget to change the batteries in your smoke and carbon monoxide detectors at least once a year and to have your fire extinguishers serviced.)

Lead-based oil paint, still present in many old homes, should be removed and walls redone with latex paints or other wall coverings. We use paints with low VOCs (volatile organic compounds), which do not give off gas-toxic fumes, in my work as an interior designer. It’s healthier for your painter and your family.

Other home health and safety issues such as allergens are more insidious. To keep mold away, repair any leaks and clean vents and change filters in your HVAC units.

Pollen can easily drift into drafty, old windows. Consider replacing your windows. Not only will they prevent pollen from getting in, but they will also reduce energy consumption.

Dust mites are actually everywhere. Consider bare floors and area rugs rather than wall-towall carpeting to keep dust down, and vacuum (and dust) often. Ditto for changing linens. Indeed, Feburary is not too soon to start spring cleaning and take stock of what you need to change in your home’s hygiene.

Many of us have had pets join our families during the pandemic. As wonderful as they are, they need to be brushed and cared for. Here vacuuming can keep pet hair and dander down.

Keep your appliances clean and in good working order. There are several service companies that can come out to your home and clean your appliances. Consider getting your outdoor grill cleaned, too. Don’t let charred drippings build up in your BBQ. Although we have talked about keeping the inside of your home fresh, your yard is another area to keep clean and organized year-round.

Driveways and walkways should be cleared of snow and ice and any outdoor furnishings that can’t be brought in should be polished, covered and anchored for their long winter’s nap.

Good spring and fall cleanups clear your property of fallen debris. Have leaves raked and removed to prevent them from rotting and creating more mold. Remove leaves and branches from your roof and gutters so that sun can shine in and keep your home dry.

Maintain your hardscapes. You don’t want to fall or have a guest fall on cracked or broken pathway and patio pavements.

As you can see, owning a home is a lot of work, but it can also be rewarding emotionally as well as financially. Take care of your investment and it will take care of you, providing you and your family with many years of enjoyment.

For more, call 914-447-6904 or email Cami@camidesigns.com.

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Carved Wood Phrenology Head, New England, a life-size, painted and carved wood bust with incised labeled regions of the cranium and eyes painted brown, mounted to a mahogany cove-molded base (height 12 inches). Sold

by Hill Gallery, Birmingham, Michigan, to a private Massachusetts collector.

Recently sold at auction by Skinner Inc. for $5,535.

A ‘head’ for medical collectibles

BY KATIE BANSER-WHITTLE

CT scans, MRIs, laser treatments, robotic surgery: Modern medicine offers so many near-miraculous and sometimes mysterious ways to diagnose and treat “whatever ails us.” But these are just the latest chapters in the ages-old pursuit of health. That quest has left a legacy of medical antiques and collectibles that are sometimes beautiful, intriguing, even useful — and occasionally valuable.

Starting at the top, various models of the human head were once widely used to study a variety of conditions. The 19th century pseudoscience called phrenology, literally “mind science,” interpreted the shape and size of a person’s head as an indication of character, thoughts, emotions and mental abilities. Phrenology heads made of wood, plaster, ceramics or papier-mâché were carefully labeled to show the supposed meaning of every bump, such as kindness, sense of humor, etc.

Other model heads include craniometers, for precise measurement of the various features of the skull, and medical teaching heads.

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These life-size, anatomically correct objects were designed to be taken apart and reassembled by medical students.

Another antique head trip was the rectifier or rectificateur, an early 20th century metal device meant to be strapped on the face to rectify or realign a broken or misshapen nose.

One popular model was the French, gold-plated “Nice-nose,” with a hefty original price tag of $12 ($200 or more in today’s currency).

The actual medicines used by earlier generations have rarely survived and don’t generally have much value except as curiosities. However, information about them in the form of books such as herbals, or the containers that held these remedies, can be highly collectible.

Before prepackaged medications came from the chain drugstore or the mail-order pharmacy, people got their pills and potions from the doctor himself, or the apothecary store. Large display containers made of ceramics or glass had their contents impressively labeled in Latin. Some had hand-painted scenes that were in effect advertisements for the particular remedy.

A wide variety of medical equipment used by doctors in the treatment of their patients has survived. Some are notable for their

weirdness by today’s standards — storage containers for leeches used for various medical treatments since the days of ancient Egypt; (leeches are still occasionally used medically today in certain surgical procedures); 18th and 19th century metal bleeding bowls marked like measuring cups to monitor the volume of blood being removed; primitive surgical tools made of flint or obsidian.

Among the most-collected medical antiques is the equipment employed by Civil War military doctors. The huge numbers of wounded spurred significant advances in treatment and care, especially innovations in surgery. Rapidly industrializing production methods led to considerable improvements in the quality and quantity of instruments. Since many physicians entered the war bringing their own equipment with them, entire surgical sets have survived, as have the names of their owners.

Health care is one of the most dynamic, rapidly changing sectors of modern life. The items it has left behind are often as fascinating as the future of medical science.

For more, contact Katie at kwhittle@skinnerinc.com or 212-787-1114.

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A few of the wonderful wines Long Island wineries are producing now.

A short history of Long Island wines STORY AND PHOTOGRAPH BY DOUG PAULDING In Europe, the wine-world timeline is measured in centuries and many generations. In the Americas, this same timeline is measured in decades and might include a couple of generations. In Europe, a plot of vineyard-appropriate land might have been bestowed upon a titled baron, count or duke. In the Americas, the plot of vineyard land was probably purchased by forward-thinking parents or maybe grandparents. The state of New York is third in U.S. wine production by volume, behind California and Washington. And although Long Island has only relatively recently entered into the winemaking world, it is a major producer within New York state.

Many of the 57 Long Island wineries began as potato farms, picked up in the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s from some hardworking farmer looking to retire. Some grape vines were planted and winemaking skills were developed. It became somewhat clear that the soil of the region combined with the relative temperate weather supported by the Atlantic Ocean, with its nearby warming Gulf Stream and Long Island Sound, could be a gold mine for quality wine production. It takes time for any wine region to hit its stride for several reasons. Long Island wineries began as a fantasy idea without much wine knowledge. Doctors and IBMers adopted that Nike “Just do it” attitude without much industry experience. Of course, even under the best conditions, it takes time and experience to make quality wines. Additionally, discovering the proper grape for each specific location is key.

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The specific soil types and the micro climate might be perfect for one varietal and almost toxic for another. And finally, it takes time for the vines’ roots to penetrate to depths necessary for tolerating weather extremes but also for extraction of different soil and rock flavors that will complement that wine.

All the grape-growing literature available says it takes three years minimum to get a proper harvest from a nascent vineyard. But it actually takes decades for proper vine maturity for flavor and terroir extraction from the earth. I traveled to Montefalco in Umbria, Italy, two years ago and tasted many of its Sagrantinos, a bold red wine for which the region is known. I had tasted many of these at a New York-guided tasting a decade earlier and all of them were so tannic they were difficult to taste without food, which helps bond with and soften tannins. I asked several producers in the Montefalco region how their wines became so much better and so mouthfeel-pleasant, and they all said the same thing: The roots of the vines now have proper depth.

About a decade ago I traveled to Long Island and visited a couple of wineries and tasted several other Long Island wines. Everything I tasted was adequate and little more. I was asked recently if I would be interested in receiving six bottles from six different Long Island wineries. I responded with an enthusiastic “yes.” At liwines. com, there are direct links to many of the wineries’ websites where you can order wine or

plan a visit. Each winery has its specific rules.

Some allow walk-in tastings. Others require reservations. Some allow buses, limos and vans and others emphatically do not. Some have restaurants and some have overnight accommodations. Familiarizing yourself with the hosts before hand would be beneficial.

The Macari Vineyards on the North Fork of Long Island may be the most beautiful grape-growing estate out there. Situated on an elevated bluff adjacent to Long Island Sound, this cultivated and elegant 500 acres is now being run by two generations working together.

The 2020 Macari “Katherine’s Field” Sauvignon Blanc will stand up to any SB of the world. Flavors of citrus and lemon zest, pineapple, crisp clean fruit with tropical floral notes will greet you. At 12.6% ABV (Alcohol By Volume), lively and lovely, this is a wonderful waterfront wine and a perfect evening “greeter” wine.

The Paumanok Vineyards 2020 Chenin Blanc is dry, yet fruity with lemon citrus and orange flowers with a zingy tartness and a lingering mouthfeel/finish — delish. Paumanok wines are made from the grapes grown on its 80-acre plot. Proprietors Charles and Ursula Massoud, along with the Macaris, are some of the original wine producers on the island.

The Sannino Vineyard 2020 Chilly Day Chardonnay is fresh and spicy with notes of finely ground white pepper and is worthy. The Sannino family purchased an existing winery in 2006 and joined the party. Look for this Chilly Day Chardonnay to serve with your next fish meal.

The Palmer Vineyards 2019 Pinot Blanc shows a balanced and pleasant tartness with Meyer lemon notes and a peppery, allspice flavor — tasty and satisfying.

The 2015 Lenz Winery Merlot shows dark fruit, blackberry, plum with balanced tannins and great oak texture, meaning the oak presence is felt but does not overtly flavor the wine.

Rich and full-bodied, this wine can be opened now or cellared for a decade or more.

And finally I tasted the Rose Hill Vineyards 2019 Wild Boar Doe. This Bordeaux varietal creates a dark fruitiness with an earthy and peppery presence. Mourvèdre (Monastrell in Spain) is often a grape used to add texture and a velvety mouthfeel to the wine. There is none in this wine, but it feels that way. Again, tasty and worthy.

All of these wines are delicious, respectable and well-priced. All the whites retail for around $25 with the two reds at $45 for the Wild Boar Doe and $35 for the Lenz. They can all be consumed on their own or paired with a meal. Virtually all of the wineries are pursuing organic, sustainable and responsible grape-growing practices that are earth-friendly. Welcome Long Island. You have earned your place on the world-wine stage.

Write me at doug@dougpaulding.com.

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WHEN & WHERE THROUGH FEB. 19 “The 42nd Annual Photography Show” at the Carriage Barn Arts Center features a selection of images chosen from submissions by professional, amateur and student photographers. The criteria for this exhibit includes elements such as creativity, style, composition, color balance, presentation, focal point, lighting, subject matter, narrative, and degree of difficulty.

The juror, Platon, is an ASME Award-winning photographer who has created portraits for a range of international publications, including Rolling Stone, The New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, Esquire, GQ and The New Yorker. 1 to 3 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays and 1 to 5 p.m Sundays.

681 South Ave., New Canaan; 203-594-3638, carriagebarn.org

THROUGH FEB. 4

Harrison Public Library presents “Botanical Anatomy” by Monique Ford. This series of paintings and works on paper depicts relationships and the tension among them. 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., 2 Bruce Ave.; harrisonpl.org

THROUGH FEB. 26

The Rye Arts Center offers “Alvin and Friends,” an exhibit of diverse works by Alvin Clayton and other emerging Black artists in Westchester County. Times vary, 51 Milton Road; 914-967-0700, ryeartscenter. org

FEB. 2

Keb’ Mo’ Solo, the five-time Grammy Award winner and modern master of American roots music, returns to FTC The Warehouse for a special and intimate solo acoustic show. Keb’ brings to music a big backbeat and an injection of everything from soul to country blues. 8 p.m. Fairfield Theatre Company, 70 Sanford St.; 203-2591036, fairfieldtheatre.org

FEB. 3 THROUGH MARCH 10

The Norwalk Art Space hosts an exhibit of quilts and other artworks by Lizzy Rockwell and her friends and family. Opening reception 6 to 9 p.m. Feb. 3 with music

by DJ Hauswife and Quiltet. It’s limited to 50 guests per one-hour session. Proof of vaccination and masks required. Artist talk 1 p.m. Feb. 6. 455 West Ave.; 203-252-2840, thenorwalkartspace.org

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Feb. 2: Keb’ Mo’ Solo, the five-time Grammy Award winner, returns to FTC The Warehouse for a special and intimate solo acoustic show.

FEB. 3 THROUGH MARCH 16

The Flinn Gallery at Greenwich Library presents “Just Shoes: Where Art, Craft and Fantasy Meet,” an exhibit featuring more than 70 shoes by 20 artists. Curators Debra Fram and Barbara Richards selected the works on display from a larger collection of fantasy shoes commissioned by Jane Gershon Weitzman, former executive vice president of Stuart Weitzman. “Cobbled” together from an array of materials and forms, blending traditional craftsmanship with the unexpected, these shoes are artistic one-offs. Opening reception 6 to 8 p.m. Feb. 3. 10 to 5 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays and 1 to 5 p.m. Sundays with evening hours until 8 p.m. Thursdays. 101 W. Putnam Ave., second floor; 203-622-7947, flinngallery.com

FEB. 3 THROUGH MARCH 25

Housatonic Museum of Art, on the Housatonic Community College campus in Bridgeport, presents “Making Your Mark: Prints and Drawings From the Hechinger Collection.” Organized by International Arts & Artists, the exhibit showcases 50 prints and drawings that sample the

breadth of International Arts & Artists’ own Hechinger Collection. Some of the most influential artists of the 20th century are featured, including Berenice Abbott, Jim Dine, Richard Estes, Walker Evans, Howard Finster, Ke Francis, Jacob Lawrence, Hans Namuth, Claes Oldenburg, James Rosenquist, Lucas Samaras, Aaron Siskind and Wayne Thiebaud. 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays; 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursdays; and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays. 900 Lafayette Blvd.; 203-332-5052, Housatonicmuseum. org

FEB. 6

The Ridgefield Playhouse celebrates the history of Jethro Tull in Martin Barre’s “Tour of Tours.” The show features music and highlights of the band’s 50-year musical career in a special multimedia presentation.

Joined by a group that includes longtime Tull bandmates Dee Palmer and Clive Bunker, the show includes such classic Tull hits as “Aqualung,” “Bungle in the Jungle” and “Cross-Eyed Mary.” 8 to 10 p.m. 80 East Ridge; 203-438-5795, ridgefieldplayhouse.org

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WHEN & WHERE

FEB. 8

ArtsWestchester holds a Valentine’s Day celebration and workshop for children ages 12 through 16. Teaching artist Aisha Nailah will guide participants on how to create a fun piece of art inspired by the upcoming holiday. 4:30 p.m. at White Plains City Center, 3rd floor; artsw.org

FEB. 9

Downtown Music at Grace features a concert by mezzo-soprano Hailey McAvoy and pianist Ryan MacEvoy McCullough.

These artists will perform the song cycle “Les nuits d’été” by the French composer Hector Berlioz. Noon, 33 Church St., White Plains; dtmusic.org Jacob Burns Film Center presents a screening of National Theater’s “A View From the Bridge.” Arthur Miller’s play, which was filmed onstage at London’s West End, takes audiences to Brooklyn, where longshoreman Eddie Carbone (Mark Strong, whose recent works include “Cruella” and the “Kingsman” movies) welcomes his Sicilian cousins – until one of them takes an interest in his niece. 2 to 4:45 p.m., 364 Manville Road, Pleasantville; burnsfilmcenter.org

FEB. 9 THROUGH MAY 22 Hudson River Museum presents “The World of Frida,” an exhibit of works that explore the Mexican artist, including pieces inspired by her life, Mexico and more. Noon to 5 p.m., 511 Warburton Ave., Yonkers; hrm.org

FEB. 12 Emelin Theatre presents “Be My Valentine,” an evening of love songs performed by singer and songwriter Lisa Fischer. 8 p.m.,153 Library Lane, Mamaroneck; 914698-0098, emelin.org

FEB. 13

First Church Congregational Church, Fairfield presents Renee Anne Louprette.

Hailed by The New York Times as “splendid” and “one of New York’s finest organists,” Louprette has established an international career as organ recitalist, conductor and teacher. Since 2019, Louprette has been assistant professor of music and college organist at Bard College, where she directs

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Feb. 13: First Church Congregational Church, Fairfield presents organist Renee Anne Louprette.

the Bard Baroque Ensemble. 4 to 5:30 p.m.

148 Beach Road, Fairfield; 203-259-8396, ext. 102, firstchurchfairfield.org

Black Rock Turnpike, Fairfield; 203-247-6907, americanchamberorchestra.org

Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra & Keeler Tavern Museum and History Center present “Music at the Museum,” featuring Harmonia V performing pieces by Ravel, Debussy and two Connecticut composers, Joseph Russo and Gwyneth Walker – both of whom are scheduled to attend the concert. 4 p.m.

Keeler Tavern Museum & History Center, 123 Main St., Ridgefield; 203-438-3889, ridgefieldsymphony.org

Stamford Symphony presents “The Roaring Twenties” at The Palace Theatre in Stamford. Grammy Award winner and New York native Vince Giordano joins The Nighthawks and vocalist Barbara Rosene in recreating this pivotal decade in American history. 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. 61 Atlantic St.; 203-325-4466, or stamfordsymphony.org

FEB. 17

The Quick Center for the Arts at Fairfield University continues its tradition of circus and family fare with Circa-Humans 2.0, a contemporary company from Australia that seeks to redefine the circus. 8 to 9:15 p.m.

1073 North Benson Road; 203-254-4010, quickboxoffice@fairfield.edu

FEB. 25 THROUGH 27 Musicians ages 12 through 18 take part in the American Chamber Orchestra’s 12th Concerto Competition at Faust Harrison Pianos in Fairfield. The preliminary competition is on Friday and Saturday evenings, with finalists performing in a recital on Sunday. Three winners will be chosen to play their selections with the orchestra at its spring season finale. 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. 322

FEB. 26

FEB. 27

At The Westport Library, composer Barbara Backlar Reis and lyricist Nancy Becklean Tobin presents songs and commentary from “My Millionaire (The Currency of Love),” a musical based on Mark Twain’s short story “The Million Pound Bank Note.” The show, with musical direction by Chris Coogan, explores the themes of money and power and how people behave toward those who possess them. A discussion on the themes with local writer and workshop instructor Jan Bassin will follow the performance. 11 a.m. to 12:20 p.m. 20 Jesup Road; 203-291-4800, westportlibrary.org Presented by ArtsWestchester (artswestchester.org) and the Cultural Alliance of Fairfield County (culturalalliancefc.org).

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