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Ken Hamilton Caregivers Center

Northern Westchester Hospital Receives The Healthgrades Outstanding Patient Experience Award ™ 2019

June 4, 2019 by The Inside Press

Mt. Kisco, New York— Northern Westchester Hospital has received The Healthgrades Outstanding Patient Experience Award™ 2019, which recognizes hospitals for outstanding performance in delivering a positive experience for patients during their hospital stay. The annual award given by Healthgrades, a leading online resource for information about physicians and hospitals, recognizes hospitals around the country that make patient safety a top priority and provide an outstanding patient experience.

“We are delighted to be recognized with this important award,” said Maria Hale, PsyD, MBA, Associate Executive Director at NWH. “As a teaching hospital and nationally recognized leader for patient-centered care, NWH is committed to creating innovative programs and services that are fundamentally attentive to the needs of our patients and their families.

Our patients’ health and well-being is our top priority, and we strive to provide our patients and their families with the best possible experience. We have a number of programs in place including the Ken Hamilton Caregivers Center, the Aranow Art Cart, our Food is Care program, Pet Therapy and Integrative Medicine, which support the delivery of patient-centered care, which we believe is essential in ensuring the best outcomes for our patients and their families.”

In 2019, 434 hospitals received The Healthgrades Outstanding Patient Experience Award™, representing the top 15 percent of hospitals in the nation for patient experience. As part of the analysis, Healthgrades evaluated 3,449 hospitals that submitted at least 100 patient experience surveys to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), covering admissions from January 2017 through December 2017 to identify hospital performance in this area.

“Consumers are becoming more involved in their own health care, and are spending more time researching and selecting the right provider and hospital for their specific needs. Healthgrades Outstanding Patient Experience Award™ highlights the hospitals that are making patient experience a priority and will help patients feel confident to make more informed decisions about their health care,” said Brad Bowman, MD, Chief Medical officer, Healthgrades.

Healthgrades evaluated hospital performance by applying a scoring methodology to nine patient experience measures, using data collected from a 32-question patient experience survey of the hospital’s own patients. The survey questions focus on patients’ perspectives of their care in the hospital, ranging from cleanliness and noise levels in patient rooms to factors such as provider communication. The measures also include whether a patient would recommend the hospital to friends or family.

Healthgrades found that 81 percent of patients would recommend Northern Westchester Hospital, 11 percent higher than the national average. It also found that 79 percent of patients gave the hospital a rating of nine or 10, 10 percent higher than the national average.

This is the third year that Northern Westchester Hospital was awarded Healthgrades Outstanding Patient Experience Award ™. It also received Healthgrades Stroke Care Excellence Award in 2019, 2018 and 2017.

For more information about Patient Centered Care and Innovation at NWH, visit https://nwhc.net/about-us/patient-centered-care.

About Northern Westchester Hospital

Northern Westchester Hospital (NWH), a member of Northwell Health, provides quality, patient-centered care that is close to home through a unique combination of medical expertise, leading-edge technology, and a commitment to humanity. Over 650 highly-skilled physicians, state-of-the-art technology and professional staff of caregivers are all in place to ensure that you and your family receive treatment in a caring, respectful and nurturing environment. NWH has established extensive internal quality measurements that surpass the standards defined by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Hospital Quality Alliance (HQA) National Hospital Quality Measures. Our high-quality standards help to ensure that the treatment you receive at NWH is among the best in the nation. For more information, please visit www.nwhc.net and connect with us on Facebook

 About Northwell Health

Northwell Health is New York State’s largest health care provider and private employer, with 23 hospitals, about 750 outpatient facilities and more than 13,600 affiliated physicians. We care for over two million people annually in the New York metro area and beyond, thanks to philanthropic support from our communities. Our 69,000 employees – 16,000-plus nurses and 4,000 employed doctors, including members of Northwell Health Physician Partners – are working to change health care for the better. We’re making breakthroughs in medicine at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research. We’re training the next generation of medical professionals at the visionary Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell and the Hofstra Northwell School of Graduate Nursing and Physician Assistant Studies. For information on our more than 100 medical specialties, visit Northwell.edu.

Filed Under: Sponsor News! Tagged With: award, health, health care provider, healthgrades, hospital, Ken Hamilton Caregivers Center, Local, nationally recognized, Northern Westchester Hospital, Northwell, Patient Experience, patient-centered care, teaching hospital

Caring for Caregivers

December 1, 2016 by Deborah Raider Notis

marian-loreal-mainIn 2002, Marian Hamilton, a guidebook writer, community volunteer, and mother of two teenage daughters, took on a new role. Her husband, Ken Hamilton, was diagnosed with mesothelioma, a fatal form of cancer, and she became his primary caregiver. Ken’s illness and her role as a caregiver left a lasting impact on Hamilton, and in 2005, she founded the Ken Hamilton Caregivers Center at Northern Westchester Hospital.

“People do not consider the physical, emotional, and financial toll that illness can take on the caregiver,” states Hamilton, who gained 20 pounds, went on anti-depressants, and wound up in the hospital, several times from exhaustion and depression. Hamilton’s husband was in four different hospitals in the New York metropolitan area. In addition to that non-stop stress, they had two teenage daughters at home.

When Ken passed away in 2004, Hamilton needed a change. The author of The Best of Westchester and The Best Things in New York Are Free was an active community volunteer who was serving on the Mount Kisco Child Care Board and co-chairing the Armonk Outdoor Art Show. But she needed to do something different; she decided to find a way to give caregivers the help that she couldn’t find throughout her husband’s illness.

Hamilton understood, firsthand, that caregivers need guidance and sounding boards, help navigating the hospital and medical world, and need to escape the sounds and smells of the hospital, even momentarily. In 2005, she approached Joel Seligman, President of the Northern Westchester Hospital. She made a presentation to his administrative team. She said, “They saw a need to help hospitals take care of families, but they were not financially equipped to do it.” Hamilton quickly implemented a fundraising campaign, and within six months she raised approximately $500,000 towards this project.

In January 2006, Hamilton and three volunteers started working with families. While the center was not yet built, they were able to implement a program to help families in need. Today, 10 years later, there is a physical center with over 30 volunteers and two social workers employed by the Ken Hamilton Caregivers Center. In the past 10 years, volunteers and social workers have interacted with over 50,000 families. “We make connections with families so that they do not feel isolated, we provide an extra set of ears during meetings with the medical team, we provide information on healthcare proxies and living wills, we help caregivers speak to children about illness, and we provide family meetings to help with care plans,” says Hamilton. And this is just a handful of the services that the center provides. They also offer bereavement counseling, support for caregivers with patients living at home, and a “Stay in Touch Program,” designed to follow up with caregivers after patients leave the hospital. “We don’t want caregivers to feel isolated,” stresses Hamilton.

Marian Hamilton founded the Ken Hamilton Caregivers Center in 2006.
Marian Hamilton founded the Ken Hamilton Caregivers Center in 2006.

Hamilton, who currently works part-time as the overseer and as a volunteer at the Ken Hamilton Caregivers Center, has taken her model to other hospitals as well. Now over 11 hospitals have their own fully independent caregiver centers. From White Plains Hospital in Westchester County to Mercy Medical in Iowa, hospitals are replicating Hamilton’s model to “provide more respite care for families.”

“We make connections with families so that they do not feel isolated, we provide an extra set of ears during meetings with the medical team, we provide information on healthcare proxies and living wills, we help caregivers speak to children about illness, and we provide family meetings to help with care plans,” says Hamilton.

Since its inception, the center has received seven awards, including the 2006 Planetree National Spirit of Caring Award for Best Program for Family Friends and Social Support and the 2014 Caregiver Action Network: Top Caregiver award for Excellence in Patient and Family Engagement. This year, Hamilton was personally honored with the 2016 L’Oreal Women of Worth Award. Hamilton, one of 6,200 nominees, is one of the top 10 honorees and earned a $10,000 grant for the Ken Hamilton Caregivers Center.

Going forward, Hamilton hopes to continue to make a difference in the lives of caregivers, noting, “Caregivers are a silent population in this country. Over 65 million people–29 percent of the population– are currently providing care to a loved one.” That is an overwhelming number of people who would greatly benefit from a connection to the Ken Hamilton Caregivers Center.

Deborah Notis is a writer and co-owner of gamechangernow.com, a free referral service connecting Westchester families to highly qualified instructors. Her writing can be found in the Inside publications as well as on suburbanmisfitmom.com.

Filed Under: Armonk Cover Stories Tagged With: Caring, Family, Ken Hamilton Caregivers Center, Marian Hamilton, Northern Westchester Hospital, Social Support

Twigs Presents NWH with $100,000 Gift

May 16, 2016 by Inside Press

May 11, Armonk– At an annual awards luncheon, Twigs President Maureen Kilfoyle presented a check of $100,000 to Joel Seligman, hospital president and CEO.This donation, made in honor of the hospital’s 100 years of care in the community, will be allocated between two programs: the Cancer Health and Wellness Program and the Ken Hamilton Caregivers Center; both benefit many members of the community.

Twigs President Maureen Kilfoyle presenting the $100,000 donation to Joel Seligman, NWH president and CEO.
Twigs President Maureen Kilfoyle presenting the $100,000 donation to Joel Seligman, NWH president and CEO.

Since opening the Thriftree thrift shop in 1964, Twigs has donated a total of $3,281,000 to Northern Westchester Hospital.

Displays highlighted the efforts of Twigs volunteers in creating layettes for newborns in the hospital’s Prenatal Care Center, in creating tray favors for patients; and sewing cough pillows for surgery patients.

In addition, 25 volunteers were honored at the Whippoorwill Club for their increased levels of service hours, notably Judy McGrath (3,000 hours), Mary Santore (2,500 hours), Betsy Towl and Virginia Yensco (1,500 hours). Twig volunteers donated a total of 9,829 hours to operate the shop.

Twigs is a not-for-profit organization of volunteers dedicated to raising funds for Northern Westchester Hospital, principally by operating the Thrift Shop. They also make comfort items for patients.

Filed Under: North Castle Releases Tagged With: Cancer Health and Wellness, Ken Hamilton Caregivers Center, Northern Westchester Hospital, Twigs

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