Anne's Arts & Activities Blog

Bradford Regional Medical Center (BRMC), a member of Upper Allegheny Health System (UAHS), posted a surplus of $2,078,035 in 2014. The announcement was part of Wednesday’s presentation at the Bradford Club by Timothy J. Finan, President and CEO of BRMC and Upper Allegheny Health System, before an audience of more than 100 community members at the hospital’s Annual Meeting. Finan reported the surplus on hospital revenues of $70,826,456 in 2014. It was the fourth consecutive year BRMC has posted an operating surplus. Finan said the four years of surpluses came after several consecutive years of losses by the hospital prior to the formation of Upper Allegheny Health System. “The formation of Upper Allegheny Health System has provided $4 million of financial benefit annually to our member hospitals,” Finan said in a news release provided to WESB. “Had it not been for the formation of UAHS, our hospitals would no doubt be in a difficult place today.” While pleased with the re...

OLEAN, NY - Upper Allegheny Health System (UAHS), parent company of Olean General Hospital and Bradford Regional Medical Center, elected its 2015 Board of Directors Officers at the organization’s annual meeting January 28. Five Board members were re-elected to three-year terms. The new officers include: Board Chair, Brenda McGee, Senior Vice President, Finance and Administration, St. Bonaventure University; Vice Chair, Muhammed Javed, M.D., Nephrologist at Olean General Hospital and Bradford Regional Medical Center; Secretary, Richard Roupe, Chief Financial Officer, Zippo Manufacturing Company; Treasurer, Martin Digel, President and CEO, Hamlin Bank and Trust. These individuals were also elected as Board officers of Olean General Hospital and Bradford Regional Medical Center. Prior to her election as Board Chair, Ms. McGee served as Vice Chair of the UAHS Board of Directors, Olean General Hospital Board of Directors and Bradford Regional Medical Center Board of Directors. ...

Parents of a 16-year-old high school football player who died after being tackled during a game at Portville High School last fall have filed a lawsuit against the school districts, Olean General Hospital, the Westons Mills fire department and others. Damon Janes was playing for Westfield-Brocton when he fell unconscious on September 13, 2013. He died three days later in Women & Children’s Hospital in Buffalo. The lawsuit says Damon suffered one or more concussions in the first half of the game, but was expected to remain on the field. After the hit to his head in the third quarter, he staggered off the field, sat on the bench, said a few words to a teammate, and then collapsed. He never regained consciousness. The lawsuit say the Portville school district did not have medical personnel nearby who were capable of dealing with a seriously injured player, and also blocked the Westons Mills ambulance from driving onto the field because they didn't want to damage it. The suite ...

The former pediatric nurse who was found with hundreds of images of child pornography on his home computer has been sentenced to 7 ½ years in state prison. 47-year-old Willie Reid was a nurse at Olean General Hospital when he was picked up in a nationwide sting operation last year. When his computer was seized in May of 2013 he had more than 600 images and videos of children involved in sex acts, some younger than 12. Some of the acts depicted violence as well. Reid, who had worked at Olean General since 2000, was suspended from his job after charges were filed. OGH Nurse Accused of Distributing Child Porn -- May 2013 The news leader of the Twin Tiers ... since 1947

Three people were hurt – one seriously – in a three car-crash at 11 o’clock this morning on Route 16 in Franklinville. State police say a vehicle driven by 29-year-old Erica Dainotto of Machias cross the center line and hit two other vehicles. Dainotto sustained multiple injuries and was taken by Mercy Flight to ECMC in Buffalo, where she is in serious condition. The driver of the second vehicle, 58-year-old Thomas Young of Hamburg, was taken by ambulance to Bertrand Chafee Hospital in Springville with neck pain. The third driver, 36-year-old Jill Davidson of Clarence Center, was taken by ambulance to Olean General Hospital, also with neck pain. Dainotto was charged with failure to keep right, and troopers say other possible charges are pending. The news leader of the Twin Tiers ... since 1947

OLEAN, NY -- Upper Allegheny Health System (UAHS) has announced the appointment of Gail A. Bagazzoli, BSN, RN, to serve as Vice President of Quality for UAHS and member hospitals Bradford Regional Medical Center and Olean General Hospital. Her responsibilities will include oversight of all aspects of quality management, patient safety, performance improvement, risk management and infection control at both hospitals. Mrs. Bagazzoli has served in numerous capacities at Olean General Hospital for nearly 33 years including Infection Prevention and Control Manager, Emergency Department Nurse Manager, Employee Health and Occupation Wellness Center Manager, Manager of Education and Training, and Manager of Nursing Education. Presently, Mrs. Bagazzoli serves as a board member of the Greater Buffalo Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology and currently holds the role of President with the Kathi Ward Foundation Board of Directors. Bagazzoli earned her B...

On Friday afternoon, 500 employees, physicians and friends of Olean General Hospital, all decked in red shirts, gathered to form a giant heart on the front lawn of the hospital. A photograph of the “People Art Heart” formation was taken from a cherry picker high above in cooperation with Patty’s People Pictures. It was all part of a celebration of the accreditation of the hospital’s Chest Pain Center and the launch next month of Olean General Hospital’s interventional cardiac catheterization program in partnership with Kaleida Health’s Gates Vascular Institute. Through its Chest Pain Center and with the opening of the new interventional catheterization lab, Olean General Hospital can now find and treat heart problems, sparing patients from having to drive to larger cities for heart care. The news leader of the Twin Tiers ... since 1947

OLEAN, NY – Registered nurses at Olean General Hospital will hold an informational picket in front of the hospital on Wed., June 19 from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. The 220 RNs, who are members of the New York State Nurses Association, have been in contract negotiations with the hospital since November of last year. NYSNA is proposing safe minimum staffing levels at Olean General Hospital to ensure safe care for patients. New nurses are being forced to take on too many patients at one time, and they are burning out -- making recruitment and retention an ongoing problem and financial burden for the hospital. Patient safety is the nurses’ primary concern, but being forced to care for too many patients at one time puts that safety in jeopardy. Nurses have expressed that they often leave their shift “feeling like I did the very best I could do – with very little staff.” When planning RN staffing, acuity, or severity of illness, must be considered. The hospital currently staffs its units ba...

Bradford Regional Medical Center (BRMC) and Olean General Hospital (OGH), members of the Upper Allegheny Health System, have successfully incorporated the Modified Early Warning System (MEWS) into their existing Electronic Health Records system. MEWS is a scoring system that provides early warning and recognition to nurses and physicians about patients who are deteriorating physically so that appropriate medical interventions can be taken to help prevent cardiac arrests and other sudden life threatening events. The MEWS system signals nurses and physicians to potential patient problems based on the assignment of an aggregate score based upon a patient’s vital signs. Decision support capability embedded within the two hospitals’ electronic health record systems automatically calculates a MEWS score and signals any need for medical interventions. At OGH and BRMC, a MEWS score is calculated for patients based upon multiple vital signs that include: systolic blood pressure, heart rate,...