Anne's Arts & Activities Blog

A box truck got stuck under a flatbed truck in a three-vehicle crash Tuesday afternoon in Warren County. Police say the box truck driven by 18-year-old Nikalas Guadagnino of Kane hit the flatbed after failing to slow down at the intersection of Route 6 and Griff Hill Road in Mead Township. Guadagnino and his 16-year-old passenger, Ryan Alenali of Kane, had to be freed from the truck by EMS personnel, and were then taken by Star Flight and Life Star helicopters to UPMC Hamot in Erie for treatment of major injuries. After being hit by the box truck, the flatbed hit a pickup truck driven by 44-year-old Lars Olsson of Mount Jewett. Neither Olsson nor the flatbed driver, 44-year-old Scott Stillson of Warren, were hurt. Police are continuing their investigation. The news leader of the Twin Tiers ... since 1947

Highmark and UPMC have reached a comprehensive transition agreement that covers how and where patients can receive health care after the contract between the two organizations expires next year. The agreement between the healthcare giants addresses vulnerable populations, emergency services, cancer patients, unique hospitals and doctors, and includes a one year safety net for any existing patient who cannot find alternative doctors and services. While the agreement is not an extension of the current contract between Highmark and UPMC, it does preserve in-network access to specialty hospitals, emergency rooms and certain treatment facilities. And, it addresses coverage for Medicare. Senator Sean Wiley of Erie says the agreement will have a significant economic impact on the region. "Another element of this is, UPMC Hamot is the only trauma care hospital in the area, and so when you have that element to it, it's just the responsible thing to do to make sure we have thi...

An assault near the Bradford Area Public Library has landed a couple of Hinsdale residents in McKean County Jail. City police responded to a report of a fight outside the library early Saturday morning, and found a person with head injuries lying motionless on the ground. The person, who they didn’t identify, was taken to UPMC Hamot for reconstructive surgery on a broken eye socket. When police arrived on the scene they also saw Evan Fields, Heather Powley and another person behind the library. Fields and Powley are each charged with aggravated assault and reckless endangerment. The news leader of the Twin Tiers ... since 1947

KANE -- On Friday, May 17, all day, Zook Motors, Inc. and Ford Motors Company are sponsoring a DRIVE 4 UR COMMUNITY to benefit Kane Community Hospital. They will donate $20 for every test-drive done on Friday up to 300, with a goal of earning $6,000 for the KCH Futures Fund and the KCH Cafe Makeover Project. KCH has already entered a Ford photo contest that gives the Hospital a chance to double the Drive total. We have a potential $12,000 riding on your support. So come to the KCH Parking Lot, anytime from 6:30 a.m. to 7 p.m., and drive the Ford vehicle of your choice from Zook's impressive lineup. Test drives take about 10 minutes --You register, you drive, you complete a survey. No sales pitch or pressure. So come drive for your community and help KCH reach the goal of 300 test-drives. There is grass/field parking for your vehicles while you drive and participate in other activities. Also at the event will be a bake sale, a Chinese auction, and some tickets rema...

Someone robbed an Erie hotel where families of patients at UPMC Hamot frequently stay. At around 2 o’clock this morning a black man jumped over the counter at the Avalon Hotel and took an undisclosed amount of money from a cash register. Police say the man had a knife. They are continuing their investigation.

Authorities are continuing to search for a Warren County Jail inmate who escaped from custody while being treated at UPMC Hamot Saturday afternoon. 53-year-old John Allcorn was being treated for possible stroke systems and heart issues. Allcorn is 5 feet 11 inches tall and weighs about 170 pounds. He had been in jail since August 5 when he was jailed for a parole violation for a simple assault charge.

A Victorian Tea hosted for the young at heart was enjoyed by about 90 guests. It is the first tea by the KCH Employee Action Team, an event the group hopes will become an annual event to raise money for projects that enhance patient care and services at Kane Community Hospital, an affiliate of UPMC Hamot. The Tea was held at First Baptist Church Fellowship Hall on Sunday afternoon. Guests from Johnsonburg, Mt. Jewett, Sheffield, Kane and all parts in between attended. For dozens of little girls, it was a first formal tea party. Many guests wore beautiful dresses, hats or other hair ornament, gloves, and at least one tiara. Guests enjoyed an array of tea sandwiches and cookies, and a few extras along with tea or punch, conversation, and formal and informal photo shots. This year's proceeds benefit a planned KCH Cafe Makeover that will provide patients and their families an updated food service delivery and gathering space. Event Coordinator Sue Singer, LPN and office...

With the opening of UPMC Hamot Medical Park - Mt. Jewett (at 18 W. Main Street), a service of Kane Community Hospital, now two physician assistants are providing primary care in addition to Linda Rettger, MD, family medicine and Mohammed Suddle, MD, internal medicine. Eric Asp, PA-C has worked with Dr. Rettger at KCH’s community clinic in Mt. Jewett for four years. "The move to the new facility on Main Street," Eric noted "will offer the same high quality, caring staff who have served the community for three decades, while giving us room to add care and services." Eric works fulltime at FCI McKean and one day a week at the Mt. Jewett Family Practice. His specialties are family medicine, men’s health, infectious diseases (like Hepatitis C and HIV). He will also provide care for Walk-In Saturdays to begin at the new facility on May 12. Walk-In Saturdays offer care 9 a.m. to 12 noon for routine clinic visits and minor problems. This is a new service at the new Mt....

J. Gary Rhodes, Vice President, UPMC Hamot and CEO of Kane Community Hospital, has announced that "Mohammed Nawaz Suddle, MD, physician of internal medicine, will extend his internal medicine practice to patients in Mt. Jewett at UPMC Hamot Medical Park, 18 W. Main Street. He will begin to see patients there in mid-May." "To KCH, Dr. Suddle brings a wide range of medical skills that include internal medicine, emergency medicine, noninvasive cardiology and occupational health. One of the benefits of practicing in a small community hospital is the opportunity it affords physicians to use their full complement of skills, as Dr. Suddle does so well," Rhodes said. "Dr. Suddle joined the medical staff at KCH in January of 2002 as an Emergency Room Physician. At the end of 2002, when Renato Ocampo, MD retired his general medicine practice, and several years later when Bruno Sicher, MD retired his family practice, Dr. Suddle assumed these practices while e...

“The new UPMC Hamot Medical Park – Mt. Jewett, 18 W. Main Street, will open for patient care and services on Monday, April 30,” announced J. Gary Rhodes, Vice President, UPMC Hamot and CEO of Kane Community Hospital (KCH). “This service of KCH, an integrated affiliate of UPMC Hamot, is a testament to three decades of the right care of one family doctor who lives, dedicates her life and care to serving her patients and their families right here in the community," Rhodes stated. “We are happy to be able to acknowledge Dr. Linda Rettger's dedication and that of her growing care team with a new, larger facility. This Medical Park is built to last, for her patients and for the community that she has served so well. Dr. Rettger built a large family practice, one patient and one family at a time. From newborns to seniors, her family practice continues to flourish,” said Rhodes. For most of the past three decades Dr. Rettger was an independent practitioner with privileges at KCH. ...

A new and potentially life-saving technology is now being piloted at Kane Community Hospital’s Emergency Room. KCH’s affiliation with UPMC Hamot makes this pilot possible. “It’s called the stroke telemedicine program,” stated KCH ER Nurse Manager Cindy Salerno, RN, CEN, PHRN. “What that means is, when a patient comes to our ER with stroke-like symptoms, our ER doctor and nursing staff, and more importantly the patient, will be able to consult directly with a neurologist at UPMC Hamot in Erie." "When an acute stroke patient arrives at the KCH ER, and the ER physician determines a call to UPMC Hamot is indicated, the call is made and a neurologist is dispatched to a specialized office to begin an assessment of the patient," Mary Parana, RN, ADON, Director of Outpatient Services at KCH noted. "This is possible because of mobile monitoring equipment that allows the stroke patient to be seen and be assessed by the neurologist with video camera and monitor at...

More than 30 health and wellness providers will offer screenings and demonstrations at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford’s annual Health and Wellness Fair next week. The event, sponsored by Pitt-Bradford’s Office of Health Services, is free and open to the public. It will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. April 5 in the Mukaiyama University Room in the Frame-Westerberg Commons. Free tests include a bone density screening by the Bradford Regional Medical Center School of Radiography, glaucoma testing by Eye Care Professional Associates, body fat analysis by the Pitt-Bradford sports medicine program and blood pressure check by Kane Community Hospital, an affiliate of UPMC Hamot. Massage therapy demonstrations will be presented by Lisa’s Hairport, which will also offer paraffin hand dips with reflexology. Pitt-Bradford’s Counseling Services will provide alcohol abuse and depression screenings. Community Resources for Independence Inc. wi...

A Lewis Run man is in serious condition at UPMC Hamot after his car hit a tree on Route 59 in Lafayette Township this morning. Police say 22-year-old Joshua Hilmes was driving west at 1:15 a.m. when his car crossed into the eastbound lane, left the road and hit the tree. He was flown by Stat MedEvac to Erie. The cause of the crash is still under investigation. The news leader of the Twin Tiers ... since 1947

UPMC Hamot has been named one of the best regional hospitals in the country by US News & World Report. The magazine recognized 247 hospitals outside of major metropolitan areas that are capable of providing first-rate care, even to patients with serious conditions or who need demanding procedures, according to Avery Comarow, U.S. News & World Report's health rankings editor. Hamot was one of nearly 5,000 hospitals evaluated and was considered "high performing" in nine of 16 specialties: cardiology and heart surgery; neurology and neurosurgery; and orthopedics. http://www.hamot.org/ The news leader of the Twin Tiers ... since 1947

A Warren man is hospitalized after his car crashed into a school bus Tuesday afternoon in Spring Creek Township. Police say 22-year-old Thomas Snider was on Route 426 when his car crossed the centerline and sideswiped the bus, then hit a mini-van head-on. Snider was flown to UPMC Hamot, where he is in serious condition. The van driver, 51-year-old Cynthia O’Day of Spartansburg, was also hurt, but police did not list the severity of her injuries. Neither the school bus driver nor the 10 students on board was hurt. The news leader of the Twin Tiers ... since 1947

A state police trooper is hospitalized after his car crashed while he was responding to an emergency call over the weekend. 31-year-old Trooper Andrew Goss of Warren was flown to UPMC Hamot Saturday night after he crash at just after 10 o’clock in Brokenstraw Township. Police say Goss lost control of his car on a curve and the car crossed into the opposite lane of travel, went into a ditch and hit a utility pole before flipping over. Goss is in stable condition at the hospital.

A Sherman, New York, man is accused of hitting another man in the head with a glass jar, which fractured his skull and broke a bone in his neck. 22-year-old Kyle Langer and a 21-year-old man were arguing over money on October 19 when the assault happened. The victim had to be taken to UPMC Hamot, where a plate had to be put in his head. Sheriff’s deputies say they have been investigating for the past two weeks and arrested Langer at 9 o’clock this morning, when he allegedly admitted to the assault. He’s in Chautauqua County Jail on $5,000 cash bail.

In the Summer J. Gary Rhodes, Vice President of UPMC Hamot and CEO of Kane Community Hospital, an affiliate of UPMC Hamot, announced that UPMC Hamot would begin construction of a new physician center in Mt. Jewett to improve access to quality healthcare and to better serve residents of the area. Site preparation has begun at the 20-22 W. Main Street location in Mt. Jewett. Foundation will be laid and the structure closed in by mid-November. At a recent groundbreaking, Jim Fiorenzo, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, UPMC Hamot told Mt. Jewett officials that “we consider this Medical Center in Mt. Jewett an investment in community healthcare for the region. It’s important that our regional investment starts in the communities where our patients live. And, that our investments enhance access to primary care and specialty clinics in an area served by KCH, our first fully UPMC Hamot affiliated community hospital. Should a patient ever need to leave the community ...

There is a “1 in 8” lifetime risk for women to develop breast cancer. And National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, NBCAM, is a great month to schedule an annual mammogram. With all the national media attention each October, it helps remind woman of this critical screen for breast cancer. Early detection remains the best protection. KCH has an aggressive program in the detection of breast cancer at its earliest and takes care to follow-up, often at the time of the original mammogram, when the results of the mammogram alone are inconclusive to a skilled eye. KCH’s Chief of Radiology – Jamil Sarfraz, M.D. – has a special interest in breast health and is American Board Certified not only in Diagnostic Radiology, but also in Nuclear Medicine and Internal Medicine. His expertise in the early diagnosis of breast cancer is well known and sought after in the region. At KCH the immediate follow-up of dense breast tissue is with ultrasound. This aids in the accuracy of the diagnosis. It’s ...

Kane Community Hospital (KCH) marked a major electronic health record (EHR) adoption milestone recently when the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Analytics recognized the 31-bed facility with Stage 6 Certification. HIMSS Analytics created its Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model using an eight-step scale that charts the path to a fully paperless health records environment. KCH is the 183rd hospital in the country—placing it among just 3.5% of U.S. hospitals—to achieve Stage 6 Certification. The requirements for HIMSS Analytics certification set a high bar for hospitals. KCH had to demonstrate that all application capabilities for Stage 6 Certification were operational, and that all lower certification levels had been achieved. This means KCH has met the HIMSS Analytics certification requirements in 20 areas, including radiology, transcription, pharmacy, patient care instructions, clinical decision support, clinical documentation, order communication (C...