Flashback: Our Top 10 Feel-Good Stories of 2021
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Flashback: Our Top 10 Feel-Good Stories of 2021

What a year we have had. While it has been admittedly difficult at times, we have so much to celebrate. Here are our top 10 feel-good stories of the past year.

10. Asking for Patient Views
More than ever, we have been reaching out to patients for their feedback. We asked about what would make
colon cancer screening easier, what you would want to do with the Southern Vermont College property, and what health needs you see in the community. We also set up a new Patient and Family Advisory Council, which continues to seek members. 

9. Offering Health Learning Opportunities
We didn’t let the pandemic and precautions about meeting in person keep us from expanding educational opportunities for patients. We moved our new-parent classes online and
added a few. We also offered a cancer survivors’ cooking party, a women’s health series, a colon cancer awareness talk, and classes about joint replacements and hand pain. 

8. Widening Availability of Vaccines
All year we watched how vaccines became more and more available. While initially available only to healthcare workers and the oldest adults, vaccine availability soon widened to younger adults. The more people got vaccinated the clearer the safety and efficacy of the vaccines became. Now, everyone over the age of 5 can be protected, and that is a tremendous relief. 

7. Faster Test Results
We are so proud of the steps we took early in the pandemic to get advanced testing equipment on site in the SVMC lab. That makes turn-around times for our tests faster than those in many other parts of the state and the country. Our information systems team also developed
groundbreaking results-delivery applications, so patients could get their results quickly, easily, and securely.

6. Our Heroic Staff
Our staff is always inspiring. The way they have cared for COVID patients and others, with unwavering dedication and incredible skill, over this past year is truly incredible. This year, we are also celebrating the stories of two amazing staff members for the difference they were able to make while off duty.
Patricia Johnson helped more BIPOC Vermonters get vaccinated, while Patrick Deedy participated in a life-saving wilderness rescue.

5. Advances at SVMC Orthopedics
In the fall of 2020, SVMC Orthopedics launched
the region’s only same-day total joint replacement surgery program for hips and knees. In 2021, dozens of patients used the program to begin their recovery immediately and at home. And in 2021, the practice's hand specialist, David R. Veltre, MD, M.Eng., began offering some hand procedures quickly and conveniently at the SVMC Orthopedics practice in Bennington, rather than in the hospital's operating room. Advanced care is easier than ever. 

4. The Former Southern Vermont College Campus and The Grateful Bennington Fund
We were absolutely astounded with
the response we received when community members led an effort to offset the expenses of SVHC’s purchase of the former Southern Vermont College campus. The campus has gone on to be integral in the health system’s COVID-19 response.

3. Medical Matters Weekly
In February 2021, we launched an ambitious project to present a
weekly video podcast. Throughout the last year, we have met so many interesting professionals and uncovered important insights about physical health, mental health, social needs, and racial inequality in healthcare among others. We look forward to season two, which starts January 5.

2. National Recognitions
We are honored that two important national organizations reviewed our hard work over the past several years and honored us with prestigious designations. We were designated as a Magnet Center for Nursing Excellence
for the 5th time in a row. Only 28 organizations worldwide can make that claim. We also received the year’s only Rural Healthcare Leadership Award given by the American Hospital Association.

1. Emergency Department Expansion and Renovation
From the fun and festive Groundbreaking Celebrations to the solemn but exciting Lodge Demolition, we had a great time looking toward the future of providing
cutting-edge emergency care in a new space.

Stay tuned for more good news on these projects and others in 2022! Happy New Year!

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Interview with Jeff Silverman: 3D Printer

Jeff Silverman is a Wilmington native, a volunteer firefighter, and a business owner. From an addition to his Whitingham, Vermont, farm house, his company, Inertia Unlimited, develops camera technology for broadcast television.

"We make them out of thin air," he says.

Actually, he uses a 3D printer to make prototypes and one-of-a-kind cameras for very specific purposes, including those that sit in the dirt in front of a batter during Major League Baseball games and the ones built into NASCAR racetracks.

Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, Jeff has printed 463 face shields for first responders in the Deerfield Valley and healthcare workers at Southwestern Vermont Medical Center and other places. He has delivered them free of charge.

When and how did you first become interested in printing shields for first responders? In one day, every job we had disappeared. We went from having 20 – 30 jobs to zero in one day. Our first thought was that we would use the materials and talent we typically use to sew the pouches for our cameras to make masks. But we quickly found that the proper materials and techniques were not available to make effective masks. Plus so many other people were making them. They had it covered.

On Sunday, March 22, I read in the New York Times that a company in Syracuse, NY, had made a design to 3D print face shields available online. By noon that day I was printing. Since then the printer has not stopped.

How does it work? The printer converts the design into a 3D object using filament that is the width of a human hair, adding layer by layer. The printer takes 2 hours to print one shield. I have produced 380 shields so far. That's 1000 hours of printing. I take from midnight to 5 a.m. off. We've done more 3D printing in the last month and a half than we had in the previous 5 years.

Describe the shields. It was important to me to produce something that was good quality. Sometimes the ones you buy don’t clean up very well. These can survive UV light and other sterilization. They are rough and tough.

Where have you distributed them? First I gave them to the firefighters in Wilmington and Whitingham, where I am a volunteer. Then I gave some to the Deerfield Valley Rescue. I have sent 324 to Southwestern Vermont Health Care, some to SVMC Deerfield Valley Campus; Golden Cross Ambulance Service and Sojourns Community Clinic, both in Westminster, VT; and Rescue Inc. in Brattleboro. I sent some to a dentist in Portland, ME, who asked, and 10 to North Central Bronx Hospital to a friend who works there.

What's your greatest accomplishment? I went to Wilmington High School in the late 70s, and Dave Larson, who was the social studies teacher and former longtime VT state representative, had a video camera. He let me borrow it to film field hockey games. At the end of the season, they gave me a varsity letter for my film work. I have won Emmys since, but that varsity letter is special, because it represented the beginning.

What's next? We look forward to reopening. For us, it's the easiest thing in the world. No client ever comes here. We didn't lay anybody off. We hired locals. All are full-time with benefits. We think Vermont is a great place for low-impact companies like ours, and we hope more companies discover Vermont and come here to provide well-paid jobs.

And I am really looking forward to turning the printer off.

On behalf of Southwestern Vermont Health Care's frontline staff, thank you to Jeff for his tireless efforts to provide vital equipment to our teams. We appreciate it!

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