SVHC Embraces “Green Demolition”
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SVHC Embraces “Green Demolition”

BENNINGTON, VT—November 12, 2021—Loads of insulation, doors, lighting fixtures, pressure treated lumber, wooden beams, and an antique cast iron sink are among the items being harvested for reuse from The Lodge, a building on the Bennington campus of Southwestern Vermont Medical Center (SVMC), part of Southwestern Vermont Health Care (SVHC). The building is slated for demolition next week to make way for a $28 million renovation and expansion to SVMC’s Emergency Department.

The salvage work was done by Deconstruction Works, a demolition, salvage and recycling service based in Vermont. The business has offices in Brattleboro and Bristol and is co-owned by Erich Kruger and Tom Shea. The company lists items for sale on its Facebook page and on other online sites.

Pushing much of the construction waste to reuse, rather than the landfill, helps the health system meet the state’s requirements for managing solid waste, as detailed in the Act 250 permit. It also helps mitigate the emotional impact of losing a piece of the health system’s history.

“This building has served an important purpose for almost 100 years,” said Ron Zimmerman, the health system’s director of engineering. “That so much of its materials will be reused and that items of historical significance will find new homes is gratifying.” 

James (Buzz) Surwilo, an environmental analyst with the Waste Management and Prevention Division of the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources’ Department of Environmental Conservation, was involved in developing the plan for managing the construction and demolition waste in accordance with the state’s guidelines. He encourages companies to recycle, salvage, and think about how they can avoid creating unnecessary construction waste.

“We came up with a pretty unique, progressive, forward-thinking plan with the Lodge,” Surwilo said. “Kudos to the hospital for minimizing the environmental and cultural impacts and making a good faith effort to keep things out of the landfill.”

The Lodge was built in 1925. It had 22 rooms for its original purpose of housing laundry and housekeeping employees. Most recently, it had been used as offices for SVHC’s Finance Department.

The construction project will nearly double the size of the current Emergency Department, which was designed to accommodate 14,000 patient visits a year but currently sees nearly 25,000 annually. The changes will further enhance patient safety, infection prevention, and patient privacy. Vertical treatment areas will allow for highly efficient treatment of low-acuity conditions. The project also includes an expansion to the Emergency Crisis Area for those experiencing mental health distress and increased telehealth connectivity with Dartmouth-Hitchcock.

Outside the Emergency Department, the project includes renovations of the Main Entrance and café, outpatient registration area, the Imaging Department waiting area, and the phlebotomy and laboratory upgrades. An enclosed walkway will connect the Emergency Department to SVMC ExpressCare.

Temporary parking changes are in effect to make way for site preparation work. The first row of parking in the S3 lot has been predesignated for patient use. See the map at https://svhealthcare.org/patients-visitors/parking for details. Regular updates on the project will appear in SVHC’s weekly e-newsletter, on social media, and on the health system’s website, svhealthcare.org.

About SVHC:
Southwestern Vermont Health Care (SVHC) is a comprehensive, preeminent, health care system providing exceptional, convenient, and affordable care to the communities of Bennington and Windham Counties of Vermont, eastern Rensselaer and Washington Counties of New York, and northern Berkshire County in Massachusetts. SVHC includes Southwestern Vermont Medical Center (SVMC), Southwestern Vermont Regional Cancer Center, the Centers for Living and Rehabilitation, and the SVHC Foundation. SVMC includes 25 primary and specialty care practices.

Southwestern Vermont Health Care is among the most lauded small rural health systems in the nation. It is the recipient of the American Hospital Association’s 2020 Rural Hospital Leadership Award. SVMC ranked fourth nationwide for the value of care it provides by the Lown Institute Hospital Index and is a five-time recipient of the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Magnet® recognition for nursing excellence. It has also received the highest marks possible from the Leapfrog Group. 

Southwestern Vermont Medical Center provides exceptional care without discriminating on the basis of an individual’s age, race, ethnicity, religion, culture, language, physical or mental disability, socioeconomic status, sex, sexual orientation, or gender identity or expression. Language assistance services, free of charge, are available at 1-800-367-9559.

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Cautious Entertaining

After almost 3 months of staying home and with the weather getting nicer, many of us are itching to invite friends over and catch up. While this is a natural inclination, it should be approached with significant caution. COVID-19 is still circulating. If you are planning to host, follow these helpful tips for a safe gathering at your home.

Keep the numbers small. Invite as few people as possible. One-on-one meetings are safer than group gatherings. The recommendations from Vermont Governor Phil Scott recommend 25 or fewer. I would still aim for fewer than 10, especially depending on the size of your entertaining space.

Choose invitees carefully. You should know almost everything about the socializing habits of the people you are inviting. Your guests should be as careful in their social interactions as you are in yours. You should also trust that your guests would be cancel if they were feeling ill, as should you if you are suddenly symptomatic. Those at high risk, due to age or a medical condition, should be very careful about hosting or accepting invitations.

Stay outside. Outdoor air movement disperses aerosolized particles more readily than indoor environments. And plenty of space outside allows guests to stay distanced. UV light, like the rays found in sunshine, may also provide some small benefit. It has been shown to decrease the viability of the virus on objects, but it is not yet clear how intense the light must be and for how long the object needs to be exposed in order to kill the virus.

Keep it short. Duration of exposure to others has been identified as a key risk factor. The longer you are near someone shedding the virus, even if they don't have symptoms, the greater your likelihood of catching it yourself. While it is awkward to say that you are inviting people over for a 10-minute chat in the driveway, this is certainly among the lowest-risk types of socializing.

Clean beforehand. If you expect guests to touch anything, the arms of patio chairs, for instance, wipe them down in advance. Ask everyone to sanitize or wash their hands as they arrive, if they touch their face, and about every hour or so.

Stay distanced and masked. People standing tend to drift. Place chairs 6 feet apart so that people will be more likely to stay apart. Unless you are eating, keep your masks on. Share this expectation in advance, so your guests bring their masks with them.

Limit contact points. If you are preparing food, be sure to wash well before cooking and ensure everyone has a portion of his or her own. Forget about platters of vegetables or bowls of chips everyone shares and even buffets, where people share spoons and tongs.

Clean after. Wipe down anything your guests may have touched after they leave.

Keep track. Be sure to take note of who was there, the date of the social event, and each guest's contact details. If any one of the attendees becomes ill with COVID-19 or learns that they may have been exposed at the time of the event, they will be able to reach out directly to the others and to share information readily with contact tracers.

With these tips, you can host a relatively safe get-together and relieve some of the social isolation of the past several weeks. Do know, however, that no party—regardless of how careful—is risk free. Weigh the risks, decrease those you can, and then, try to have fun.

Donna Barron, RN, is the infection preventionist at Southwestern Vermont Medical Center.

 

 

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