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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Home Office How To

Did you know that many sources of chronic pain start in a poorly arranged office? Carpal tunnel, pinched nerves, overuse injuries can often be traced to chairs being positioned improperly or important tools being positioned outside easy reach. While reaching or straining once or twice wouldn't hurt us at all, doing so repeatedly day after day can cause painful and lasting injuries.

As an occupational health physician at Southwestern Vermont Medical Center, one of my responsibilities is to help employees of SVMC and other companies who have workplace injuries and recommend the adjustments they should make.

During a spike in work-from-home arrangements, I have heard about friends’ and family members' work-from-home set-ups. Some are working from laptops on their couches. Others are set up at kitchen tables. We know that their cats walk across their keyboards and their kids interrupt. Especially since Governor Scott has just indicated that remote workers will likely be the last to return to the traditional workplace, it's time to get our home office arrangements figured out.

That's why I would like to share the important details you need to arrange a healthful workspace and encourage all to invest the time (and sometimes a little bit of money) needed to implement them. Learning these points is key to avoiding injuries, as continued work-from-home policies, where feasible, will help maintain appropriate distancing needed to decrease the spread of COVID-19.

An adjustable chair is the first and most important component of an office set-up. Office chairs include crucial lumbar support and encourage good posture. When your forearms are resting on your desk or table, adjust the chair height up or down until your arms form a right angle. This is an important step in avoiding wrist pain and carpal tunnel, two of the most common office injuries. If, when your arms are in the correct position, your feet are not touching the floor, employ a footstool.

Position your monitor an arm’s length away. (If you can't see the screen from this distance, better go get an eye exam!) And raise the screen so that the top of the screen is eye level. This, too, will encourage good posture.

If you use two monitors, positioning them properly depends on how you use them. If you use them equally, the dividing line between them should be right in front of you. If you use one primarily and the other secondarily, position the more dominant screen directly in front of you. If you use a laptop, consider investing in a riser and an additional keyboard needed to raise the screen to eye level.

Put all of your other tools, including your mouse and phone, within easy reach. If you use the phone a lot, consider investing in a headset.

The only other recommendation I make is to stretch every 15 – 20 minutes. A list of helpful office-oriented stretches is available here. And every hour, be sure to get up and take a short walk or standing stretch.

If you follow these recommendations at home, you will be much more comfortable and are likely to be more productive, too, all while maintaining the social distance we need to keep COVID-19 infections low throughout this next phase of the pandemic. Most importantly, you will save yourself the pain and discomfort of office injury no matter where you're working.

Mark Zimpfer, MD, is a physician at Southwestern Vermont Medical Center's Occupational Health practice. 

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