Medical Matters Weekly Features Telemed Expert
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Medical Matters Weekly Features Telemed Expert

BENNINGTON—March 19, 2021—Southwestern Vermont Health Care’s (SVHC) Medical Matters Weekly with Dr. Trey Dobson, a weekly interactive, multiplatform medical-themed talk show, will feature Kevin Curtis, MD, as a guest on its March 24 show. Dr. Curtis the medical director of Connected Care and the Center for Telehealth at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health and an associate professor of Emergency Medicine at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. The two will discuss telemedicine before, during, and after the pandemic and the future of medicine.

The show is produced with cooperation from Catamount Access Television (CAT-TV) and airs live at 2 p.m. on Wednesdays. Viewers can see Medical Matters Weekly live on Facebook at facebook.com/svmedicalcenter and facebook.com/CATTVBennington. Those viewing on Facebook will be able to contribute questions through the chat function.

Dr. Curtis received his bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Clarkson University in 1984 and worked as an aerospace engineer for McDonnell Douglas Astronautics. In 1991, he obtained his MD from the Georgetown University School of Medicine and served in the Navy as a lieutenant commander and general medical officer. Dr. Curtis completed his Emergency Medicine Residency in 1998 at the George Washington University Medical Center followed by an Emergency Medicine Foundation Research Fellowship.

Prior to coming to Dartmouth-Hitchcock (D-H) in 2002, Dr. Curtis was member of the Emergency Medicine faculty at the University of Pennsylvania, splitting time between clinical practice and research on mechanisms of cerebral ischemia after cardiac arrest. Dr. Curtis cofounded the D-H Emergency Medicine Residency Program and served as its initial program director. In 2013, he received his master’s in Health Care Delivery Science from the Tuck School of Business and the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. While at Dartmouth-Hitchcock, Kevin has also served as the Emergency Medicine research director, the assistant medical director of Emergency Services, and the medical director of TeleEmergency.

The program’s host, Trey Dobson, MD, is an Emergency Medicine physician with Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health and serves as Chief Medical Officer for Southwestern Vermont Medical Center in Bennington, Vermont.  He is an Instructor of Emergency Medicine at Dartmouth Geisel School of Medicine and a member of the Board of Trustees of Dartmouth-Hitchcock. He is past president of the Vermont Medical Society and currently sits on the Governance Council and performs medical practice peer review for the Vermont Program for Quality in Health Care. He obtained a Masters in Geology from the University of Wyoming and his Medical Degree at The University of Tennessee. Dr. Dobson completed his residency in Emergency Medicine at the University of Virginia.

After the program, the video will be available on area public access television stations. On CAT-TV, viewers will find the show on channel 1075 at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, 1:30 p.m. Monday, 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, 7:30 a.m. Wednesday, 7:30 p.m. Thursday, 7:30 a.m. Friday, and 7 p.m. Saturday. Videos and podcasts are on svhealthcare.org/MedicalMatters, as well as Youtube and on many podcast-hosting platforms, respectively.

Upcoming episodes will feature the following guests:

  • March 31: Stephen Leffler, MD, an emergency medicine physician and president and chief operating officer at the University of Vermont Medical Center.
  • April 7: David Veltre, MD, a hand and upper extremity specialist at SVMC Orthopedics in Bennington.
  • April 14: Vermont Commissioner of Health Dr. Mark Levine

To contribute questions in advance of each week’s show, please e-mail wellness@svhealthcare.org or post to Facebook with #SVHCMedicalMattersWeekly.

About SVHC Medical Matters Weekly:
Medical Matters Weekly is an interactive, mulitplatform guest-driven talk show hosted by Dr. Trey Dobson. It provides a behind-the-scenes perspective on healthcare, including topics like behavioral health, food insecurity, equitable care, and the opioid crisis. The show is produced in partnership with Catamount Access Television (CAT-TV) and is broadcast on CAT-TV, Greater Northshire Access Television, Facebook Live, YouTube, and podcast platforms.

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.

SVMC has earned several prominent distinctions. Most recently, SVMC received the American Hospital Association’s Rural Healthcare Leadership Award for transformational change in efforts toward healthcare reform and its fifth consecutive designation within the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s (ANCC) Magnet Recognition Program®. It ranked fourth in the nation for healthcare value by the Lown Institute Hospitals Index in 2020 and is one of Vermont’s Best Places to Work. SVMC earned an ‘A’ for hospital safety from the Leapfrog Group for two years in a row. During the pandemic, SVMC and both its skilled nursing facilities, the Centers for Living and Rehabilitation in Bennington, and the Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation at Hoosick Falls, earned perfect scores on a Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services evaluation meant to determine the ability to prevent transmission of COVID-19 and other infections.

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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5 Questions with the Chair of the Department of Surgery

Malcolm Paine, MD, of SVMC OB/GYN, serves as the chair of the Department of Surgery. We asked him five questions about COVID-19 and how it feels to deliver care right now.

SVMC: What would you like to share with patients at this time?
MP: First, on behalf of the Department of Surgery, I would like to acknowledge how tough it has been for our community members who have been affected by this pandemic. We see such tremendous strength in those who have been ill or lost loved ones to illness and in those who are working hard to get by without a job or while homeschooling their children. We are proud to be part of this community, whose careful social distancing efforts have prevented an unmanageable surge.

We are grateful, too, that as restrictions loosen, we can get back to seeing patients and providing care in a timely way. On the surface, the care may look or feel a little different—everyone will be wearing masks, for instance—but once we get accustomed to the changes, we hope that you will recognize the same level of personalized care we all enjoyed before COVID-19.

SVMC: What are the potential risks associated with postponing care?
MP: There are many types of surgery that can be delayed for a short time, often without any negative repercussions . However, surgery is often for situations that cause pain, and delaying the procedure can result in that pain getting worse or not getting better. Sometimes, there are situations where a minor surgery, if delayed, can turn into a more major or emergency surgery, and the patient can become very sick.

SVMC: In general, what additional precautions have been put in place to ensure that care is safe?
MP:
We are absolutely committed to the safety of our patients, staff, and the community. We know how important it is for patients to be able to know and trust that we have their safety in mind at all times. We always want to use the best science and advice from the State to guide our practices. We have put several new measures in place.

We screen all patients and advocates who come to the hospital to make sure they do not have a fever or possible symptoms of COVID-19. All staff also undergo daily screening for fever and symptoms to make sure those looking after patients are healthy. We are also testing all patients with planned surgical procedures for COVID-19. This is performed as an outpatient test at no cost to the patient and increases our confidence that we are not putting patients or staff at increased risk. Patients with a scheduled surgery are encouraged to call ahead if they are feeling unwell, and after surgery, patients will be asked to check for fever for 14 days to make sure they stay healthy.

SVMC: How would patients be notified if COVID risk increased rapidly?
MP:
There is always the chance that there may be a new "surge." In that case, a directive to stop elective procedures would likely come from the State. We may also decide, as a hospital, to stop these procedures in order to keep everyone safe. In that case, we would call the patients to let them know that their scheduled case is delayed until the risk decreases.

SVMC: How would you estimate the risk of contracting COVID-19 at the hospital right now?
MP:
We are tracking these numbers on a daily basis. With all of these safety measures in place and due to the very low numbers of cases we are seeing in this area at the present time, we estimate this risk is extremely low.

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