A YEAR AGO, the fi rst beams of the new Hospital’s steel frame were being lifted and welded into place. This fall, workers

inside still wear hard hats, but the protective fenc-ing around the new Hospital is gone; the building stands essentially completed in its handsome brick cladding, and the push is on to fi nish the plantings of all-native vegetation and trees in the landscaping plan that was approved this summer by the Martha’s Vineyard Commission.

Cornelius (Connie) Bulman, clerk of the works, is pleased. Inside the new Hospital, he reports, “Cabi-netry, ceilings and light fi xtures are going in – that’s all fi nish work, which is encouraging. Elevators are going in – there’ll be fi ve in the building, two patient elevators, two passenger and one service.”

The monumental steel staircase beneath the Hos-pital tower was installed in September; it’s a center-piece of the new building’s main entrance, leading to the patient care units upstairs.

“All this,” says Mr. Bulman with evident satisfac-tion, “is just an indication that this project is getting close to the ribbon-cutting.” The celebration of the largest single construction project in Island history is set for February 7, 2010.

Mr. Bulman has been busy ordering furnishings through this late summer and fall – with everything from chairs and end tables to radiology equipment and high-tech gear for the new operating room. All through this process, he says, “The users were in-volved absolutely right from the outset. It was about fi nding the equipment they wanted, and then getting the most competitive pricing we could.”

The new Martha’s Vineyard Hospital is on sched-ule and on budget, but the next step – commission-ing the new building – is what Mr. Bulman calls “the proof in the pudding.”

The new building, at 90,000 square feet, is not merely bigger than the current Martha’s Vineyard Hospital – it represents an entirely new generation in the technology of health care. From paperless record keeping systems to the vertical booms that deliver light, power, data and medical gases to the operating

table, this construction project has been an oppor-tunity to bring the Hospital up to speed with best practices and the latest state of the medical arts.

The new Hospital building is so technologically complex, in fact, that the process of bringing it on-line is much like the shake-down cruise used by the

Navy to launch a new battleship. Says Mr. Bulman: “There’s a process we go through called commission-ing. That’s the stage we’re in right now. The commis-sioning agent, the mechanic who installed the equip-ment, the design engineer and I will be witnessing the startups. We have the performance criteria for each piece of machinery, which might indicate that a pump should pump so many gallons per minute. We have to witness that, and then we sign off on it, but not until it performs to specifi cations. This whole process will take a couple of months to complete.”

The process of fi nishing a new building, explains Mr. Bulman, is a lot like varnishing your fl oor – you plan to leave a perfect space without any footprints. That’s why the new Hospital’s second fl oor was completed this summer, while the fi rst fl oor is being completed this fall. “It really is a matter of staging,” he says. “You back your way out the door.”

The precise date when patients are moved into the new Hospital is not as important, says Mr. Bulman, as getting the transition ahead exactly right. “The good news,” he says, “is that we have a hospital in

Hospital Sets Ribbon-CuttingDate in February

Continued on page 4

The new Martha’s Vineyard Hospital is on schedule and on budget.

The new building, is not merely bigger than the former Hospital – it

represents an entirely new generation in the technology of health care.

F A L L - W I N T E R 2 0 0 9

newsletterM A R T H A ’ S V I N E Y A R D H O S P I T A L

Addressing Flu Season Concerns ~ page 2

Milestone for Windemere ~ page 2

Making Healthy Changes in Cardio Rehab ~ page 3

Tree of Lights Glows for26th Year ~ page 4

Charitable Gift Annuities:“A Great Investment”

~ page 4

Windemere Celebrates 15 Years

This Flu Season: Stay Informed and Stay Healthy

DONNA ENOS, director of employee health, infection preven-tion and staff development at Martha’s Vineyard Hospital, has been busy this fall. She’s been writing articles about the com-

ing infl uenza season for the Hospital staff newsletter. She’s been administering fl u vaccine with the goal of inoculating every member of the Hospital staff. She’s been putting up posters and making what she calls a whistle-stop tour of every Hospital department, answering staff questions about vaccination and other fl u preven-tion methods.

Looking to the fl u season ahead, Ms. Enos says: “The Hospital has a disaster plan and a fl u preparedness plan. It addresses how many beds we’d need in the case of a pandemic that would create an infl ux of patients, and how many staff we’d need, and how we’d need to rotate our shifts.”

But Ms. Enos is quick to assert that while it’s good to be ready, it’s even better to be proactive. “Prevention really is the key,” she says, “and the best way to prevent getting the fl u is to get yourself vaccinated.”

The six town boards of health will hold an Island-wide seasonal fl u vaccination clinic before the end of the year. It is likely that a separate clinic will be held for H1N1 (swine) fl u when that vaccine is available.

The H1N1 vaccination program is hap-pening later, Ms. Enos says, because it took some time to prepare and test the new vaccine. She urges Vineyarders to turn out for both vaccinations, because the seasonal vaccine alone conveys no im-munity to the swine fl u strain.

“People get nervous about the use of new vaccines,” she says, “and that’s understandable. However, what people need to know is that every year, you’re getting a new fl u vaccine that’s been cre-ated to combat the three strains that the World Health Organization thinks are going to hit.” So the vaccine formula itself may be new each year, but the method of its manufacture has a proven track record that dates back more than half a century.

“A vaccine fools the body,” explains Ms. Enos. “We have an im-mune system that remembers – that’s why we don’t get the measles or chicken pox more than once. The infl uenza vaccine gives the im-mune system the memory of a fl u we’ve never actually had.”

Beyond vaccination, several simple prevention strategies can help curb the spread of fl u. These strategies are based on our under-standing of how the fl u virus passes from one person to another: The most common way to catch the fl u is to be close to an infected person who is coughing or sneezing.

“If you ask any fi rst or second-grader the right way to cough or sneeze, they’ll tell you exactly how, because our schools teach them very effectively: into your elbow or sleeve, NOT your hand,” says Ms. Enos. “And hand hygiene is extremely important. You should wash with soap, warm water and friction for about 20 seconds – in the schools, kids are taught to sing ‘Happy Birthday’ twice while they wash.”

Alcohol-based hand sanitizers are also effective, Ms. Enos says. “Send bottles of hand-washer to school with your children in their backpacks. Kids love that stuff.”

Finally, Ms. Enos advises, stay home from work if you feel sick – and don’t send an ailing child to school. “I’m a working parent with young children,” she says, “so

I know this is hard. But if your children are sick, you really do need to keep them home from school.” It is also recommended that fl u sufferers stay home for a full 24 hours after their fever is gone.

These prevention strategies apply equally well for the usual seasonal infl uenza strains and for the H1N1 virus. “Flu is fl u,” Ms. Enos says simply.

The biggest misconception about the fl u, says Ms. Enos, the one she most wishes she could dispel, is the fear that you can somehow get the fl u from a fl u shot. “It’s just not true,” she declares, “and it’s the best way to protect yourself, your family and our community.”

Learn more about Seasonal Flu and H1N1 Flu at www.cdc.gov/fl u/

Donna Enos, MVH director of employee health, infection prevention and staff

development, has some hints:

With the fl u, she says, you usually can tell you’ve got something worse than a simple head cold. “A real infl uenza has the hallmarks of fevers and aches, before you see anything else. You don’t have the sneezes and post-nasal drip; your eyes hurt, you’ve got a banging headache – you feel just wiped out.”

Fever, she says, is probably the best indicator of an illness that needs medical care. “If you or your child has a fever, you most likely want to be in touch with your health care provider. Fevers are an indication that something is wrong, some infectious process.”

Is it a Cold, or is it the Flu?

W INDEMERE Nursing and Rehabili-tation Center was opened in 1994 – fi fteen years ago – so Vineyard

families, faced with a loved one in need of nursing care would not have to face the double heartbreak of sending their loved one far away.

Windemere’s fi rst decade was a tumultu-ous time, when fi nancial defi cits were com-

mon. But with all eyes on the mission and the help of loyal supporters, Windemere has established its place in the fabric of Island health care services.

Windemere has graduated two classes of “home-grown” Licensed Practical Nurses to care for residents; a van from the Vineyard Transit Authority takes residents into the Island community to enjoy events from the Agricultural Fair to the Boston Pops, and thanks to the Permanent Endowment Fund, the Chilmark School’s intergenerational pro-gram brings children into Windemere to build warm friendships with residents. This past August, Windemere also received an anony-mous donation of $50,000. This generous gift will further enhance the quality of life for all who make their home here.

Every member of the staff has worked to bring Windemere to this moment when it’s possible to take stock and be proud of this institution’s caring work. As we cel-ebrate fi fteen years of service, we know that Windemere will be here for many years to come, continuing the tradition of Islanders caring for Islanders.

PHO

TO: B

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Barbara Bernstein gives fellow resident Mary Fisher a hug at Windemere’s monthly tea party.

2

JUST BEFORE 6 a.m. on a September Thursday, eight men gather in the hallway outside the cardiopulmonary rehab center of Martha’s Vineyard Hospital. They’ve driven through the dark

for their date with M.J. Rogers, R.N., and one of their twice-weekly exercise sessions.

These men have no trouble recalling when they joined this tight-knit group. Jules Ben David says, “1997 – quintuple bypass surgery.” Says Nelson Smith: “Three years ago – heart attack, and a stent.” Says Donald Mitchell, “1997 – open heart surgery.”

Lenny Jason, the newest guy on the treadmills, joined this April after getting two stents in January. Mitchell Posin had three stents put in a year ago. Louis Larsen, the senior member, has been “re-habbing” ever since his heart attack in 1995.

They’re here for a common purpose: to foster and support new habits in the years after a life-threatening event. As Ralph Case of the Edgartown Water Department, a veteran of the program, says: “You’ve got to make changes. That’s the name of the game.”

The mood is genial this morning, but with a somber undertone. Mr. Smith passes around the newspaper obituary of their good friend William D. “Billy” Norton, a founding member of the cardiac group.

The obituary described Mr. Norton’s 1985 heart attack as “a life-changing event,” adding: “He changed his diet, stopped smoking, enrolled in a cardiac rehabilitation program, and walked almost every day. He went on to enjoy 20 plus years of good health.”

Promptly at six, Ms. Rogers strides down the hall, still wearing her bright yellow bike helmet, and unlocks the rehab center door. Eight guys take their places on the center’s array of stationary bikes, treadmills, rowing and stepper machines. Rock music from a boom-box plays over the sounds of whirring machinery and the friendly banter that ranges from local politics to news from work, goose hunting season and the fi shing derby.

As the men settle into their work, Ms. Rogers takes the opportu-nity to remember Mr. Norton. “He was such a great guy,” she says. “It’s a huge loss.”

Ms. Rogers says she appreciates the big changes Mr. Norton made in his life after that heart attack in 1985. “He was a worka-holic. But he made all these changes that afforded him another 20 good years. People who knew him back in the day saw the dif-ference in him. By the time I met Billy he was already this sort of Zen-like guy… of course, if you asked him what Zen-like meant, he wouldn’t know, but he was living it.”

Inside the rehab center, this could almost be a traditional health club setting, except that all the men on the machinery are heart patients, and they’re being watched over by a cardiac nurse. Ms. Rogers makes the rounds with a monitor, checking heart rates; she stops for extra time with Mr. Larsen, who has a ques-tion about his medications.

Mr. Larsen says his heart attack made him take better care of himself in lots of ways. “I don’t push myself the same anymore. If it gets done, it gets done; if it doesn’t . . .” and he shrugs.

Mr. Larsen is not only this group’s senior member, he’s also its chef. For several years now, he’s been getting up at 4 a.m. on Thursdays and baking his special pancake recipe for the guys. He wraps them in paper towels and brings them to rehab, where they’re warmed in the microwave at the end of the morning work-out. The group enjoys the pancakes in the Hospital café afterwards, with coffee and more conversation.

Nelson Smith says it’s easy for him to understand, even after just three years in the rehab graduate program, how it becomes a lifetime habit for so many of the participants. “The guys work out a lot of stress here,” he says, “whether it’s through conversation or exercise. What’s important here is the regularity of this program. The regularity, and being together with everybody and shooting the bull.”

After an hour on the machines, Ms. Rogers leads a brisk half-hour of weight-lifting and stretching. The guys miss no opportunity to tease each other and their taskmaster. When the guys get a bit frisky dispensing the exercise balls around the room, Ms. Rogers chides them: “Oh, it’s all fun and games until somebody gets hurt!”

At 7:30 a.m. the toys are put away, the pancakes are heated and the group parades to the café, snagging fresh copies of this morning’s Martha’s Vineyard Times on their way past the recep-tion desk.

Over breakfast, his buddies tease Mr. Smith for turning straight to the court listings in the morning paper. And again the conversa-tion turns to the loss of their friend, Billy Norton.

Ms. Rogers notes that ser-vices for Mr. Norton are Mon-day, after their next workout. “Monday, 10:30,” she says, “at Our Lady Star of the Sea. I think we should all come in here as usual that morning. Then I’m planning on leaving and going to the service.”

“Why don’t we plan on meeting outside the church at 10 o’clock?” suggests Mr. Ben David. “That way we can all sit together.”

“Jules, you have all the good ideas,” says Ms. Rogers.

“Bring a good cushion,” says Mr. Smith, hardly looking up from the court news. “Be-cause your butt’ll be killing you after a couple hours.”

Workouts and Pancakes: Meet the “Cardio Guys”

Nurse M.J. Rogers visits with Louis Larsen, the exercise group’s

senior member and cook.

3

◆ ◆ ◆

T R U S T E E SJohn P. Ferguson

ChairmanTimothy D. Sweet

Vice ChairmanEarle A. Ray

TreasurerMary R. Brown

SecretaryTimothy J. Walsh

President & C.E.O.Pieter Pil, M.D., PhD

Chief of Staff

Frank J. Biondi, Jr.Susan C. CramptonJudith M. Davenport

Donald W. DavisKevin B. Dole, M.D.

Timothy E. Guiney, M.D.Brent L. Henry, Esq.A. Anthony JamesEdward T. Kenyon

Tuna KierstedEdward F. MillerAnn L. Prestipino

Andrew L. Warshaw, M.D.◆ ◆ ◆

D e v e l o p m e n tTuna Kiersted

Chair, Development Committee

Rachel E. VanderhoopDirector of Development

508 693-4645

An Affiliate ofMassachusetts General Hospital and

a Member of Partners HealthCare◆ ◆ ◆

One Hospital RoadP.O. Box 1477

Oak Bluffs • MA 02557508 693-0410

www.mvhospital.com

save the dates 26th Annual Tree of Lights

FOR a quarter of a century, the MV Hospital Auxiliary’s Tree of Lights fundraiser has been a revered Island holiday tradi-tion. Every December the 30-foot fi r tree in front of the

Hospital was lit with hundreds of red and white lights, each do-nated by an individual in honor or in memory of a loved one.

During construction of the new Hospital the Auxiliary has con-tinued the tradition. A temporary Tree of Lights has been placed on the Hospital campus and will be lit again this year during our fi nal “under construction” season. When the new building opens in February 2010, we will celebrate the opening of our new hos-pital and the planting of a brand new Tree of Lights!

• For a $20 contribution you can place a light on the tree for this season.

• For a $200 contribution your light will shine in perpetuity. Please join us for the 2010 Tree Lighting Ceremony on Monday, December 7th in the Hospital’s Main Lobby. Contribution Forms are available for download at www.mvhos-pital.com/tol and at the Hospital Auxiliary Offi ce: 508 693-0410 ext 218. They will also be published in the local newspapers.

please join us!Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony

Celebrate the Opening of theNew Hospital • February 7th

Annual Health FairMV Hospital • March 13th

24th Annual Golf TournamentFarm Neck Golf Club

July 18th & 19th

22nd Annual Sullivan 5K Run/WalkEast Chop, Oak Bluffs

August 28th

For information please call the Development Offi ce:

508 693-4645 or visit www.mvhospital.com

Charitable Annuity: “An Easy Decision”

A NNE AND JIM HANEY, who this summer es-tablished a charitable

gift annuity at Martha’s Vine-yard Hospital, say it was one of the easiest fi nancial decisions they’ve made.

The Haneys are both retired – he from a career as a theatre teacher, actor, and director; she from a life of work in university and hospital fund-raising, most recently at Newton-Wellesley Hospital in Newton. They’ve been summer residents since 1977 at their gingerbread Vic-torian house, Dunmere By the Sea, on Pennacook Avenue in Oak Bluffs. Over those years, Mrs. Haney says, “Martha’s Vineyard Hospital has always been there when we needed it – and we’ve needed it a few times.”

Some of those occasions, they say, have to do with Mr. Haney’s enthusiastic approach to the game he jokingly calls “tennis as a contact sport.”

Speaking more seriously, both the Haneys say they were impressed with the way the Vineyard com-munity rallied around the Hospital’s campaign for its new building. “When it came time for us to decide where to put some of our money,” Mr. Haney says, “we knew the Hospital was always going to be there.”

The vehicle the Haneys chose to support Martha’s Vineyard Hospital is a single-life charitable annu-ity in Anne’s name. For them, they say, this was the perfect way to support the Hospital while locking in a fi xed, secure annual income.

Martha’s Vineyard Hospital, like many nonprofi ts, offers income rates set by the American Council on Gift Annuities. This means that for the Haneys, their decision didn’t require shopping around for rates – it only meant choosing a recipient they felt comfortable supporting.

“We love this community,” says Mrs. Haney, adding that she’s experienced the Hospital as a competent, professional and car-ing place that keeps up with the state of the art in medicine. Best of all, she says: “It’s there. On an

Island, that’s the most important thing.”Mr. Haney agrees: “I think it’s an Island where

the nature of a lot of people is one of independence. Generally, Vineyarders are proud of their Island and like the idea of being self-sustaining.”

For Anne and Jim Haney, the pluses of making this charitable gift were several: a locked-in, lifetime stream of revenue, a substantial charitable income tax deduction, and the satisfaction of supporting Martha’s Vineyard Hospital.

“Our decision was an easy one in this investment climate,” says Mrs. Haney, “because the rates on charitable annuities are wonderful. In so many ways, it’s a good investment for us.”

Charitable gift annuities are only one of the planned giving opportunities available to supporters of Martha’s Vineyard Hospital. To learn more, call the

Hospital Development Offi ce at 508-693-4645 or email rvanderhoop@mvhospital.org.

Printed On Recycled Paper • Please RecycleC

New Hospital continued from front page

place. It’s not like we have an absolute date when somebody’s going to come in and blow up the old Hospital so you’ve got to get the people out of there. We have the ability to make sure we get everything 100 percent right before we move people over.”

“In the end, it’s about patient care: We’re not going to move into that new building until we have all the support equipment and everything has been checked out and it is just right.”

The Vineyard community is invited to the Ribbon-Cutting ceremony on Sunday, February 7, 2010

n-

P i t d O R l d P Pl R lC

26th YEAR

Martha’s Vineyard Hospital Auxiliary

4