Bassett Hosp Of Schoharie Cnty

Description

Bassett Hospital of Schoharie County is a 40bed acute care facility We offer both inpatient and outpatient services and emergency care The Emergency Department provides fullphysician coverage and serves the community 24 hours seven days a week All physicians are board certified and maintain advanced cardiac and trauma life support and ACLS certifications With the emphasis on shorter inpatient lengths of stays the focus has moved towards outpatient care BHSC provides specialty services through the Hospitals Ambulatory Care Center that includes

Audiology Cardiology Endocrinology ENT Gastroenterology OBGYN Neurology Oncology Ophthalmology Orthopedic Services Pain Clinic Plastic Surgery Podiatry Pulmonary Rheumatology Speech Sports Medicine Surgical Urology Vascular Womens Health Services

Surgical services performed at BHSC are on both an ambulatory and inpatient basis BHSC also offers high quality Laboratory Medical Imaging Nutritional Counseling Cardio Pulmonary Physical Therapy Sports Medicine and Occupational Therapy services Specific diagnostic testing available included Mammography Ultrasound Bone Densitometry CT Scan Stress Testing Echocardiogram and EKG AIDSHIV Alcoholismdetox amp referral communicable disease testing psychiatric assessments rape crisis crisis intervention deathdying domestic violence family planningpregnancy counseling health education and information hearing impaired service hospice substance abuse services suicide

History

Mary Imogene Bassett was born to Doctors Wilson and Mary A Bassett in Mount Vision NY in 1856 In 1874 the family moved their growing medical practice to Cooperstown They practiced in a house that still stands on lower Fair Street and treated their patients for 612 week including room and board

Bassett Healthcare is named in honor of a physician who devoted herself generously for many years to the sick and unfortunate of Cooperstown and the surrounding region The hospitals first PhysicianinChief Dr Mary Imogene Bassett died in 1922 but is still remembered as a wise and skillful physician and a devoted and unselfish friend

At a time when few women found recognition in medical careers Dr Mary Imogene Bassett distinguished herself early She was only 31 when she graduated from the Womans Medical College of Pennsylvania She received further training and became an Instructor in Nervous Diseases at the Philadelphia Polyclinic and College for Graduates in Medicine She published several articles in that field and was subsequently elected delegate to the Philadelphia County Medical Society and the American Medical Association AMA

After the death of her mother in 1893 she abruptly turned to a rural general practice in Cooperstown with her aging father Her father died in 1905 and Dr Mary Imogene continued alone She had a very active practice in and around Cooperstown She was a beloved dedicated physician who was called quotDr Mollyquot by many of her patients

A Dream Comes True
Excerpted from quotThe Mary Imogene Bassett Hospitalquot by Clinton VanZandt Hawn MD
Among Dr Bassetts friends and patients was Edward Severin Clark He had great admiration for her According to anecdote he heard her express a wish for a laboratory to provide scientific data with which she and the other Cooperstown practitioners could better care for their patients Mr Clark granted her wish building not only a laboratory but a fullyequipped 100bed fieldstone hospital building Named quotThe Mary Imogene Bassett Hospitalquot it was meant as a living memorial to Dr Bassett

In 1918 the hospital was nearing completion and was offered by Mr Clark to the US Government for use as a temporary convalescent home for aviation officers until late 1919 The public opening of the hospital came in June 1922 with Dr Bassett serving as ChiefofStaff Tragically she suddenly died of a stroke at home in October of that year Mr Clark directed that the light in the cupola be lit every night in memory of her and it is to this day

Soon after Dr Bassetts death the hospital began struggling to keep its doors open The 100bed hospital proved too large for the small village and its local practitioners to support and the facility closed in 1925

quotIs it visionary to think of the hospital of the future and perhaps the not very distant future as a socially progressive health centerquot

Dr George Miner Mackenzie Director The Mary Imogene Bassett Hospital 19291947
As the story is told one day several senior residents at the Presbyterian Hospital in New York City located then on East 70th Street were discussing their hopes to work in a rural hospital A junior resident Dr Henry S F Cooper overheard their conversation and mentioned that he knew of a vacant stateoftheart 100bed hospital in Cooperstown New York Dr Cooper was a descendant of Judge William Cooper who had founded the village of Cooperstown in 1787

The residents were intrigued Within minutes Dr Cooper had crossed the street and was sitting in the home of Stephen C Clark Sr who had become interested in the empty hospital his brother Edward had built Dr Cooper suggested the idea of reopening the Cooperstown hospital with Mr Clarks support

On the following day the residents and Mr Clark traveled by seaplane landed on Otsego Lake and began planning for the revival of The Mary Imogene Bassett Hospital In March 1927 the hospital reopened with Dr Mackenzie assuming directorship in 1929 He served as both Director and PhysicianinChief for the next 18 years

Dr Mackenzie envisioned an ideal rural hospital dedicated to patient care education and research where the practicing physicians were fulltime and salaried His guiding philosophy was to create the strengths of a university hospital in a rural region His vision which shaped the hospitals original mission continues at Bassett today

Among his many accomplishments Dr Mackenzie developed a revolutionary selfinsurance plan an early version of todays health maintenance organizations This plan was developed to help people pay for medical services Subscribers paid in advance an annual premium of 25 for a single individual or 100 for a family of four or more Full coverage was provided for hospitalization all doctors fees preventive care surgery and specialty care Starting in 1930 on an experimental basis the plan operated for nine years During this time it seemed to be successful subscribers were satisfied and the hospital found it a convenient and financially viable method of providing medical care The plan was reluctantly terminated in 1940 at the urging of the New York State Department of Social Welfare backing at that time the establishment of a Blue Cross Plan

Just before his retirement Dr Mackenzie also established a formal link in 1947 between The Mary Imogene Bassett Hospital and Columbia Universitys College of Physicians and Surgeons This agreement furthered Bassetts development as a strong academic institution and gives many members of the Bassett medical staff faculty appointments at Columbia Universitys College of Physicians and Surgeons

A Leader in Rural Medicine

quotConstruction at The Mary Imogene Bassett Hospital in Cooperstown of proposed facilities for the critical administration of totalbody radiation to man should expedite the clinical development of this promising fieldquot
Editorial The New England Journal of Medicine September 12 1957
After Dr Mackenzies retirement in 1947 Stephen C Clark again played an essential role in the hospitals development He personally recruited Dr James Bordley III from Johns Hopkins University to head Bassett Hospital

Under Dr Bordleys leadership education and medical research began to grow as did Bassetts reputation for innovation and leadership in rural medicine Dr Bordley expanded Bassetts education programs to include nurses In response to nationwide nursing shortages Bassett initiated undergraduate nursing education affiliations and the student nurses were housed in the former Cooperstown Academy building remodeled and named Bassett Hall

In 1953 the Bassett Auxiliary was formed and in October 1969 the Friends of Bassett became officially recognized Both groups actively raise funds to enhance Bassetts patient care research and education endeavors In the 1990s the Friends of Bassett raised over 7 million during the first capital campaign to help fund the construction of the Bassett Clinic in Cooperstown

Research boomed in the 1950s with the award of numerous grants and the assembly of a pioneering group of researchers including Dr Joseph W Ferrebee Dr E Donnall Thomas Dr Theodore Peters Jr and Dr David A Blumenstock In 1956 these Bassett physicians completed the first bone marrow transplant in history The bone marrow from a healthy twin was transfused to a twin with leukemia after whole body radiation had wiped out the sick twins malignant leukemia cells Landmark work in heart and lung transplantation was also done at Bassett during this period In 1990 Dr E Donnall Thomas received the Nobel Prize in Medicine for his pioneering transplantation work which has led to the successful treatment of leukemia

quotEvery statistic shows that rural medicine lags far behind what is available in urban areasBut Cooperstownis a remarkable exception Reason it has The Mary Imogene Bassett Hospital a minimedical center that ranks among the best in the USquot
Time January 25 1971
The 1960s brought the opening of the Bassett Research Institute and in 1967 ground was broken for a new inpatient building that doubled the number of hospital beds and provided a new cafeteria and pharmacy Dr Bordleys successor Dr Charles Ashley undertook significant expansions in staff buildings specialty services and nursestaffed health centers During his directorship the number of outpatient visits increased from 60000 to 140000 per year and the overall Bassett staff tripled from 400 to 1200 In 1973 the first Bassett nurse practitioner was established in Edmeston and in 1978 a second community health center opened in Cherry Valley This innovative solution to the shortage of physicians in rural areas marked the beginning of Bassetts regional health center network

In 1970 the Carnegie Commission called for drastic improvement in the quality of US rural medicine and pinpointed one existing hospital as the ideal prototype Bassett One year later Time magazine featured Bassett as a model of rural health care delivery

Farmsafe the predecessor to the New York Center for Agricultural Medicine and Health NYCAMH was established in 1980 to reduce the incidence of farmrelated injuries and illnesses in the region At the same time the Bassett Research Institute began conducting some of the first major population studies of rural Americans

Bassett Healthcare Today
Since the 1920s Bassetts primary care network has expanded to 25 health centers with a variety of practitioners These providers began offering the areas first health maintenance program Community Health Plan of Bassett in 1986 In Cooperstown the Bassett Clinic opened its doors in 1992 providing a spacious and inviting primary and specialty care center for the region The Louis Busch Hager Cancer Center is located within the Bassett Clinic
Bassett continues to welcome affiliations with a number of medical nursing and allied health programs and schools all of which help attract practitioners to this rural region In the 1990s the Research Institute under the direction of Dr Thomas Pearson continued its studies presenting at medical conferences around the world and regularly making news headlines

Cooperstowns hospital offers a Birthing Center Special Care Units Dialysis and Intensive Care Units Advanced cardiac care arrived in the region with the opening of the Bassett Heart Care Institute BHCI in 2003 From prevention and detection to surgery and rehabilitation BHCI offers a complete range of cardiac and coronary care services Bassett is also a designated Area Trauma Center and Stroke Center

By the mid1990s Bassett had developed a fully integrated system of health care delivery serving the people of Central New York a system that now includes four affiliate hospitals OConnor Hospital in Delhi Cobleskill Regional Hospital in Schoharie County Little Falls Hospital in Herkimer County and TriTown Regional Hospital in Delaware County

Today the cupola light continues to burn in Dr Bassetts memory and the missions of patient care research and education remain unchanged The visionary goals of Bassetts former leaders educators researchers physicians employees and volunteers continue to guide the organization through growth and change

Just as generations of patients and families have passed through Bassetts front doors so have generations of dedicated employees health care professionals and other supporters whose compassion and caring will long be remembered These individuals have always been the heart and soul of Bassett and will continue to distinguish Bassett as a health care tradition for many generations to come