News From Grace Cottage

BRATTLEBORO – Since the spring of 2013, the Boards of Trustees of Brattleboro Memorial Hospital (BMH) and Grace Cottage Hospital (GCH) have engaged in discussions about how the two organizations might collaborate to jointly address the healthcare needs of patients in Windham County. This process included valuable input from patients, the public, and medical staffs of both organizations.

The Boards of Brattleboro Memorial Hospital and Grace Cottage Hospital have determined that BMH and GCH will continue to work together, but will remain independent, separate entities.

“Both hospitals share a long and strong relationship and are committed to continuing to work to provide the highest level of patient care, together and individually, in the future,” said Stephan Morse, Chairman of the Board of Trustees at Grace Cottage Hospital and Peter Carvell, Chairman of the Brattleboro Memorial Hospital Board of Directors.

TOWNSHEND, Vt. — Grace Cottage Hospital Wellness Director Crystal Mansfield was in Burlington on March 27, receiving a Workplace Wellness Initiative Gold Level Award from the Governor’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports. One of 91 businesses considered for this award, Grace Cottage was recognized for its success in promoting physical fitness and a healthy work-life balance for its employees.

“Vermont employers have come to understand that physically fit workers are more productive and invested in their careers. Business leaders see the benefits of worksite wellness programs to their bottom line,” said Janet Franz, chair of the Governor’s Council.

This is the second year in a row that Grace Cottage has been recognized. Last year, Grace Cottage received a Bronze Level award.

Grace Cottage Hospital Wellness Director Crystal Mansfield receives a Gold Level Workplace Wellness Initiative Award from (left) Vermont Health Commissioner Harry Chen and (right) Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin.

Grace Cottage Connections is a secure  online resource that is personalized for you, so that you can stay current with  your healthcare information.
Grace Cottage Connections provides you  with the ability to:

• Look at test results
• renew prescriptions
• view your medical records
• request provider appointments, and
• communicate with your physician and physician’s office when it’s convenient for you.

Grace Cottage Connections helps you make the best of time spent with your medical provider by providing you with access to your test results, and helping you get ready for follow-up.

Grace Cottage Connections gives you access to your medical information from anywhere, day or night. Click to download the sign-up form for Grace Cottage Connections.

Sign Up Now!

BURLINGTON – Grace Cottage Hospital will be honored with the Worksite Wellness Gold Level Award, presented by the Governor’s Council on Physical Fitness & Sports and the Vermont Department of Health at the Worksite Wellness Conference on March 27.
Read more

By HOWARD WEISS-TISMAN / Reformer Staff

TOWNSHEND — Amy Visser-Lynch, a nurse in Grace Cottage Hospital’s Emergency Department, was pretty impressed when she went to a seminar last year on the latest telemedicine technology. Read more

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October 2013

Dear Friend of Grace Cottage

Thank you for your support of the little hospital with the big heart. It is a beacon of light in the night to those who need us.

• Grace Cottage Hospital is a place to come to for personal medical care, wellness care, and for a variety of modern health care services via our family medical clinics.
• It is a fully-staffed 24-hour-a-day emergency room tied in by jointlydeveloped protocols that can rapidly stabilize and transfer patients with heart attacks, strokes, respiratory failure, and other serious illness by helicopter or land to higher levels of care, if needed.
• It is a hospital with a highly skilled Physical Therapy/Occupational Therapy/Speech team and trained nurses staffing our Rehabilitation beds for people needing post-operative, post-stroke, post-injury care.
  It is also an Acute Care hospital, caring for people with pneumonia, congestive heart failure, cellulitis, and other illnesses not needing a higher level of care.Grace Cottage’s Hospice Room was the first one in Vermont. In this lovely two-room setting, our wonderful nurses, doctors, and pharmacy team know how to do palliative care well, with full involvement of the patient and the family.

We are the original community hospital funded, supported, and promoted by you. Without your help, this small hospital and community health care system would not have survived in the seemingly chronic turbulence of our national healthcare system.

Bless you all, who contribute so generously to us.

Sincerely,

Bob Backus
Rural Family Doctor