Category: News

As announced on October 25, 2023, most Samaritan locations are using an outbreak approach to mandatory facemask use. Visitors, patients, and employees may be asked to mask in various locations if there is an outbreak in that specific location.

At this time, as of November 6, 2023, Walker Center for Cancer Care is experiencing an ongoing transmission and are under temporary masks-required conditions. Samaritan will announce when this is lifted and the center returns to masks-optional.

Visitors and patients will be notified upon entry if the location they are visiting is masked for the day.

Samaritan’s long term care facilities and emergency department remain masks-required due to the heightened risk of exposure.

Any further updates to this change will be added to samaritanhealth.com/news.

Watertown, NY – For weeks Samaritan’s infection prevention team has been researching facemask guidelines from other facilities and discussing with leadership to determine if Samaritan should make a change to its source control guidelines. After thorough consideration of risks associated with COVID-19 illness, review of metrics and trends across the organization and county, and in collaboration with key department leaders, Samaritan has determined the organization will return to mask-optional on Wednesday, October 25, 2023, in most locations for staff, patients, and visitors, with exceptions. 

The emergency department and long-term care facilities will remain facemask required. This decision comes from seeing an increase in positive cases among residents in the long term care setting and the increased risk associated with patient and employee illness and/or exposure in the emergency department environment.

The remaining locations will use an outbreak approach to mandatory facemask use. Visitors, patients, and employees may be asked to mask in various locations if there is an outbreak in that specific location. Visitors will be notified upon entry if the location they are visiting is masked for the day. Visitors who refuse to wear a facemask in a mask-required area will be asked to leave. At this time, there has been no change in visitation.

Any further updates to this change will be added to samaritanhealth.com/news.

Monday, October 23, 2023 Update:
The City of Watertown boil water notice has been officially lifted this afternoon. Samaritan locations are following strict protocol from the New York State Department of Health to ensure we are flushing our water systems and resuming operations safely.

Samaritan sites and locations will resume normal operations on Tuesday, October 24, 2023.

Scheduled surgeries for Tuesday, October 24, will continue with a few exceptions. Those patients whose surgery has been cancelled for Tuesday have already been contacted.

All outpatient endoscopy procedures for Tuesday, October 24, have been cancelled. All surgical patients and outpatient endoscopy procedures will resume to normal operations on Wednesday, October 25, 2023.

Thank you for your patience during this crisis.

Sunday, October 22, 2023 Update:

Significant progress has been made to restore water services in the City of Watertown and surrounding communities. We want to thank all our local and state agencies for the amazing work and support they have provided our community. However, since the water boil notice is still active, Samaritan Health continues to have limitations in certain areas, and we continue to adjust operations during this crisis. We are actively doing what we can with limited resources and utilizing partners across the state to help us.

On Monday, October 23, 2023, all Samaritan clinics and outpatient locations will be open and operational. There may be a few patients whose appointments will need to be rescheduled due to some of our limitations. These impacted patients will be called directly.

All outpatient lab and imaging services (MRI/CT, ultrasound, mammography, etc.) will be up and running on Monday, October 23. All scheduled patients will be seen and all walk-in services will be open.

Any of our Walker Center for Cancer Care medical oncology patients that are scheduled to receive chemotherapy treatment on Monday, October 23, that may be impacted will be contacted directly with an update.

Scheduled surgeries for Monday, October 23, will continue with a few exceptions. Those patients whose surgery has been cancelled for Monday have already been contacted.

All outpatient endoscopy procedures for Monday, October 23, have been cancelled.

We are diligently working and planning to have all services fully operational once the boil notice has been lifted and we can ensure our internal systems are operational. Thank you for your patience during this very difficult situation.

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***Samaritan Visitation Returns to Normal***

As of October 20, 2023, visitation at Samaritan Medical Center has returned to normal. Please see the visitation information on the main page of this website.

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*** Samaritan Limits Visitation Due to Water Main Break***

Samaritan Medical Center has limited inpatient visitation and Emergency Department support persons because of the water main break as follows: 

Medical/Surgical Units, Critical Care Unit, Inpatient Mental Health – Visitation is closing at 3:30 p.m. on October 19, 2023 – will remain that way until further notice.

Car-Freshner Center for Women and Children – one support person allowed as of 3:30 p.m. on October 19, 2023 – until further notice.

Emergency Department (ED) – ED pediatric patients or those with an altered mental state or OB patients over 20 weeks are allowed one support person. No other support persons or visitors until further notice. 

End-of-life / Comfort Care – These patients may have one support person. Compassionate exceptions are approved by the Nursing Supervisor – until further notice.

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All Samaritan locations in the City of Watertown are impacted by the major water main break that the City is trying to fix. We are seeing a significant water pressure drop. Samaritan locations within the city are conserving water in multiple ways from halting laundry services, to limiting patient and resident showering with bedside baths. We are also delivering bottled water to all areas and preparing for a delay in water delivery.

We continue to monitor our water pressure and supply and will make decisions about specific patient services as the situation progresses. We are following our water loss emergency operation plan as designed and have teams in place to help through this disruption in operations.

At this time for today, Thursday, October 19, 2023, the services that are cancelled are listed below, with some impact to tomorrow’s operations as well. All patients will be rescheduled at a later date and time.

All surgical and outpatient procedures for 10/20 will be rescheduled.

All outpatient MRI and CT appointments for 10/19 and 10/20 at the main hospital will be cancelled and rescheduled.

The Walker Center for Cancer Care will be cancelling and rescheduling all patient appointments for 10/19 and 10/20.

All services at the Samaritan Health and Wellness Plaza location (1575 Washington St.) are closed for 10/19 and 10/20 and will be rescheduled – this includes but not limited to the Family Health Center, Women’s Wellness and Breast Care, Behavioral Health and Addiction services, the SMART Clinic and Lab, X-ray, MRI and CT.

The Ear, Nose and Throat, General Surgery, Pain Clinic all located at 826 Washington St.; 
The Wound Care Center located at 165 Coleman Avenue; and the
The Rheumatology and Plastic Surgery clinics located at 629 Washington St. will be closed Friday, October 20, 2023.

Watertown, NY – After more than a year of gardening work and memories resurfacing, the Baby Memorial Garden at Thompson Park has been renewed. It is now properly marked with a plaque identifying its purpose, which started over 30 years ago.

Community member Allison Gorham noticed the garden headstone in 2021 while tending to other gardens in Thompson Park. Through social media, Allison learned about its history and purpose.  She rejuvenated the garden and worked with retired and current Registered Nurses to create a plaque to mark the special memorial garden and honor perinatal grief.

Samaritan Medical Center will be hosting an informal rededication of the memorial garden on Tuesday, October 24 at 1 p.m., which is open to the public.  A special invitation is extended to those families who may be part of its origin, and the Samaritan Caregivers who have helped families through this journey.  This rededication will take place at the memorial garden, which is located near the pavilion overlook at Thompson Park.

October is a fitting time for the rededication, as it is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month.

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Resolve Through Sharing:
This is a special grief program to help healthcare facilities support families who experience loss.  Samaritan uses these resources and had a formal program in the early 1990s within its maternity department.  At the time, Samaritan also hosted a parent support group, called “Empty Arms,” to help these families.  Caregivers at the Car-Freshner Center for Women and Children continue to use Resolve Through Sharing resources and provide support to grieving families.  You can learn more about Resolve Through Sharing here: https://www.resolvethroughsharing.org/

Origins of the Memorial Garden:
Samaritan maternity nurses in the 1990s wanted to make sure families had a way to honor children lost during pregnancy or soon after birth. They started a yearly event in Thompson Park called “A Walk to Remember” and built the memorial garden. Participants took part in a short memorial walk, an ecumenical service, and planted tulip bulbs in remembrance of children who had died.

The new plaque, which honors the memorial garden and its origin, reads:

“This memorial garden was created in 1992 by a team of caregivers from the Center for Women and Children at Samaritan Medical Center.  During this time, the Resolve Through Sharing counselor and coordinator training program created a parent support group, Empty Arms, for families who lost babies during pregnancy or shortly after birth.

A memorial Walk to Remember event was held every fall and each family was given a flower bulb to plant in this special garden in memory of their child. After several years of careful tending, it unfortunately lay dormant. It was rediscovered and redesigned in 2021. It includes all the original bulbs that survived, in addition to several more, along with other perennials.

This garden is dedicated to all those who experience this loss. It is a place of solace and remembrance.”

Adams, NY — The Azz Dogz-Northern Chapter, a motorcycle group that meets at the Adams Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW), holds various events each year to raise funds for a local charity. They selected Children’s Miracle Network of Northern New York at Samaritan Medical Center this year.

The two-year-old son of Azz Dogz members Erik Demianenko and Abby Putnam was born prematurely and was admitted to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Crouse Hospital, where he remained for more than two months. Samaritan’s Children’s Miracle Network (CMN) program assisted the family with travel expenses for trips to Syracuse from their home in Dexter, NY.

“These guys (Azz Dogz) are so awesome, and they raise money for different charities every year,” said Abby. “I encouraged them to choose Children’s Miracle Network because we just wanted to give back for what CMN did for us. We are personally so honored to be a part of this and to give back.”

“We worked especially hard to get as many contributions as we could,” said Azz Dogz member Jeff Greene. “The biggest event we have is our March Party to kick off the year, then we had two motorcycle runs during the year to raise money.”

The group also raffled off a minibike with help from Carson’s Pizzeria in Adams where many tickets were sold.

Angie VanWormer, director of Children’s Miracle Network at Samaritan, said “It’s especially heartwarming when a family that was assisted by CMN is so passionate about helping us and other families in return. The Azz Dogz raised an incredible amount of money for CMN, as well as awareness of what we do. We are extremely grateful for this donation and their support.”

Samaritan Medical Center has served as the North Country’s only Children’s Miracle Network Hospital since 1990, striving to raise and allocate funds to improve the health and wellbeing of children in Jefferson, Lewis and St. Lawrence counties.

Funds raised through the Children’s Miracle Network program support child-centered areas of Samaritan through the funding of capital projects and purchase of critical pediatric equipment. In addition, funds raised provide direct financial assistance to local families with a child facing a medical crisis for travel expenses and other out-of-pocket medical costs — a program unique to Samaritan.

For more information on Children’s Miracle Network, contact Samaritan Medical Center at 315-785-4053 or [email protected]

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