Glens Falls Hospital, during a  week-long celebration of Nurses Week in May, honored 11 nurses for the quality care they provide throughout the entire year.

The events of Nurses Week were centered on recognizing nurses for the critical role they have in delivering compassionate and expert clinical care to patients. 

The hospital also announced that for the past four consecutive years, Glens Falls Hospital nurses have been finalists or named in the Top 10 Nurses of the Year for the Times Union Salute to Nurses, including this year’s winner Jennifer Cleveland.

At the hospital’s annual Nurse of the Year awards ceremony, honors were given in four diverse categories: nurse leadership, nurse as teacher, clinical nurse, and magnet champion.  The nurses were nominated and selected by their peers. Winners included:

The CEO of Fort Hudson Health System, Inc., has been awarded the highest honor for excellence in senior care leadership by a statewide association of senior care providers.

Andrew Cruikshank as presented with the 2018 Lawrence E. Larson Memorial Award of Honor from LeadingAge New York on May 24 in Saratoga Springs. 

LeadingAge New York represents more than 450 nonprofit senior care organizations from across the state.

The state Department of Health has launched the NYS Health Connector, a web-based application that allows quick access to a wide range of health information—such as the costs of various medical procedures and the frequency those procedures are performed at hospitals—empowering consumers to make more informed health care decisions. 

The new website, which also features health care service and utilization data, is a rich resource for policymakers and researchers interested in identifying needs and resources in communities throughout the state as well, officials said.

“It is critical for patients to be active participants in their healthcare decisions, and we are proud to announce that the NYS Health Connector can help them reach that goal,” said state Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker. “We have consolidated and made accessible multiple sources of data that will help New Yorkers achieve better health, better care and lower costs.”

NY State of Health, the state’s official health plan Marketplace,reported in May that more than 4.3 million New Yorkers enrolled in health plans during its fifth open enrollment period that ran from Nov. 1, 2017 through Jan. 31.

“We worked hard to get the message out that the Marketplace is ‘open for business,’ and that the health plans offered through NY State of Health provide New Yorkers with the protection and security of health insurance,” said NY State of Health Executive Director Donna Frescatore. “This year, consumers had a choice of health plans at prices that were, in many cases, the same or lower than last year.”

Despite being a year marked by concerns about the continuation of the Affordable Care Act, consumer demand for coverage in New York remains strong, she said.