A few days ago - it was a crazy day here - we had two separate and unrelated visits by staff from the New York State Board of Health. One of them pertained to the final inspections and approval of the new dialysis center in the new Wellness Center up the hill near the dining hall. Those meetings took nearly all day, and the Board of Health is being quite rigorous (as they should be). Heroic on our side were Maureen Eisele (our amazing long-time dialysis unit coordinator), Tom Holsapple (our director of operations, mentioned not long ago in this blog), Rick Kaskel (pediatric nephrologist also familiar to blog readers), and Tom Groschell (head of our maintenance and construction crews). All but Tom H. are in this picture, taken toward the happy end of the day-long meetings, which included staff from Montefiore Hospital in the Bronx, which is the host hospital (our dialysis unit is a "satellite"). Tom Groschell is near the left side, facing us, wearing the badge. Maureen is next to him wearing white. Rick is in an orange staff shirt with his side and back to us.
This meeting is followed by some final checks (e.g. water tests, which I believe Rick is literally carrying with him in vials back to Montefiore tomorrow) and then, next Tuesday, the second day of the 4th session, the unit will be moved to the new facility and we will say a final goodbye to Dialysis Unit in Back of Smith Lodge Built 1975. Goodbye dear Unit, you've served us well.
