The Work We Do: Carthage Are Hospital & Claxton-Hepburn Medical Center

These 1199ers care for New York State’s North Country. Just above the Adirondack Mountains in Northeastern New York State lies the North Country. The region is also home to several 1199-represented healthcare facilities, including Claxton-Hepburn Medical Center in Ogdensburg and Carthage Area Hospital in Carthage. An area of abundant natural beauty, the North Country is bordered by Lake Ontario and the Saint Lawrence Seaway. It’s home to Lake Champlain, the Thousand Islands and Fort Drum, home of the U.S. Army’s fabled 10th Mountain Division, the most deployed unit in the U.S. military. Because Fort Drum is one of the few military installations in the U.S. which does not have its own on-post hospital, Carthage Area Hospital and the 1199 caregivers who work there proudly treat Fort Drum’s military personnel and their families, along with tens of thousands of residents from Jefferson, northern Lewis and southern Saint Lawrence Counties. Farther north, at Claxton-Hepburn Medical Center in Ogdensburg, 1199ers serve the 100,000 residents of northern Saint Lawrence County and the surrounding areas in an array of capacities, from oncology to intensive care.

1. CT Tech Josh Howland was working at Carthage Hospital as a cook when a manager encouraged him to go back to school and learn phlebotomy. The offer came with paid tuition and an agreement to stay on for three years. That was nearly 16 years ago. Today, Howland is a CT Tech who loves the community aspect of his job. “It can be very stressful, but I love it. I’m a people person,” he says. “I know everyone—from the old people to the babies. I treat my neighbors, friends and family. And I treat all my patients with respect because that’s how I would want my family to be treated.”

3. Mona Pratt, a Certified Coder, started at Claxton-Hepburn as a dietary worker 17 years ago. She’s been an 1199 delegate at the institution for two years. “I mostly code in oncology. We read the notes, and then determine the codes so [finance] can draw up the bill,” she says. “It’s important because we are the last step before the bill and we [help ensure] proper reimbursement. I think it’s important for doctors and nurses to understand; I think it’s important for anyone in health care to understand it, actually.”

5. Head Cook Steve Rookey has been at Claxton-Hepburn Medical Center in Ogdensburg for 17 years. “I went to BOCES for Culinary Arts. This job was an opportunity, and I took it,” says Rookey. “My favorite thing is shortorder cooking. We are going to be switching to restaurant-style service in a couple of months. It’s going to be good for the staff and good for the patients.”

2. Dietetic Assistant Lori Everard has worked at Carthage Hospital for 43 years. “I was 16 when I started working. I was born and raised on a farm and my parents taught me that if you want something you have to work for it,” says Everard, an 1199 shop steward at Carthage. “The people I work with here are just terrific. They care about the hospital and treat everyone like friends and family. We are such a small hospital that we get a lot of long-time residents from the area. One of the wonderful things is that patients don’t have to talk to machines here, they talk to people.”

4. Coder/ Clinical Documentation Specialist Holly Leary has worked at Carthage Area Hospital for 20 years. “I’ve had a lot of on-the-job training,” says Leary, who is also a Union delegate. “Sometimes the documentation for a case is lacking and I have to have a face-to-face with the doctors so I can get details and code it correctly.”

6. Jason Brown has been an ER Tech at Claxton Hepburn Medical Center since 2007. Brown’s previous job as an EMT helped prepare him for the Emergency Department. “It’s the ER,” he says matter-of-factly. “You just never know what you’re going to get coming through that door.”

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The Work We Do: Carthage Are Hospital & Claxton-Hepburn Medical Center