UVM Health - Alice Hyde Medical Center

09/23/2025

When Sarah graduated from SUNY Upstate’s Physician Assistant program in 2016, she knew she wanted a career that offered both flexibility and connection. She found both here, joining our Primary Care team in 2019.

For Sarah, the most rewarding part of being a PA is the relationships she builds with her patients. Over the years, she’s walked alongside them through the ups and downs of chronic disease, helping them set and reach health goals through lifestyle changes, mental health support and medication when needed. “I always want my patients to feel as though we are a team with the same end-goal,” she explains.

One of her most memorable experiences came when she partnered with Alice Hyde and UVM Health - Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital OB providers to help care for a longtime patient through a complicated pregnancy after several miscarriages. The story had a happy ending, and Sarah still remembers the “tears of joy” when that patient finally welcomed a healthy baby.

Outside of work, Sarah stays busy with her three kids, their dog and the dairy calves her family cares for at home. She also finds joy in gardening and in running — sometimes turning it into a family adventure when the kids and pup tag along.

During National APP Week, we celebrate Sarah and all our Advanced Practice Providers who bring skill and compassion to our patients and their families every day.

09/21/2025

🩸Give a pint, get a pint! 🍨

We're excited to partner with Stewart's Shops for a sweet reward for blood donors. Anyone who gives blood at our Adirondack Blood Center or any participating blood drive throughout Essex, Clinton, Franklin and St. Lawrence counties will receive a certificate for a free pint of Stewart's pre-packaged ice cream or gelato. The promotion lasts throughout the month of September.

Check out a participating drive happening this week:

🩸 Tuesday, 9/23: St. Lawrence County Human Services Center | 80 Highway 310, Canton | 12-3 pm
🩸 Thursday, 9/25: Altona Fire Department | Devils Den Road, Altona | 4:30-8:30 pm

Donations collected at community drives and at the Adirondack Blood Center, located at 85 Plaza Blvd. help thousands of North Country residents. The Blood Center is open Monday through Friday, 8 am to 4 pm. Walk-ins are always welcome.

09/21/2025

🌱🥬✨IN KALE WE TRUST ✨🥬🌱
“Eat More Kale” changed his life – but more than that, it showed what can happen when you follow your gut. Meet Bo Moore, a transport tech at Central Vermont Medical Center.

~~~

When I was 27, I moved to Vermont with a Rottweiler, a python, a black cat, a southern accent, a history degree and no local references.

I’m 53 now and things have worked out pretty well - though it has been kind of a wild ride. At one point, I even found myself in the national spotlight. For me, it always comes back to connecting with people, no matter what I happen to be doing.

My first job was as an event photographer at Auburn University, where I was a student. I shot everything from football games to parties, and I loved it. Carrying around a big camera gets you VIP treatment in a lot of places.

I had family in Vermont, which is how I eventually landed here. I stopped in Montpelier one August day, and with a 50-cent newspaper I found both a job and a place to live.

A connection at the local school led me to become a caregiver for special-needs adults — a role I had for almost 20 years, mostly in my home. It was a rewarding job, and it gave me a chance to be a hands-on dad. I’m proud and grateful to be the parent of three happy and healthy kids.

I also started a T-shirt printing business.

I never thought of myself as an artist – more of a doodler. But things took off when I came up with a simple design: Three words, “Eat More Kale.”

It wasn’t my favorite design, but it changed everything. It started a trademark battle with Chick-fil-A, the fast-food giant behind “Eat Mor Chikin.” I eventually won, but not before landing on CNN, the New York Times and in countless other media outlets. The local support was incredible – even Vermont’s governor got involved.

It was a moment when everything clicked: farmers markets were booming, co-ops were catching on and people were just learning what ‘localvore’ meant.

I hand-printed more shirts than I ever imagined and gave away 15,000 “Eat More Kale” bumper stickers a year. I didn’t get rich, and you can only do that kind of thing for so long – but there’s no question it changed my life. For one thing, I had to know what kale was – and eat some – so my diet and lifestyle improved.

These days, I’m connecting with people in a different way. I walk about 20,000 steps a day around the hospital, where my wife, Nicole, is a nurse. I’m never in one place for more than five minutes. And if I find a joke that works, I get to tell it 60 times.

“Eat More Kale” changed my life – but more than that, it showed me what can happen when you follow your gut. That’s what I’ve done most of my life. If you have an idea and it feels right, run with it.

09/20/2025

✏️ NEW EPISODE | Healthy Starts: Kids, Classrooms and Care ✏️ As kids head back to school, we take a closer look at the health challenges students and families face.
🔗 Listen online: https://bit.ly/4gA9CO3

⭐ Real stories. Real care. Real impact. ⭐
Listen to LIVING HEALTHY TOGETHER for real stories, expert insights and practical health tips straight from UVM Health patients, caregivers and leaders.

UVM Health pediatric experts in youth mental health, public health and absenteeism share real-world solutions. Join Dr. Keith Robinson, Dr. Heidi Schumacher and Dr. Steven Schlozman as they discuss new research that deepens our understanding of what students need to succeed and offer reflections on the back-to-school experience for parents and caregivers.

09/17/2025

⭐ Real stories. Real care. Real impact. ⭐ As kids head back to school, we take a closer look at the health challenges students and families face.

LIVING HEALTHY TOGETHER | Healthy Starts: Kids, Classrooms & Care

In this episode, we’ll discuss mental health at home and in the classroom, the current state of chronic absenteeism and its impact on wellbeing and scholastic achievement and rural access to care. We’ll also highlight community-based support services that help students and families respond to challenges as they arise.

Pediatric experts in public health, youth mental health and absenteeism share real-world solutions. They discuss new research that’s deepening our understanding of what students need to succeed, and they reflect on the back-to-school experience for parents and caregivers.

Join Dr. Keith Robinson, Dr. Heidi Schumacher, and Dr. Steven Schlozman for an in-depth look at how to set students up for success this year.

📻 Tune in live Friday at 1 pm on WDEV:
FM 96.1, 96.5, 98.3, 101.9 | AM 550

🔗 Or listen on-demand: https://bit.ly/4gj01ux

09/17/2025

We’re honored to share that Community Connections of Franklin County recently presented The Alice Center with a Certificate of Appreciation, recognizing our commitment to serving the people of Franklin County. 💙

Even sweeter? They surprised our team with boxes of cookies — a delicious and thoughtful way to say thank you!

Community Connections is all about strengthening families, supporting mental health, and building a more connected community - and we’re proud to partner with an organization whose mission aligns so closely with our own values of care and compassion.

09/16/2025

🩸Give a pint, get a pint! 🍨

We're excited to partner with Stewart's Shops for a sweet reward for blood donors. Anyone who gives blood at our Adirondack Blood Center or any participating blood drive throughout Essex, Clinton, Franklin and St. Lawrence counties will receive a certificate for a free pint of Stewart's pre-packaged ice cream or gelato. The promotion lasts throughout the month of September.

Check out participating drives happening this week:

🩸 Tuesday, 9/16: St. Edmunds Church Hall | Route 11, Ellenburg Depot | 4-7 pm
🩸 Wednesday, 9/17: Franklin County Court House | 355 West Main Street, Malone | 10 am-1 pm
🩸 Friday, 9/19: Franklin County Sheriffs Department | 45 Bare Hill Road, Malone | 10 am-2 pm

Donations collected at community drives and at the Adirondack Blood Center, located at 85 Plaza Blvd. help thousands of North Country residents. The Blood Center is open Monday through Friday, 8 am to 4 pm. Walk-ins are always welcome.

09/15/2025

🩺REDEFINING PAIN: A NEW MODEL FOR CARE 🩺 Two lives changed by injury and chronic pain… their stories may shift how you think about pain — and recovery.
🎧Listen now: https://bit.ly/4mkSih4

~~~~

✨Real stories. Real care. Real impact. ✨
(First aired on WDEV, now streaming as a podcast.)

A spinal surgery gone wrong left John Killacky paralyzed and living in debilitating pain. After a traumatic hit-and-run accident, Emily Metcalfe woke up in the hospital, quadriplegic, and in need of months of physical and occupational therapy as she relearned how to walk.

On this episode of Living Healthy Together, UVM Health Network's podcast, John and Emily share their stories, their experiences living with chronic pain, and how the Comprehensive Pain Program at University of Vermont Medical Center helped them learn to control their pain, rather than be defined by it.

They're joined by Dr. Joshua Plavin and Laurel Audy, RN, two founding members of the Comprehensive Pain Program who reflect on their own roles building a unique, leading-edge approach to treatment and support. They share how the program's holistic approach to patient care and wellness challenges health care's status quo and could make an impact even for those who aren't living with chronic pain.

09/13/2025

🔦🕯️Finding Light in Darkness 🕯️🔦
"When you're a doctor, you think you can handle anything life throws at you. I thought I had it all figured out. Then my daughter Victoria taught me I knew nothing at all."

Meet Dragos Banu, MD, a primary care internal medicine doctor and division chief of primary care for AHMC, CVPH, PMC and ECH.

~~~

I met my wife in medical school during a clinical rotation at a hospital in Brooklyn, NY. She was a PA in the emergency room. She's from Bulgaria. I'm from Romania. We both immigrated as children, so we understood each other's journey.

We moved to Malone, NY, in 2014 with our one-year-old son, Christian, and life felt perfect. We were paying down the mortgage, building careers. When we got pregnant again, everything seemed like a fairy tale.

Victoria was born on New Year's Eve at Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital. Things seemed fine, but she wasn't meeting her milestones. She cried constantly and had trouble lifting her head. At five months, an MRI revealed the devastating truth: She'd had a massive perinatal stroke. Most of her brain had died.

We brought her home under hospice care. In her final hour, I couldn't bear to watch my own child die. My wife couldn't either. Our mothers held Victoria as she passed at nine months old.

The guilt nearly destroyed me. I'd cry between patients. I wore sunglasses so strangers wouldn't see my tears. For years, I couldn't talk about her.

I found healing by doing something unexpected — providing hospice care for my patients. I comforted their loved ones. I sat with them as they died. I secretly hoped they'd talk to Victoria for me.

Each time I helped a family through their darkest moment, I understood my own grief a little better. Everyone carries their own cross. Some have lost two children, some three. As Ram Dass said, we're all walking each other home.

Two years later, Leo was born. His middle name is Victor, after his sister.

Victoria changed how I see every person. Behind every smile might be someone crying behind sunglasses. You never know what someone's carrying until you really listen.

My heart will always have a missing piece until I see her again. But she taught me the most important lesson of my life — the deepest pain can lead to the greatest compassion.

09/10/2025

⭐ Real stories. Real care. Real impact. ⭐
A spinal surgery gone wrong left John Killacky paralyzed and living in debilitating pain. After a traumatic hit-and-run accident, Emily Metcalfe woke up in the hospital, quadriplegic, and in need of months of physical and occupational therapy as she relearned how to walk.

On this episode of Living Healthy Together, UVM Health Network's podcast, John and Emily share their stories, their experiences living with chronic pain, and how the Comprehensive Pain Program at University of Vermont Medical Center helped them learn to control their pain, rather than be defined by it.

They're joined by Dr. Joshua Plavin and Laurel Audy, RN, two founding members of the Comprehensive Pain Program who reflect on their own roles building a unique, leading-edge approach to treatment and support. They share how the program's holistic approach to patient care and wellness challenges health care's status quo and could make an impact even for those who aren't living with chronic pain.

📻 Tune in live Friday at 1 pm on WDEV:
FM 96.1, 96.5, 98.3, 101.9 | AM 550

🔗 Or listen on-demand starting on Saturday:
https://bit.ly/4gj01ux

09/08/2025

Congratulations to Assemblyman Billy Jones on his retirement from the New York State Assembly!

Over nearly nine years of dedicated service representing the 115th District, Billy has been a steadfast champion for the North Country and for rural hospitals like Alice Hyde Medical Center, Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital and the communities that rely on us.

From fighting to preserve essential services, to supporting our workforce development and recruitment efforts, his leadership and advocacy have made a lasting difference in the lives of our patients, staff, and our communities.

As he begins his next chapter this week as Vice President for Strategic Initiatives and Workforce Development at Clinton Community College, we wish him continued success and look forward to partnering with him in new ways to support the health and vitality of our region.

Thank you, Billy, for your years of service and for always putting the people of the North Country first.

On my last day in office, I’m reflecting on the past nine years as your Assemblyman. Through the ups and the downs, the has been there for me since day one. Thank you for trusting me to serve the region I’m proud to call my home, and for allowing me to live out my dream. You’re the reason I’ve never stopped working to improve our area, and I’ll be grateful for this opportunity forever. Here’s to the next chapter!

09/07/2025

🩸Give a pint, get a pint! 🍨

We're excited to partner with Stewart's Shops for a sweet reward for blood donors. Anyone who gives blood at our Adirondack Blood Center or any participating blood drive throughout Essex, Clinton, Franklin and St. Lawrence counties will receive a certificate for a free pint of Stewart's pre-packaged ice cream or gelato. The promotion lasts throughout the month of September.

Check out participating drives happening this week:

🩸 Tuesday, 9/9: American Legion Chateaugay | Route 11, Chateaugay | 4-7 pm

🩸 Wednesday, 9/10: Alice Hyde Medical Center | 133 Park Street, Malone | 11 am-3 pm

Donations collected at community drives and at the Adirondack Blood Center, located at 85 Plaza Blvd. help thousands of North Country residents. The Blood Center is open Monday through Friday, 8 am to 4 pm. Walk-ins are always welcome.