Amid tears of joy and congratulatory hugs, the old board of ESRN (Elder Services Resource Network) recently passed the baton to the new guard at their monthly meeting.

Plantation City Commissioner, Jerry Fadgen, was there to thank the retiring board and to officially swear in the new leaders.

Michael Brodie, the new President, addressed the group, acknowledging what Elder Services Resource Network is all about: “… adding to our personal and community knowledge and giving quality service to the elderly. Also ESRN seems to attract the best people in the field.”

ESRN is made up of professionals who are involved in some way with the Senior population. Their membership includes owners of home care and companion service companies, elder care attorneys, geriatric care managers, social workers, psychologists, marketing representatives from independent, assisted living and skilled nursing facilities, staff from non-profits that provide services to seniors, etc. Anyone working with Seniors is welcome to attend the monthly meetings which regularly provide informal networking opportunities and feature a special program. The programs range from informative presentations to enhance their skills for working in the elder care arena to a concert by their very own swinging ESRN Singers. The meetings are held on the fourth Wednesday of each month from 8:00-9:30 a.m. For more information, call Michael Brodie (305) 762-1453.



Kendall Regional Medical Center has appointed Father Jesús Saldaña to its Board of Directors. Father Saldaña is humbled and excited at the prospect of serving the community and the hospital in this manner.

Father Saldaña has been the pastor of St. Kevin’s Catholic Church and school for the past five years. He has served with the Catholic Church for the past 24 years. He attended seminary in his native Cuba and came to the United States in 1987. Previously, he was the pastor at St. Joaquin Catholic Church, Assistant Pastor at St. Timothy Catholic Church, Assistant at Our Lady of Charity Shrine and at Our Lady of the Divine Providence.



Mary DeGraaff of Information Technology and Debora O’Cathey, R.N., who works on the Medical/Surgery floor, received Mariners Hospital’s Employee of the Quarter Award for making a patient very happy. Soon after a Keys tourist from England required hospitalization, he told O’Cathey that he was an avid soccer fan who had purchased expensive tickets to a soccer match in England that he would not be able to attend. O’Cathey knew that the patient wanted to see a live telecast of the match, but the hospital’s in-room television stations were showing only tape-delays. She called on DeGraaff for help since the game would be broadcast live on the Internet. After exploring various technological solutions, DeGraaff was able to display the game on a computer monitor, and the patient watched the live action.

Mary Degraaff (left) and Debora O’Cathey



Mariners Hospital provides very high quality patient care, according to data recently released by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Hospital Quality Alliance. The data show that 41 percent of Mariners’ quality measures are in the top 10 percent of all hospitals nationwide. Other hospitals in Monroe and Miami-Dade Counties averaged only 17 percent of their quality measures in the top tier.

One area in which Mariners excelled was giving aspirin to every heart attack patient within 24 hours of arrival at the hospital. This is important because an aspirin may help reduce the severity of the attack.

Mariners also surpassed other hospitals in measuring the amount of oxygen in the blood of pneumonia patients who arrived at the hospital. Pneumonia can lower the oxygen in the blood, because the air spaces in the lungs fill with mucus and the oxygen the patient breathes does not get into the bloodstream. It is important that the amount of oxygen in a patient’s blood be measured within 24 hours of arriving at the hospital to determine if the patient needs oxygen therapy. The oxygen level in the blood of every patient who arrived at Mariners and was diagnosed with pneumonia was measured within the recommended 24-hour period.



JFK Medical Center is pleased to announce the appointment of Margarita Abrishami to the JFK Medical Center Board of Trustees. Margarita is one of the most prominent female publishers in Florida. She is currently the President of Teramar Media and the Publisher and Editor and Chief of Vive Magazine which she started in 2000.

Margarita is very involved in charitable, civic and professional organizations in Palm Beach County. She gives her time to numerous committees, including The Children’s Place at Homesafe, The March of Dimes, The American Cancer Society, The American Heart Association and the American Lung Association. She is a member of the Executive Women of the Palm Beaches, the Boca Raton Chamber of Commerce.