ELLENVILLE – Wawarsing's premier social event is set for this Saturday, October 3 at the White Wolf restaurant on Route 209. That's when the annual Ellenville Regional Hospital Gala, an event that has been going on since "at least the 1960s" to quote one knowledgeable person, and quite possibly began before that tumultuous decade, kicks off with cocktails at 6 p.m., with dinner at 7 and speeches after that. This year the Ellenville Regional Hospital Auxiliary is being honored for the many things they do for the hospital.

The power of the gala is potent; $70,000 was raised at this one event last year. Much of the funding for the recently completed Calman Connector building, which connects the hospital to the Institute of Family Health, came from such fundraising. Money from the fundraiser has also been used recently to renovate hospital rooms, and even upgrade the televisions in patient's rooms... because a stay in hospital is about more than just the treatments.

This year the hospital, according to CEO Steve Kelley, is going for a new sign out by Route 209. This will be a full color flatscreen sign, which he describes as another example of Ellenville Hospital's push to be on the leading edge.

Asked about staffing in the ERH emergency room, and a perceived lack of doctors that some have mentioned, Kelley said, "The term 'doctor' doesn't necessarily mean a physician anymore. There are Doctors of Pharmacy, there are Nurse Practitioners, there are Doctors of Physical Therapy. The practice of medicine is evolving in many directions and Ellenville Regional Hospital is on the leading edge of these changes by training the next generation of providers in these specialties."

At Ellenville Regional Hospital, he added, nurse practitioners and physician's assistants are the first line of care.

"They will identify the level of care required," the ERH CEO continued. "For a hospital like ours, the first job is to stabilize the patient... say it's someone with a stroke. We stabilize them, and then move them to a facility that specializes in that kind of care."

Questioned about why there is no maternity service at Ellenville, Kelley explained that to cover maternity well, a hospital needs a thousand deliveries a year. There aren't that many in all of Ulster County at this point, so that service naturally gravitates to the largest hospital in the county... in Kingston.

For more information, and tickets to the gala — which includes a special auction following dinner — and is put on each year by the hospital foundation — call 647-6450 or visit www.ellenvilleregional.org.