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Niagara Falls Memorial expanding women's health services

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Mon, Mar 14th 2016 05:55 pm

Trio of new physicians to join hospital's OB/GYN Center; second location planned

When Laura DeBacco was recruited coordinator of the OB/GYN Center at Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center in April 2014, seeing five patients in a day was considered pretty busy at the outpatient medical office.

Now, the center's biggest challenge is seeing all the women who seek care there. The center's explosive growth has compelled Memorial to open a second center and double the size of its medical staff.

The center's new office will be called The OB/GYN Center at Summit and will be located at the Summit Healthplex in Wheatfield. Three new full-time physicians will come on board this year.

"We're now scheduling 50 patients a day," said DeBacco, a certified physician assistant who also serves as an adjunct professor and clinical preceptor at Daemen College. "In the past two years, we have completely remodeled and expanded to include onsite ultrasound. Nonetheless, we're quickly outgrowing our space and we find it necessary to open a second location in order to accommodate our growing population of patients."

The current OB/GYN Center is located on the third floor of Memorial's Mary C. Dyster Women's Pavilion. When it opened as a part-time medical office in late 2012, the hope was to provide an accessible venue for women to receive high quality care. Among the first physicians to see patients there were Dr. Renee Baughman and Dr. Donna Feldman, board-certified obstetrician-gynecologists who also maintain a busy private practice.

The concept quickly caught on and soon the center was seeing almost exponential growth. In 2015, Memorial recruited a full-time physician, Dr. Meaghan Aalto, to accommodate the increase.

"The excellent reputations Dr. Feldman and Dr. Baughman have earned along with the high quality care that patients are receiving from Dr. Aalto since she joined us in August have really driven that growth," DeBacco said.

So have the amenities that are available.

"People's perceptions change the minute they walk into our office or see our private inpatient rooms. Our labor and delivery suites are beautiful and compare favorably to those in any hospital in the Buffalo-Niagara region," DeBacco said. "We welcome people to call us at 278-4433 and schedule a tour."

Judi Nolan Powell, Memorial's vice president for foundation and community relations, said the newest location is perfectly positioned to meet the needs of the women it will serve.

"The Summit Healthplex offers tremendous convenience as a one-stop shop for outpatient care with imaging, laboratory, primary care and specialty physician services located right on site," Nolan Powell said. "In addition, it is readily accessible to women who live or work in Wheatfield, Lewiston, Sanborn, North Tonawanda and the LaSalle section of Niagara Falls."

Joining doctors Aalto, Baughman, Feldman, Jayaselvi Kolli and Ms. DeBacco, along with Memorial's seven physician laborists in providing women's services, including minimally invasive robotic surgery, will be:

•Shrutika Vasudeva, M.D., a graduate of the University of Western Ontario and St. George's University School of Medicine, Grenada, West Indies. She is currently completing a four-year residency in obstetrics and gynecology at St. John's Hospital and Medical Center, Detroit.

Vasudeva has participated in several research projects, including a current investigation of maternal opioid use in pregnancy and neonatal abstinence syndrome. Vasudeva is fluent in English, Hindi and Punjabi.

•Brittanny Jo Keeler, D.O., a graduate of Siena College and the New York College of Osteopathic Medicine. She is completing a four-year residency in obstetrics and gynecology at the State University of New York at Buffalo.

A member of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and the Buffalo Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Keeler was 2015 recipient of the Shashikant Lele Excellence in Gynecologic Oncology Award.

•Hannah Bailey, M.D., a graduate of Miami Dade College and St. George's University School of Medicine in Grenada, West Indies, where she earned her Doctor of Medicine degree. Bailey is currently completing her postgraduate residency in obstetrics and gynecology at Barnabas Health, Jersey City Medical, Jersey City, New Jersey, where she is chief administrative resident.

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