|
DIFFERENT STROKES FOR DIFFERENT FOLKS
Kitty Grunert , 71 , ofMahwah , swims at the newValley
Health System facility located in Mahwah .
|
|||
“ IF WE CAN GET PEOPLE TO BE MORE PHYSICALLY ACTIVE , WE CAN SAVEHEALTH CARE DOLLARS LATER .” DR . J . CHRISTOPHER MENDLER
MEDICAL DIRECTOR AT HNH FITNESS
|
Kitty Grunert isn ’ t who you would picture when you hear the term gym rat . But the 71-year-old Mahwah woman goes to Valley Health Lifestyles several times a week to swim and walk around the indoor track . Before joining the new fitness center that opened in Mahwah , she suffered from myriad spinal and hip ailments . Now , she says , her back feels better than it has in years . “ I ’ ve got everything : aherniated disk , abulging disk , osteoarthritis ,” Grunert says . “ I have no pain anymore . When Itell my doctor , he ’ samazed .”
The fitness center is part of Valley Health System , which manages the Valley Hospital in Ridgewood , and is the latest gym affiliated with a local hospital system to open in northern New Jersey . Hackensack University Medical Center opened afitness center in Maywood in 2012 and Holy Name Medical Center has run agym in Oradell since 2007 . And Englewood Hospital and Medical Center recently launched apartnership
|
with Kaplen JCC on the Palisades to improve patients ’ health before and after treatment through a fitness program at the center .
Beyond fitness
These centers aim to be more than just places to work out . Nutritionists are on staff to help clients design diets to complement their exercise program . In addition , patrons undergo a mammography , receive physical therapy , or visit specialty programs such as the diabetes center or behavioral health services at HackensackUMC Fitness & Wellness . Valley ’ s center will offer a pharmacy , urgent care center , diagnostic screening , physical therapy and cardiac rehabilitation on-site .
Hospital officials say the centers are a way to improve people ’ s health outside the doctor ’ s office and expand their outreach into the communities they serve . “ We want to not just treat people who are sick , but live up to our mission of providing health to the community ,” says Mark Sparta , executive vice president and chief operating officer at
|
TARIQ ZEHAWI |
28 2018 EDITION |( 201 ) HEALTH |