Several Westchester beaches closed after heavy rainfall causes bacterial contamination
The health department said 0.72 inches of rainfall in the last 24 hours may have caused bacterial contamination in the swimming water due to road runoff into drainage outfalls near the following locations:
Hudson Park Beach
Davenport Beach Club
Greentree Country Club
Surf Club on the Sound
Harbor Island Park
Beach Point Club
Orienta Beach Club
Mamaroneck Beach and Yacht Club
Coveleigh Club
The health department says these beaches can reopen Thursday, July 3, if bacteria levels meet health code standards.
The source for an increase in bacteria is not always clear, but potential causes include:
Stormwater runoff
Land use within the watershed
Naturally occurring bacteria in sand or soil
Heavy rainfall or environmental changes like strong winds or high waves
Summer 2025: Have fun, stay safe this season. Check out lohud.com's guide to summer safety
Freshwater samples: Tested for E. coli: A result of 235 colonies/100 mL or higher exceeds the state standard
Ocean samples: Tested for enterococci: A result of 104 colonies/100 mL or higher exceeds the state standard
Contributing: USA TODAY New York Connect Team's Victoria E. Freile
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Westchester NY closes several beaches due to possible bacteria
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La Roche-Posay Toleriane Hydrating Gentle Cleanser With its wide availability and derm-approved formulas, La Roche-Posay has become a mainstay in our skin care guides, and the brand's Toleriane cleansers continue that trend. 'This daily gentle cleanser is made with prebiotic thermal spring water, niacinamide and ceramides to effectively wash away dirt, oil and pollutants while maintaining the skin's natural moisture barrier,' said Dr. Brendan Camp, double board-certified dermatologist at MDCS Dermatology. Order it if you have normal or dry skin. La Roche-Posay Toleriane Purifying Foaming Cleanser La Roche-Posay's Purifying Cleanser boasts a similar formula with a little extra cleansing oomph for oilier skin types. 'In my experience, men prefer a foaming cleanser, and this one checks all the boxes in terms of leaving the skin feeling refreshed without stripping the barrier,' said Catie Boucher, a board-certified dermatology nurse practitioner and founder of SavvyDerm. 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Despite decades of efforts to address healthcare inequities in the United States through programs and policies targeting social determinants of health, disparities persist across racial, gender, socioeconomic, and geographic lines. Systematic reviews of hospital systems' initiatives and programs to address social determinants of health (SDOH) have revealed unsatisfactory progress. Some attribute the slow progress to insufficient standardization and sharing of learnings across communities, or the underinvestment in SDOH data and measurement. We posit that the core problem may be an overreliance on importing solutions from other communities and healthcare settings without adequately accounting for the specific needs and realities of local patient populations. Health inequities are rooted in the unique social, structural, and cultural fabric of each community, and context-blind interventions risk wasting resources, eroding trust, and perpetuating the very inequities they aim to fix. 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Our framework emphasizes involving community members in the design and implementation of solutions. Meaningful co-creation ensures solutions reflect lived experiences and foster trust. Condition Specificity Moving beyond a broad focus on social determinants of health, this principle emphasizes condition-specific health-related social needs (HRSNs). For instance, food scarcity and limited transportation options challenge patients with diabetes in different ways than those with asthma. In contrast to traditional approaches aiming to reduce food scarcity or bolster transportation options in the community, our framework proposes that healthcare organizations center on the condition and explore ways to address the unique challenges that SDOHs present for patients with that condition (i.e., HRSN-focused interventions). Internal Consistency Choices made within the framework must align with one another. A lack of coherence can lead to fragmented efforts and diminished impact. Each decision should build on prior ones to create a logical and reinforcing path. Strategic choices also need to account for specific constraints affecting the autonomy of the organization, such as regulatory requirements and limitations, economic constraints (e.g., funding and payment models), and availability of appropriate skills and resources. Essential Pillars Two pillars support the framework and represent the implementation methodology in our approach. They focus on how to make each choice in the framework effective and impactful: Data-Driven Decision-Making Robust analytics should drive every decision. Leveraging detailed data on patients' health needs, social determinants of health, and patient-reported outcomes, will ensure that the initiatives have a targeted and measurable impact. Metrics are vital for tracking progress and refining strategies. Prioritization Strategy guru Michael Porter wrote: 'The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do.' Prioritization prevents overextension and focuses resources on a manageable number of high-impact initiatives. Prioritization also applies when examining the set of choices for each strategic decision outlined in our framework. Other viable initiatives and choice-set options may be deferred rather than dismissed. Strategic Choices Healthcare organizations must make deliberate choices in six key areas. The Health Equity Accelerator at Boston Medical Center (BMC) is an example of an innovative approach to health equity consistent with our framework. We briefly describe its choices in each area. Medical Conditions Identify priority health conditions by analyzing data on inequities and prevalence within the community. For example, if cardiovascular disease has a high prevalence and shows the largest disparity in outcomes by race or socioeconomic status in the community served by the healthcare organization, it should be a candidate for intervention. Based on an extensive data analysis, the accelerator team at BMC decided to focus on pregnancy and perinatal conditions (e.g., pre-eclampsia); diabetes, including the integration of behavioral health in primary care for patients with diabetes; Covid-19; and prostate cancer. These were conditions for which there were significant health disparities across racial groups in the community the hospital serves. Approach Depending on organizational expertise and resources, interventions may take an operational/clinical approach (e.g., redesigning care-delivery models) or an academic approach (e.g., conducting clinical research and publishing findings). Implications of these choices include several tradeoffs, such as prioritizing speed over comprehensiveness, a narrow over a broader focus, or short-term over long-term benefits for the patients. For example, in its Equity in Pregnancy and Equity in Diabetes initiatives, BMC chose to adopt an operational/clinical approach to reduce inequities by redesigning the care-delivery model. 'Had the data driven us to focus on inequities associated with gender identity and gender dysphoria,' said one executive, 'we might have chosen an academic route, as we have some of the leading research scholars on these issues among our staff.' Intervention Design Design targeted interventions tailored to the chosen condition and approach. Each intervention requires: Metrics to Track Progress For example, BMC decided to measure the decision-to-incision time for pre-eclampsia patients. In its Equity in Diabetes initiative, it measured HbA1c and time in range for glucose control, as well as patient-reported outcomes (PROs) including PHQ2/PHQ9 and, in some cases, PAID-5 to measure diabetes-related stress. Deciding Where to Standardize and Personalize Standardization can be necessary to reduce systemic or unconscious bias. Personalization is necessary to address individual needs. The challenge is choosing a point on the continuum between the two that achieves the best of both worlds. One BMC executive stated: 'We standardize the parts where we are more likely to observe bias, which is oftentimes subconscious and cannot be completely rooted out with training and education. Where it makes sense to personalize, we allow for flexibility in the implementation of the solution.' A key choice in BMC's Equity in Pregnancy initiative was to standardize the decision-to-incision time expectations for urgent, unplanned C-sections. In contrast, in its Equity in Diabetes initiative, BMC chose to develop patient education and nutritional guidance materials accounting for the variation in cultural preferences within its patient population and the availability of food items at local food stores. Relation with the Rest of the Organization Determine if the initiative will function as a stand-alone project or be integrated into the hospital's standard care model. Integration ensures sustainability and scalability, but stand-alone projects may allow for faster implementation. BMC leaned toward the integration approach. It decided that each initiative would be housed in the relevant clinical department or services line. Referring to the Equity in Pregnancy initiative, one hospital executive said, 'The accelerator does not deliver babies; OBGYN delivers them. The work is done where the work is done.' Departments and service lines involved in each initiative receive resources from the accelerator in the form of project management, data analytics, and administrative support. Financial Sustainability The economic viability of each initiative needs to be clear from the design phase. The financial strategy for the initiative includes the choice of individual funding sources or combinations thereof along the initiative's lifespan. Examples include: Soliciting grants or donations. Leveraging existing billing codes and payment models. Reinvesting savings from cost-reduction initiatives. Flexibility is key as funding mechanisms may vary by intervention, by community, and over time. BMC leveraged combinations of funding sources in each initiative. It predominantly relied on donations and grants to fund the pilot stage of each initiative, but when applying to have their envisioned initiative accepted by the accelerator, the people pitching it had to submit a financial plan for sustaining it beyond the pilot stage. Additional Choices Our framework allows for the inclusion of other strategic decisions specific to the hospital or community context. While BMC made choices along the areas we've described, another organization may need or want to add other areas and key decision points to tailor its approaches to the hyper-local features and needs of the community it serves. Early Results at BMC's Health Equity Accelerator Early results from the BMC Health Equity Accelerator demonstrate the potential of our framework to drive measurable and equitable improvements in care. In the Equity in Pregnancy Initiative, the team significantly reduced decision-to-incision times for urgent, unplanned C-sections (from 88 to 50 minutes overall) with even more substantial reductions for Black patients (from 98 to 50 minutes) and Hispanic patients (from 84 to 49 minutes), effectively eliminating the disparity with white patients. Similarly, the Equity in Diabetes Initiative showed promising early outcomes, with the percentage of diabetic patients with HbA1C levels greater than nine dropping from 13.7% to 11.8%. Notably, the racial disparity in poor glycemic control between Black and Hispanic patients and white patients was cut in half, highlighting the framework's ability to reduce inequities while improving overall outcomes. Potential Implementation Challenges and Failure Modes While our framework provides a structured approach, it is not free from implementation challenges. Some of them include the following: Inadequate data quality and completeness may reduce the value of the information used to identify disparities, select prioritized conditions, and measure success. Community engagement requires a persistent and consistent commitment and interaction over time. It does not happen overnight. Healthcare resources are limited and may not be available in the future, especially for community healthcare and safety-net institutions, which are reimbursed at lower price levels and rely on donations to a large extent. The benefits of immediate actions may not manifest themselves until far in the future (e.g., savings emerging from having fewer patients with prostate cancer may materialize many years after the hospital investment in equitable prevention and screening processes). This delay may compress the ROI of the investment, potentially discouraging valuable initiatives from being funded. Scalability may challenge the personalization of the solutions. . . . In the quest for health equity, prioritization is not a compromise; it is a necessity. The scarcity of resources and the organizational benefits of focused operations demand that organizations lead their efforts strategically and direct their limited funds, staff, and operational capacity to the areas of greatest need and impact. Our framework can help them choose priorities, build momentum, achieve meaningful results, and create a pathway to broader equity over time. In healthcare, context is not just a detail; it is the foundation on which equitable solutions are built. If we embrace this truth, we stand a far better chance of achieving the health equity that has long been elusive.
