VNSNY Heroes of 2020
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Cutting-Edge VNSNY Program Delivers Hospital-Level Services at Home
June 22, 2020–For the patient, an older woman diagnosed with COVID-19 in the Mount Sinai emergency department whose husband had just died of the illness, the path ahead was challenging. But there was a bright spot: she would be able to continue her treatment at home, where she most wanted to be, while still getting hospital-level care and attention through VNSNY’s unique Hospitalization at Home program. Delivered in collaboration between Mount Sinai Health System (MSHS), Contessa Health and VNSNY, the program’s hospital-level services include IV infusions, blood draws, wound care, nebulizer treatment, inpatient-level physical therapy, and X-rays, as well as patient and caregiver education. “For those who can be safely managed at home, the program is effective and comprehensive,” says Denise Simmonds, a VNSNY Home Care nurse specially trained to provide Hospitalization at Home care to patients. “We find a way to get them the care they need, when they need it.
Keeping Chinatown’s Homebound Elderly Connected—and Their Spirits Uplifted—During COVID-19
June 18, 2020–For Chinatown’s vulnerable elderly residents who have been homebound during the COVID-19 pandemic, beautiful music of Eastern and Western cultures—available in private sessions over Zoom—is bringing much-needed relief from isolation and anxiety In the darkness of this global pandemic, music reminds us of our common humanity, creating connections to pleasant memories and hope for a brighter time, explains Carrie Ng, manager of VNSNY’s Asian Community Centers. “Music is a universal language,” she says. “It has a healing power that can help us escape from the current health crisis.” These VNSNY centers include the Chinatown Community Center (CCC) on Mott Street in Manhattan, which offers its members biweekly virtual concerts with musicians in partnership with Si-Yo Music Society Foundation, Inc*. “As they listen, you can see from the expression on members’ faces that old memories are coming back, and they’re able to relax for a few minutes,” says Carrie. VNSNY’s Chinatown
Meet Lauren Weir, Diana Vargas and the Other Amazing Staff Who Procure, Assemble and Deliver PPE
June 11, 2020–What do you do when the VNSNY Annual Golf Classic—one of your two biggest fundraising events of the year—is postponed because of COVID-19? Answer: You transform yourself into a procurement wizard, using your expert event-planning skills and vendor relationships to secure the essential personal protective equipment (PPE) and other supplies needed to keep VNSNY’s staff, patients and members safe during the pandemic. In fact, that’s exactly what Lauren Weir, VNSNY’s Special Events & Individual Giving Manager, did this spring. In mid-March, as COVID-19 hit the New York metropolitan area at the same time PPE shortages were being felt nationwide, VNSNY began working to develop its own pipeline of PPE. That’s when Lauren, who has been with the VNSNY Development team for 13 years, switched from helping to tee up a fundraising hole-in-one with the VNSNY Golf Classic, and joined forces with Sal Bastardi, VP of Corporate Administrative Services, Michael Bernstein, EVP and
The Brooklyn South Hospice Team: Extraordinary Clinicians Working Tirelessly for Their Patients
June 10, 2020–Diane Blair, Supervisor for VNSNY’s Brooklyn South Hospice team, recalls a phone call that came into the office: “Do you have someone there named Vitaliy, a nurse, very tall?” When the answer was yes, the voice on the phone shouted to waiting family members, “This is the place, this is where we want Grandpa to go!” The tall nurse, Coordinator of Care (COC) Vitaliy Generalov, makes a big impact on communities in and around Coney Island, bringing compassion and expertise to patients and families facing end of life. “I love hospice care,” says Vitaliy, a Belarusian immigrant who communicates in their own language with the sizeable Russian-speaking community in his area of Brooklyn, as well as working with families from many other cultures. “It’s really doing two jobs at one time—delivering the clinical care and also educating families every step of the way, talking to them about life, death, family,
VNSNY Home Care Nurse Cidric Trinidad Plays “Imagine” for Our Health Care Heroes and a More Just World
June 8, 2020–In this musical video message from one of our COVID-19 frontline heroes, VNSNY Home Care nurse Cidric Trinidad shares his inspiring piano performance of John Lennon’s “Imagine” in support of America’s health care workers and peaceful protests for social justice.
CMHS’s WeCARE Staff—Providing Support and Hope for the Most Vulnerable New Yorkers
June 4, 2020–For extremely vulnerable New Yorkers struggling with mental and physical health challenges, trust is often the first barrier to getting needed care. Case managers with the WeCARE Wellness program run by VNSNY’s Community Mental Health Services (CMHS) work hard to build and maintain that trust with their clients—a skill that’s especially important now, with all the uncertainty and upheaval from the coronavirus pandemic. When a young mother living in a homeless shelter experienced COVID-like symptoms, for example, her first reaction was to keep the symptoms to herself out of fear that she’d be asked to leave the shelter. But she had enough trust to confide in Angela Corre, her WeCARE Wellness Case Manager. Angela immediately connected the young woman with a primary care physician. It turned out that the client didn’t have the virus but was just experiencing a flare-up of her allergies. She was prescribed new medications and her
VNSNY Heroes of 2020: Physicians Database Coordinators: Keeping the Care Moving
June 2, 2020–“I have come to heal the brokenhearted/And to give your heart a song.” So goes the gospel song, “More Abundantly,” that Maude Tolbert is listening to at her home office these days in her work as a VNSNY Physicians Database Coordinator. The tight-knit Physicians Database team is responsible for credentialing physicians, tracking down their contact and enrollment information to make sure that patient treatment continues uninterrupted and that VNSNY receives proper compensation for the care it delivers. This includes checking physicians’ current standing with PECOS (Provider Enrollment and Chain/Ownership System) and OPRA (providers who Order, Prescribe, Refer or Attend Medicaid patients). All this helps VNSNY provide seamless patient care and reimbursement for services in the constantly changing environment of the COVID-19 emergency. “When we do our job efficiently, there should be no lapses in patient service,” says Maude, who has been with the team for 15 years. “The doctor’s made the
Gratitude: It’s in the Bag!
May 29, 2020–Sometime in mid-May, Job Becerra, a VNSNY physical therapist coordinator who covers Manhattan’s West Side, started discovering handwritten notes of thanks in his PPE kits. “It was a complete surprise,” he says. “I’ve always felt appreciated at VNSNY, but this response really brings it to a truly personal level.” The initiative is being spearheaded by Peggy O’Neill-Taber, Director, Customer Care Center, and Linda Smith, Associate Director of Patient Safety and Clinical Risk Management. They got the idea to do the thank you cards when Alexis Nelis, the daughter of Donna Nelis, Vice President of Hospice Operations, was in one day to volunteer and began slipping appreciative Post-it notes into the PPE bags. Peggy saw the Post-it notes and thought, what a great idea! While Peggy and Linda initially wanted to keep the program under wraps (“We wanted it to be about the providers, who are the true rock stars—not ourselves,” says Linda),
One Social Worker’s Extraordinary Journey to Help Families in Need
May 28, 2020–As a little girl growing up in Brooklyn, Debra Thomas used to bring an extra sandwich to kindergarten in case a classmate didn’t have enough for lunch. Now, she is helping kids in need on a much larger scale as Program Manager for three key VNSNY Community Mental Health Services (CMHS) programs for children and families. “I love my work,” says Debra. “The people we serve are too often forgotten. If they do get services, they’re used to people telling them, ‘You have to do this, you have to do that.’ We come in and say, ‘What do you need?’ The families are so grateful for that.” The CMHS programs she manages—two short-term rapid intervention initiatives, the Children’s Mobile Crisis Team and the Home-Based Crisis Intervention program, and the school-based Promise Zone preventive program—always look for opportunities to cross-refer to each other. This collaboration has become even more seamless with