VNSNY Heroes of 2020
“We Are All Heroes!” Don’t Miss this Hometown Heroes Parade Video!
July 13, 2021–On July 7th, VNSNY staff representing all parts of the organization marched through the Canyon of Heroes in lower Manhattan, in a historic parade celebrating the contributions of all essential workers throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. Health care employees, transportation workers, food service professionals, and other groups gathered together to participate in what is now being called one of the largest ticker tape parades in the city’s history. Starting at Battery Park, VNSNY made their way up Broadway to City Hall, meeting with press, government officials, and countless grateful New Yorkers along the way. See for yourself! Click below to watch the moving video, and thanks to everyone who marched for representing VNSNY! The following are the VNSNY Heroes who participated in the parade: Partners in Care: Denise Mallette, Home Health Aide, Yeasmin Mehli, Home Health Aide, Elvira Ruiz, Home Health Aide, Veronica Ventura, Home Health Aide— CHHA: Eileen Baez, Registered
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VNSNY Heroes of 2020: Along with Clinical Care, A VNSNY Nurse Delivers Groceries and Peace of Mind
April 22, 2020–On her way to a new start-of-care visit with an elderly woman returning home from the hospital, VNSNY Home Care nurse Diane Velilla first stopped at a bodega along the way to pick up some essentials: bread, bananas and a few other nutritious foods that she knew the patient might not have. This is the kind of personal, holistic care that VNSNY delivers to New York’s most vulnerable—care that’s more important than ever during the coronavirus emergency. Before her scheduled nursing visit, Diane had received a concerned call from Jayitha Janardhanan, a nurse practitioner at Mount Sinai Heart, the patient’s hospital, who was worried that the patient might not have any food in her home. Diane decided to go a step further: On her own time and with her own money, she purchased some groceries for the patient. “I said to myself, ‘Before I see her, I’m going to get
Delivering Care and Compassion to COVID-19 Positive Patients and Their Caregivers
April 21, 2020–The COVID-19 pandemic has created a once-in-a-lifetime global crisis—and in times of crisis, the Visiting Nurse Service of New York is quick to mobilize to protect society’s most vulnerable. This includes our courageous VNSNY Home Care teams, who are delivering recovery care to COVID-19 positive patients in the place they most want to be: their homes. “I’m so happy that COVID-19 patients are coming home,” says Ruth Caballero, a nurse who works in Manhattan Branch 7 and has been with VNSNY for 19 years. “I can’t imagine how isolating it has been, not to see their families and with medical staff in the hospitals limiting time with patients. Our visit may be the longest amount of time that a healthcare worker has spent with them. We’re committed to doing whatever we can to help patients return to the community, and ultimately return to their optimal level of health and wellness.”
CMHS’s Assertive Community Treatment Nurses: Fostering Stability in Uncertain Times
April 20, 2020–While much of New York is on hold because of the coronavirus pandemic, the dedicated behavioral health nurses of VNSNY’s Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) program have been working extra hard to connect with their clients. The ACT, which is part of VNSNY’s Community Mental Health Services (CMHS), provides care to individuals who are dealing with severe mental illness and substance abuse, making sure they take their medications and that they have the housing, food and essential mental health treatment they need to keep them on a healthy path. The COVID-19 emergency has made this job more complicated: The ACT teams have been trying to reduce their home visits and move clients to oral medications where possible, but many still require intramuscular medication (IM)—injections delivered by a nurse—because they have trouble taking their oral medications consistently. And so the program’s nurses continue to make regular trips to see these clients and
A Nurse Manager’s Innovations Keep VNSNY’s Nurse-Family Partnership on Track During the Pandemic
April 16, 2020–When the highly contagious COVID-19 coronavirus touched down in New York, it caught many off guard by how quickly it spread—but not Carolyn Sime, a Nurse Manager with VNSNY’s Nurse-Family Partnership (NFP) in Nassau County. Almost overnight, Carolyn transformed the program’s manual patient records system into an electronic documentation system, then trained the NFP nursing teams in the new system so they could safely support their first-time mothers and moms-to-be—even as the health crisis grew day by day. VNSNY’s NFP programs provide free, in-home nursing, parenting and career assistance to more than 1,000 low-income mothers and their children in the Bronx and Nassau County. As the pandemic unfolded and social distancing policies were put in place, nurses in the program began conducting telehealth encounters with their clients by phone and computer in lieu of home visits. The only problem were the traditional paper records that had to be completed to
An Interview with Dr. Ritchell Dignam—Delivering Home and Hospice Care During the Pandemic
April 15, 2020–Dr. Ritchell Dignam is Chief Medical Officer for VNSNY Provider Services and also serves as Hospice Medical Director for VNSNY Hospice and Palliative Care. With more than three decades of experience as a geriatrician, she has played a key leadership role during the current COVID-19 pandemic, helping to develop clinical protocols for the organization and keeping staff updated on measures for avoiding exposure to the coronavirus. “We’re so very lucky to have Dr. Dignam as our Chief Medical Officer for Provider Services,” says Andria Castellanos, EVP and Chief of Provider Services. “Dr. Dignam is a talented physician leader who has led us through this unprecedented time period with a steady hand, always putting the safety of our staff and patients at the forefront.” How does the COVID-19 pandemic compare to other public health crises you have dealt with? We’ve never seen a crisis of this magnitude, either in the regular
Heroes of 2020: On Staten Island’s Hospice Team, No One Works Alone
April 13, 2020–As hospice nurses, social workers, spiritual care counselors, nurse practitioners and medical doctors signed on to an interdisciplinary group conference call for VNSNY’s Staten Island Hospice team in mid-March, the mood was upbeat and chatty. If you listened closely, however, you could hear that the clinicians’ voices were a little frayed around the edges. They—like everyone at VNSNY these days—have been working long, exhausting hours as the COVID-19 pandemic makes an indelible mark on the lives of New Yorkers and the world. But tired as each participant on the call might have been, one thing was clearly in focus for every person dialing in: We’re all in this together. Take Dr. Zoya Koroleva, physician for the Staten Island Hospice team. “No matter what we need, she’s always there for us, and we know it,” says Kathleen Sarnes, a nurse on the Staten Island team whose unique way of fostering inner
Heroes of 2020: Volunteers Prepare Mailings of Surgical Masks to Partners in Care HHAs
April 10, 2020–With selfless effort and dedication, 18 volunteers from VNSNY’s Compliance, Partners in Care, Strategy, and Business Analytics Departments worked over two days to mail out 100,000 surgical masks to the homes of 6,000 Partners in Care home health aides for use in caring for patients during the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. Volunteer Beth Taloh, Compliance Department Coordinator, said: “The team made me feel so welcomed and well taken care of. Things couldn’t have gone more smoothly. Though I am a recent hire, it never ceases to amaze me of the kind, warm and caring staff at VNSNY. I feel very fortunate indeed to be part of the VNSNY organization.” All this would not have been complete without the support of our Facilities, Operations and Mailroom Heroes, including Yanne Carrera, Juan Flores and his amazing team, Domingo Faulk, Victor Ramos, John Rockson and Emilio Rosado. Way to go, volunteers! A huge thank you to
An Interview with Dr. Jay Dobkin—Facing the Challenges of COVID-19
April 9, 2020–As Chief Medical Officer of VNSNY CHOICE Health Plans, Dr. Jay Dobkin brings four decades of medical experience to our organization. In addition to being an infectious disease specialist and associate professor of clinical medicine at the Columbia University Medical Center, he also served as director of Columbia’s AIDS program from 1988 to 2009. Most recently, he has drawn on his infectious disease expertise to advise VNSNY’s leadership on their response to the COVID-19 crisis. As a key member of VNSNY’s Emergency Response Team, he has provided important insights into the coronavirus and the illness it causes, as well as the challenges that healthcare providers are facing. “We’re incredibly lucky to have Dr. Dobkin as part of our team, especially during this COVID-19 pandemic,” notes Andria Castellanos, EVP and Chief of Provider Services. “His leadership, medical advice and counsel have been invaluable. He is our own Dr. Fauci!” “Dr. Dobkin
Heroes of 2020: Keeping the 220 East 42nd Street Office Running Smoothly
April 9, 2020–The cheerful smiles of VNSNY receptionists Crystal Walton and Roxanne Gay greet hundreds of employees and visitors to VNSNY’s 220 East 42nd Street Manhattan headquarters every week. Or at least that’s what they did before COVID-19 safety precautions compelled the company to close the office and equip hundreds of workers with laptop computers so they could do their jobs from home while New York City shelters in place. These days, you’ll find Crystal and Roxanne answering phones and emails and helping the HR Connect team communicate important policies and guidelines from their homes—except for the one day of the week when each makes her way into Manhattan to VNSNY’s corporate office (Crystal on Tuesdays and Roxanne on Fridays) where they sort and scan mail, update security badges and help keep VNSNY running smoothly by tending to critical tasks that can only be done from the 42nd Street office. “To be