VNSNY Care 360° Solutions Uses Talent and Telemedicine to Keep Patients Safe During the COVID-19 Crisis

April 7, 2020–The telehealth alerts were potentially alarming: a VNSNY CHOICE member in her nineties with multiple chronic conditions was presenting with a low-grade fever and shortness of breath. When Geralda Pelissier, a nurse practitioner with VNSNY Care360° Solutions (VNSNY’s new care management division), followed up telephonically, she could hear from the member’s speech pattern that she was struggling more than usual for breath. While Geralda always strives to keep her patients healthy at home and out of the hospital, the stakes are particularly high now for vulnerable New Yorkers. Emergency rooms and ICU beds in area hospitals are packed to capacity with nearly 9,800 COVID-19 patients, a number that grows each day. Not only are ER clinicians sorely overburdened, but a visit to the ER can also bring its own risk of contracting COVID-19 from the patients already there. In the case of this CHOICE member, Geralda immediately triaged her by

Keeping Connected Even Though We’re Social Distancing!

April 6, 2020–In these days of social distancing, we asked VNSNY staff members to send in photos from wherever you’re working — and you delivered! If you want an occasion to smile and feel a little more connected, please click on the slideshow below. Thanks to everyone who submitted photos for bringing us all a little closer together. As for the rest of you, we can’t wait to see your snapshots as well! Here are two videos we received as well: Job Becerra Sergey Bahdasaryan We will be updating this photo gallery on a continuing basis! So if you have a selfie you’d like to send, please send by submitting here and we’ll add it here.

VNSNY Heroes of 2020: Two Resilient Nurses Provide Comfort, Education and a “Positive Vibe”

April 2, 2020–In the current COVID-19 crisis, a home visit by the nurses of VNSNY Home Care carries extra significance. First and foremost, it’s an opportunity to check patients’ health—including screening for signs of the respiratory illness caused by the novel coronavirus. Beyond that, home visits are a chance to reassure patients in these uncertain times, and to educate them on how to avoid exposure to the coronavirus. Eileen Baez, a nurse with Staten Island Branch 1 who has been with VNSNY for more than 28 years, notes that home healthcare workers are ideally positioned to help New Yorkers through the fear and anxiety of this pandemic and keep them connected to care. “Once they open the door, I greet them with a smile and a ‘Hello, how’s everything?’” says Eileen. “I assure them things will get better, and that we just have to take it one day at a time. We

For Nassau and Queens Clinicians, Rose McNeal “Makes Us All Feel So Much Better”

March 31, 2020–In the uncertain times of delivering care during the COVID-19 outbreak, clinicians in Nassau and Queens can be sure of one thing: Rose McNeal has their back. As the Supervisor of Core Business Operations for the CHHA with responsibility for Nassau and Queens, Rose, along with Nassau Office Clerk Maria Coutu and Queens Office Clerk Janice Green, works tirelessly—and proactively—to make sure frontline staff have what they need to travel the region and care for patients. “My hat is off to our frontline clinicians,” says Rose, who is about to celebrate her 40th anniversary with VNSNY. “They’re doing an incredible job out there, and my job is to make their job a little easier, a little smoother.” That means thinking a step ahead to ensure that all equipment, especially PPE, is stocked as fully as possible and is accessible to the clinicians. Rose is constantly monitoring availability—the other day, for

Supporting VNSNY’s Heroic Hospice Workers Through Our Common Grief

March 31, 2020–For R. Benyamin Cirlin, a former VNSNY Hospice Social Work Manager and now Coordinator of the Hospice Social Work Student Intern Program, heroism is something he sees in his hospice teammates every day. “The heroes in my mind are those social workers, nurses, and spiritual care counselors who are out in the field, working with and listening to people struggling day in and day out,” says Ben. “They may be feeling anxious and vulnerable themselves, but nonetheless they continue to serve people in need. That’s a lot to hold. My job is to honor and support those frontline workers, and to let them know they are not alone.” Ben and several colleagues are now offering regular online sessions for hospice team members in each borough, so that their co-workers can express their feelings in a confidential, safe and nonjudgmental space. “In a time of social distancing, what we need is emotional nearing,”

Heroes of 2020: A Home Care Nurse Finds Humor and Teaching Moments During COVID-19

March 26, 2020–VNSNY Home Care nurse Magan Nguyen, who works weekends for Branch 2 in Queens, spends a lot of time helping her older patients and their family caregivers understand what they need to do in order to stay healthy and safe in their homes. During the COVID-19 crisis, that guidance has become more important than ever. “Education is one of the most critical things I do with my patients,” says Magan. “So I make sure to listen carefully and take my time. It’s not always easy for them to grasp why or how a doctor changes medications, for example, so I work to make sure they understand why it’s happening.” On a recent visit to the home of 94-year-old Anne Flotteron, Magan wanted to keep things upbeat, knowing that her patient had recently been hospitalized with shortness of breath that turned out not to be COVID-19-related but was instead due to

For the Heroes of CMHS’s Mobile Crisis Management Services, Mental Health Issues Don’t Take a Day Off

March 24, 2020–As the New York metropolitan area—and much of the world—struggles with the physical, social and economic fallout of COVID-19, people throughout the city continue to suffer from their own personal emotional and mental health crises. On the surface, these everyday incidents may seem to be unrelated to the global health emergency that has turned our lives inside out—but in truth, no one today is unaffected by the coronavirus pandemic. The staff working with the many programs that make up VNSNY’s Community Mental Health Services (CMHS) understand: these New Yorkers desperately need mental health support, and quickly. This includes the staff of CMHS’s Mobile Crisis Management Services (MCMS), who are providing critical interventions in the Bronx, Queens and Brooklyn during this pandemic just as they do each day of the year. “We’re out in the community meeting people where they are and where they live—making a difference every day,” says Deirdré

Secure Remote Access in a Flash? No Problem for the IT Heroes of VNSNY!

March 22, 2020–What happens when the nation’s largest home- and community-based healthcare organization has to mobilize its workforce to work remotely during an emergency global health crisis? “It’s a time to focus all our resources on enabling our clinicians and users to provide gold standard patient care,” says Michael Orlando, Director, IT Services. In fact, if you’re reading this article right now from your VNSNY laptop, phone or other device, you’ve got the heroes of the VNSNY IT team to thank. The connectivity they’re providing is what enables the rest of us to keep our organization and its many online facets moving like clockwork during the COVID-19 pandemic. One of the biggest challenges the IT team faced in the last two weeks was to get VNSNY’s office staff at 220 East 42nd Street set up on laptop computers so they could work remotely, as ordered by Governor Cuomo as part of the

VNSNY Heroes of 2020: Our Medical Supply Room Staff—Working to Ensure Our Clinicians Have What They Need

March 19, 2020–Among our many important front lines of care in the fight against COVID-19 are VNSNY’s Medical Supply rooms, where our dedicated clerks and supervisors come to work every day to equip our clinicians with the resources they need to safely deliver care to patients. As supplies of hand sanitizer, alcohol wipes, gloves, masks and isolation gowns run low across our region and around the world due to the novel COVID-19 coronavirus, VNSNY has been carefully directing these vital supplies to those clinicians, patients and members who have essential need for them. This poses a special challenge for our Medical Supply office clerks and supervisors, as they work with our clinicians to manage the demands of the pandemic and its profound impact on all our patients’ daily lives. “We as an organization have been through many things in my 38 years here,” says Emilio Rosado, Manager of Patient Administrative Services, ticking

VNSNY Heroes of 2020

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