Provider Services
May 2022 Patient Letters
April 28, 2022–Our VNSNY colleagues continue to prove how resilient, dedicated and just plain amazing the entire VNSNY organization is! The following are excerpts from a few of the many recent letters, phone calls, and emails we’ve received from grateful patients and clients as well as family members that reflect an outstanding consumer experience. Bronx Thank You for the Wonderful Care! “I am writing to thank you for the wonderful care I received from your nurse, Sultana Alibasic,” wrote one Bronx home care patient. “My primary care physician connected me to VNSNY to care for a huge open wound that did not heal properly from abdominal surgery. Sultana treated me almost daily for over a month and would not discharge me until the wound was 100% healed.” The patient described Sultana as kind, caring and professional. “I am very grateful to Sultana and always looked forward to her visits. She wasn’t just
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“There are so many rewarding things about my job,” says Kenia Alcantara, VNSNY Home Care Social Worker
March 12, 2021–In celebration of National Social Work Month, we’re featuring short videos during March of VNSNY staff who provide social work services to our patients, plan members, and clients. In this video, VNSNY Home Care Senior Social Worker Kenia Alcantara tells why she loves being a social worker. To hear Kenia’s’s story, watch the video here below.
Social Work Month Special Feature: An Interview with Neil Pessin, Vice President of VNSNY’s Community Mental Health Services (CMHS)
March 8, 2021–Social Work Month only lasts a month, but it’s a fitting celebration of the vital and tireless work that social workers do all year long. To kick it off, we had a chat with Neil Pessin, Ph.D., Vice President of VNSNY’s Community Mental Health Services (CMHS). Happy Social Work Month! As Vice President of Community Mental Health Services programs, you oversee all of VNSNY’s CMHS programs. Can you describe what that encompasses? I’m not a social worker myself—I trained as a psychologist and analyst—but I am responsible for a part of the organization whose largest constituency is social workers. That includes everything from licensed social workers to social-worker assistants. We have more than 30 programs in CMHS, and a staff of about 500—about two thirds of which falls under the domain of social workers. What are some of the different ways CMHS social workers help the community? A large
March 2021 Patient Letters
March 4, 2021–The COVID-19 pandemic has continued to prove the resilience and dedication of our entire VNSNY staff. The following are excerpts from a few of the many recent letters, phone calls, and emails that we’ve received from grateful patients and family members that reflect an outstanding consumer experience. “My Mother was Prepared Spiritually and Emotionally” Bronx— “I am writing to let you know how much I appreciated the support given to me by nurse Sherma Wheeler and social workers Leona Abrams and Fernando Otero,” wrote the daughter of a VNSNY Hospice patient who recently passed away at the age of 103. “Each one gave advice and moral support to help me understand and process what my dying mother was going through, and what I could do to help her pass away with dignity and peace. They allowed me to be a part of my mother’s care in a loving and
Partners in Care Holds Its 37th Annual Partners in Care Service Awards Ceremony
December 16, 2020–On Monday evening, over 200 VNSNY staff, friends, and families came together on Zoom to recognize the outstanding achievements and dedication of Partners in Care staff, and in particular the honorees of the 2020 Partners in Care Service Awards (virtual) ceremony. Also honored were employees celebrating milestone anniversaries within the organization. “As we all know, the past 10 months during the COVID-19 pandemic have been very stressful and challenging,” said an elegantly tuxedoed Jim Rolla, Senior Vice President for Partners in Care, in his welcome speech. “Our home health aides have been true heroes in every sense of the word. They’ve gone above and beyond caring for our clients during this pandemic, including learning new safety protocols on how to work in the field and how to care for COVID patients.” Among the highlights was an inspiring video celebrating VNSNY’s legacy of in-home care over the decades and the 37-year
Don’t Miss This Inspiring Video Celebrating Partners in Care Home Health Aide Heroes!
December 16, 2020–On Monday evening, December 14th, VNSNY Partners in Care held its annual Service Awards program. This virtual event celebrated nearly 800 Partners in Care staff members and included an inspiring video spotlighting on 14 Partners in Care home health aide heroes and their passion for the important work they do. To watch this video, please click below.
Meet Christopher Webster, Veteran Liaison for VNSNY Home Care
November 11, 2020–Christopher Webster, a retired Army medic, knows how transformative it can be to reach out to a fellow veteran in need. Years ago, as part of a professional outreach, Christopher visited a homeless veteran who’d been living in the Long Island woods for twenty years. The two steadily built a relationship that resulted in the client connecting with Veterans Administration and getting the benefits and services he needed, including stable housing. “He got out of the woods and back on his feet, and today he’s thriving,” says Christopher. “He didn’t want help at first because people had made too many broken promises. But I introduced myself as a fellow veteran, a peer, a brother. And one thing you learn in the military: You don’t leave your brothers and sisters behind.” Today, Christopher is utilizing those same outreach skills as the VNSNY Veteran Liaison for VNSNY Home Care’s Veterans Program, which was
October 2020 Patient Letters
October 21, 2020–The COVID-19 pandemic has continued to prove the resilience and dedication of our entire VNSNY staff in the face of adversity. The following are excerpts from a few of the many recent letters, phone calls, and emails that we’ve received from grateful patients and family members that reflect the outstanding work and courage our VNSNY staff demonstrates each and every day. “So Much Love, Understanding, and Supreme Patience… Courteous, Professional, and Responsible” Brooklyn— The children of a Brooklyn patient wrote two separate letters to thank home health aides Yolanda Colon and Bibi Sakaanat for providing care to their mother in her final days. “Despite the sadness and mourning we are experiencing upon losing our mother, we would like to take this moment to convey to you what an outstanding home health aide Yolanda is,” read one letter. “Yolanda treated her as she would treat her own mother. She gave her
“Caring, Knowledgeable and Engaged”: How a Fast-Acting Partners in Care Team Helped a 101-Year-Old Patient Recover Safely at Home
October 16, 2020–“It is difficult to express how grateful we are for the extraordinary service we received from Partners in Care,” wrote the niece of a 101-year-old man in Queens in a recent e-mail to Andria Castellanos, VNSNY’s Executive Vice President and Chief of Provider Services. The story had begun a week earlier, with what the niece called “a family emergency.” Her uncle, recovering from pneumonia and electrolyte imbalance, but coherent and in good spirits, had been released on a Friday night from the hospital to a rehab facility. “By Saturday morning, after a terrible night alone, he was disoriented and refused to eat,” his niece recalled. “We also learned that, due to COVID-19, not only could his wife not come over that day, but he would be unable to have any visitors at all for over a week.” The family realized that, for his mental, emotional—and, ultimately, physical—health, he needed to
Partners in Care Home Health Aides Get Their Own Online Resource Center
October 6, 2020–The 7,000 home health aides at Partners in Care now have their own dedicated online Partners in Care Resource Center. HHAs can get to the beautiful new online center from any smartphone, tablet or computer. There, you will find recordings of Marki Flannery’s weekly conference calls, advice on COVID-19, information on how you can get a free flu shot, and much more. “This all began during our HHA support calls, when aides asked us to provide certain key information to help them meet the challenges of COVID-19,” says Jim Rolla, Senior Vice President of Partners in Care. “We began posting links on Frontline, and those links grew into an entire dedicated Partners in Care section.” While the new center is currently located on the Frontline website, notes Jim, in the coming months the Partners in Care Resource Center will become its own stand-alone website. For now, you can reach it