Meet Our 2024 ESPRIT Award Winner: Ilona Furman

Colleagues praise Ilona Furman, a Systems Analyst and Programmer on the IT team, for both her unmatched technical skills and her responsive, empathetic people skills.

“Ilona is a ‘yes’ person—you’ll rarely, if ever, hear her say ‘no’ to a team member’s request for assistance,” said one of the colleagues who nominated her for a ESPRIT award. “She understands the struggles and pain points of our end-users, and she always provides solutions for the business user.”

If a solution proves elusive, she’ll find the appropriate person to connect to—or she’ll build a solution herself. “I always try to put myself into my colleagues’ shoes and think about what I can do to make their life easier,” says Ilona, who’s been with VNS Health for more than 13 years—starting in 2011 as a consultant before becoming a full-time employee in 2021.

“Ilona makes the extra effort to accommodate busy schedules while maintaining deadlines, “ said one nominator. When a team that needed IT support couldn’t immediately make time to meet with her, the nominator added, Ilona went above and beyond—“pre-doing” as much of the team’s work as she could figure out, so the project could continue without delays.

Ilona excels at problem-solving. If someone’s current system is slow and cumbersome, she’ll say, “Let’s look at your workflow so we can design a solution that fits your workflow needs perfectly.” To that end, she has been learning and implementing RPA (Robotic Process Automation) Bot Technology, and is always willing to build bots to complete repetitive and mundane tasks—enabling team members to focus on more meaningful and impactful tasks for their patients and plan members. “It gives me joy to find solutions,” Ilona says.

Ilona is also extremely agile. “I’d need a hundred fingers to count all the times Ilona has demonstrated serious agility in troubleshooting technology issues and developing and implementing workarounds and long-term solutions to ensure that the teams she supports are able to operate effectively without interruption,” wrote one of her nominators. “And I’d need another hundred fingers to count all the times she has happily learned new tools and skills so she could better serve her VNS Health team members or mitigate risk down the road.”

To go back to the overview of the 2024 VNS Health Award Winners, click here.