Meet Our 2024 Phyllis Mills Living Legend Award Winner: Rose Madden-Baer

Over the past two decades, Rose Madden-Baer has been instrumental in so many of the strategic evolutions and innovations of VNS Health’s care delivery that her impact goes well beyond our current patients and members. Her work at VNS Health helped expand the organization’s model of care delivery to include a perspective at the population level, which has led to the development of new care delivery and care management models designed to uniquely meet the future of how people live and age at home.

“Population health enables us to have a more global impact on people and look at them in different ways, from viewpoints that go beyond a biomedical model,” says Rose, Senior Vice President, Population Health and Clinical Support Services. “We’re taking into consideration mental health, access to primary care providers (PCPs), medical deserts, food deserts. And we’re also looking closely at different communities that are ‘hot spots’ for certain health conditions.”

In honor of her contributions to VNS Health, Rose was selected for the 2024 Phyllis Mills Living Legend Award. The award celebrates a VNS Health team member who has been with the organization at least 10 years and who, through steadfast focus and effort, has made a significant contribution to our organization and our mission̦—establishing that team member as a VNS Health “living legend” in the tradition of the legendary former nurse and VNS Health Board member Phyllis Mills herself.

Speaking of VNS Health’s Care Management Organization (CMO), which she heads, Rose says, “We like to think that we were the trailblazers.” The business line grew out of an innovative partnership that Rose established with the Duke University School of Nursing, which enabled numerous VNS Health clinicians to advance their skills through the school’s Population Care Coordinator course. “Making that course available to clinicians across the organization has really grounded our interdisciplinary teams,” notes Rose.

Building on that experience, VNS Health launched a Population Health department. After several years, the department morphed into the CMO, a line of business that provides care management solutions to health plans and care providers. For Rose, this was the culmination of a journey started at VNS Health 20 years ago as a strategy planner with our Health Plans. Over the next two decades, amid many changes within health care and VNS Health itself, Rose held many positions, increasingly expanding her—and the organization’s—focus on population health.

“During the 20 years Rose has worked at VNS Health, she literally transformed how we deliver care,” says CEO Dan Savitt. “Rose’s focus has always been on delivering the highest quality care and delivering that care to the right people at the right time. Under her leadership, thousands of New Yorker are living better, healthier lives because of the care her team provided.”

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