Shannon Whittington—Interdisciplinary Care Team Manager, VNSNY Home Care; Director, Gender Reassignment Program

Supporting and Advocating for “A Great Team of Clinicians”

“Shannon embraces every aspect of VNSNY’s Vision with complete devotion. She goes above and beyond to ensure every patient’s need is met, and also shows the utmost concern for her team, both individually and as a whole.”

Shannon Whittington has been with VNSNY for 23 years, yet change has been a constant theme in her career. Before coming to VNSNY she worked at hospitals in Tennessee and Georgia, in cardiology and in transplants. After transitioning to VNSNY Home Care, she was a Coordinator of Care and a weekend Patient Services Manager, and currently serves as Interdisciplinary Care Team Manager for Team 7 in Manhattan.

As a team manager, Shannon says, “I manage a great team of clinicians—I instruct, I inspire, I lead, I coach, and I correct. But what is most rewarding is supporting the clinicians and advocating for them.” Shannon refers to her team as the Magnificent Seven. “They perform in excellence,” she says. “They’re independent thinkers—they aren’t just great nurses or therapists, they’re good people.” Noting that Team 7 has been ranked number one at VNSNY Home Care in customer service, Shannon attributes their success to they way they work collaboratively to manage patient attitudes and expectations. “My team is good about alerting me to the potential for complaints. When they sense there might be a problem, they give me a heads up and I get on it right away. I call the patient to discuss their issue—what can we do to make things better, to improve patient satisfaction? Often that one phone call resolves the matter. The patient will say, ‘Just the fact that you called means so much.’”

Shannon is also running VNSNY’s Gender Reassignment Service, which was initiated in March of 2016. “I train the clinicians in cultural sensitivity and clinical after-care,” she says. “We want patients to feel that their clinicians are informed and nonjudgmental. This is a stigmatized population that often avoids getting care, because a lot of that stigma has come from us as healthcare professionals. Thankfully, at VNSNY, we’re changing that.”