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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Partners in Care HHAs Hone Preventive and Health Monitoring Skills to Reduce Hospitalizations
June 21, 2018–As value-based care models continue to take hold across the healthcare landscape, VNSNY is enlisting its Partners in Care home health aide (HHA) workforce to help ensure better outcomes for individuals enrolled in value-based managed long-term care (MLTC) plans—including CHOICE MLTC members. As part of this effort, Partners in Care HHAs are now being trained to monitor and address a wide range of medical warning signs, so they can help these plan members avoid preventable hospital admissions and emergency room visits. “Providing daily care to MLTC plan members is a big part of what our HHAs do—and through this training, we’re empowering them to help these plan members manage their health at home more effectively,” says Barbara Maccaro, Director of Quality Management and Education at Partners in Care. “For example, our HHAs are learning to watch closely for signs and symptoms of worsening heart failure, development of infections and electrolyte
A Former Army Medic Supports Veterans at the End of Life: Spotlight on Sung Yoon, VNSNY Hospice Veterans Liaison
June 13, 2018–For Sung Yoon, VNSNY Hospice’s new Veterans Liaison, the road to her current job began as a high school student in Newark, Delaware. “When 9/11 happened, I was really moved by people’s response,” she says. “I felt that I also wanted to make a difference through personal service.” After graduating, Sung enlisted in the U.S. Army as a medic at age 17. She completed Basic Training and was certified as an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT). Sung was assigned first to the emergency department at the Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington, D.C., and then to South Korea, where she could apply her Korean language skills. In addition to her duties there, she taught English at an elementary school and volunteered at an orphanage. When her term was up, Sung returned to civilian life, only to be called six months later for active duty in Afghanistan. During her time in Afghanistan,
May 2018 Patient Letters
May 30, 2018–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. Together, they reflect the outstanding work done each and every day by VNSNY’s entire frontline staff. Bronx—A patient’s girlfriend phoned to praise occupational therapist Benito Flores for providing her boyfriend with “excellent care” and “going above and beyond the call of duty to meet his needs.” She added, “I’m very grateful.” Brooklyn—“I’m writing to express my appreciation for the wonderful care I received from physical therapist Thobi Sibanda, social worker Shoshana Averbach and nurse Nancy Edwards,” a Brooklyn patient noted. “I will be forever grateful for the care I received from these three exceptional providers. They were all supportive, caring and informative and became an essential part of my well-being and recovery. Thobi, who was my physical therapist and case manager, continually challenged me to do
VNSNY Hospice Arranges a Special Salute for a War Hero
May 24, 2018–Korean War veteran John DeSimone is a New Yorker born and bred. Raised in Lower Manhattan before moving to Queens as a young man, he had a 40-year career as a runner for the New York Stock Exchange following his discharge from the service. Now, thanks to VNSNY Hospice and Palliative Care, he is spending his final months in his Astoria home of 50 years, with his daughter, Marie, and other family and friends at his side. Mr. DeSimone, who lost his wife in 2015, is a devout Protestant who has had a lifetime involvement with his church, where he served as an Elder. And though bedbound, his sense of humor is as sharp as ever. As he approached the end of life, however, he was disappointed that he had somehow misplaced the three Bronze Stars he earned for his valorous conduct during the Korean conflict. Happily, his Bronze Stars are missing
Shannon Whittington Receives Quality and Innovation Award for Her Leadership of VNSNY’s Gender Affirmation Program
May 17, 2018–“Awesome.” That’s how Shannon Whittington, an interdisciplinary care team manager in VNSNY Home Care’s Manhattan region and the director of VNSNY’s Gender Affirmation Program, describes her experience receiving the Home Care Association (HCA) of New York’s 2018 Quality and Innovation Award on May 10th. The award was given to Shannon in recognition of her work leading VNSNY’s Gender Affirmation initiative, which provides specialized home care support to patients who have had gender affirmation surgery. As director of the Gender Affirmation Program, noted the HCA, Shannon “is part of a team dedicated to helping a very vulnerable population at possibly the most important time in their lives to realize a safe and healthy gender transition.” The organization added, “This also has meant forging a cultural shift within nurses, managers, and senior leaders regarding transgender care.” Shannon’s award was presented at HCA’s annual conference in Saratoga Springs, New York, where she was joined
“All About Gratitude”: VNSNY Hospice Celebrates a Momentous Year
May 17, 2018–VNSNY Hospice and Palliative Care traditionally holds a springtime “All Staff Business Meeting” to review the previous year’s achievements. This year’s event, however, was something very different: Instead of a business meeting, the staff gathered for a celebratory luncheon, held at the Radisson Martinique Hotel on May 9th. “The past year was both a successful and a challenging one for everyone at VNSNY Hospice,” says Linda Megan, Vice President for Hospice Access. “So we wanted this year’s gathering to be all about gratitude, and taking a moment to thank our amazing staff for all their hard work and dedication.” The luncheon’s theme was “A World of Thanks—Celebrating the Collective.” In all, 230 Hospice staff members attended, notes Linda, who organized the event along with fellow Hospice and Palliative Care employees Carol Seymour, RN Clinical Director for Queens and the Bronx, Joyce Bove, Administrative Assistant to Hospice SVP Rosemary Baughn, Michelle Drayton,
Helping Parents “Get it Right”: Spotlight on MNP Nurse Gwendolyn Downs
May 1, 2018–Gwendolyn Downs says that the best advice she ever got was from her first manager at the Visiting Nurse Service of New York: If you get it right the first time, you’ll never have to second-guess what you do. “It’s advice that I’ve lived by ever since, and I instill it into everybody that I train—from parents to the nurses I precept,” adds Gwendolyn, who has been a dedicated public health nurse with VNSNY’s Maternity-Newborn Pediatrics (MNP) program for more than two decades. Because the MNP program is family-focused, patient care often includes non-medical challenges. “We have a lot of other issues going on like parents going back to work or to court, and other children that need to be carted off to school, so we assist them with social issues too,” says Gwendolyn. She often arranges social-work visits for clients, and will advocate for them in other ways as well—for
April 2018 Patient Letters
April 25, 2018–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. Together, they reflect the outstanding work done each and every day by VNSNY’s entire frontline staff. Bronx—A Bronx patient recently phoned to request nurse Fatima Shell-Sanchez as his regular caregiver, noting that “she is wonderful,” and “the best nurse.” When told about his comments, Fatima replied, “Thanks—it feels great making a special difference in patients’ lives.” Brooklyn—“I am writing to let you know about my wonderful experience with VNSNY’s Home-Based Crisis Intervention Program,” a Brooklyn resident wrote, referring to the six-week program offered by VNSNY’s Community Mental Health Services (CMHS). “In particular, I’d like to let you know that the counselor assigned to our case, social worker assistant Crystal Cicero, was truly an exceptional professional. Crystal was my daughter’s counselor, mentor and friend. She genuinely cared
VNSNY’s Nurse-Family Partnership Goes to Albany!
April 11, 2018–NFP Staff and Clients Lobby State Legislators to Increase Program Funding With state budget negotiations underway, a mom, baby and nurse from VNSNY’s Nurse-Family Partnership (NFP) program trekked to Albany last month to make the case—successfully—for more funding for this vital program. Since it began in 2006, VNSNY’s Nurse-Family Partnership (NFP) has helped more than 5,000 first-time Bronx and Nassau County mothers and their babies get a healthy head start. NFP is a national evidence-based nurse home visiting program that pairs young, first-time moms-to-be with specially trained nurses, who provide home visits starting early in the pregnancy and continuing through the child’s second birthday. NFP was expected to receive $3 million in annual New York State funding next year—not enough, given the long waiting lists for the program. With the budget deadline approaching, NFP advocates were pressing for $1 million in additional funding. One morning last month, to help make