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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A PT with a Positive Attitude that’s “Contagious”: Meet Chaim Backman
March 28, 2018–“You never know what you’re going to find when you open the door,” says Chaim Backman, a physical therapist in VNSNY Home Care’s Brooklyn region. It’s this aspect of the job, he notes, that makes it both a challenge and “always interesting.” A Crown Heights resident who moved to New York from Canada at age 11, Chaim always knew he wanted to be in the medical profession. “I’m a people person,” he explains. “I love New Yorkers, and I love doing what I can to make them comfortable in their homes.” This spirit led Chaim to earn a bachelor’s degree in physical therapy from Hunter College in 1996. After working for a time in clinic-based settings, he joined VNSNY in 2008, inspired by a friend who mentioned that VNSNY was a great place to work, and that providing home-based physical therapy was a unique experience and a way to make
March 2018 Patient Letters
March 28, 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. Manhattan— A Manhattan patient sent a letter praising nurses Jennifer “Jenny” Kinder and Marianne Savarese and physical therapists Edwin Damaso and Steve Wong. “Both Jenny and Marianne visited me and helped me on the path to excellent physical therapy,” he wrote. “I would also like to thank Edwin, my five-day physical therapist, who was excellent—methodical and positive—and Steve, my weekend physical therapist, who was engaging and helpful with very good instructions. I hope you will thank everyone on my behalf. Congratulations to all for a well-organized, caring, and very helpful staff and program.” A patient sent an email to the VNSNY website complimenting nurse Stephen Yip, occupational Dina Klein, physical
From Successful Fashion Designer to VNSNY Social Worker: Meet Lizzie Cogan
March 15, 2018–How VNSNY Social Worker Lizzie Cogan uses her design background to help patients. Originally from Macon, Georgia, Elizabeth “Lizzie” Cogan, a social worker in VNSNY Home Care’s Brooklyn region, dreamed of moving to New York City and becoming a fashion designer. She accomplished that goal, graduating from Parsons School of Design in 1996 with a degree in fashion design and establishing a successful line of high-end women’s coats. But while her coats were featured in Elle magazine and sold in a Fifth Avenue department store, another career path called to her. “My husband, Daniel Cogan, was working as a nurse practitioner in VNSNY Hospice and Palliative Care,” Lizzie recalls. “I heard Daniel and his colleagues asking their patients essential questions like, ‘What do you need?’ Their job was to make their patients’ lives as good as possible by meeting those needs. It seemed to me that their work was a
VNSNY to Pilot State-of-the-Art Virtual Rehabilitation Tool
February 26, 2018–In a collaboration that will add an innovative new component to its home-based rehabilitation therapy services, VNSNY has reached an agreement with the digital health company Reflexion Health to pilot Reflexion’s Virtual Exercise Rehabilitation Assistant (VERA). This FDA-approved online platform will enhance and extend the work of VNSNY’s physical therapists by enabling patients to engage in virtual rehabilitation therapy sessions at home, between in-person therapy visits. The state-of-the-art virtual rehab system uses a motion-sensor camera to display the patient’s own body movements on a computer or television screen alongside the figure of an animated “therapist” avatar. The virtual therapist takes the patient through each prescribed exercise—making sure the patient is appropriately positioned, and offering corrections when an exercise isn’t done properly—while the program counts and records every repetition, checking off each exercise as it’s completed. Besides guiding the patient through his or her exercise program, VERA features an educational portal
February 2018 Patient Letters
February 21, 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—The sister of a Bronx patient phoned to say that she and her sibling “were extremely satisfied and pleased” with the care provide by nurse Denise Simmonds. “She represents the company well and has a great bedside manner,” the caller added. Brooklyn—A Brooklyn resident who recently had knee replacement surgery penned a letter praising the care provided by physical therapist Mohamed Mohamed. “Mr. Mohamed was the best,” she wrote. “He knew exactly how much to push me, and when to pull back and let me pause. He knew how to inspire me to keep doing my exercises between his visits, but also knew to laugh with me. He
Saluting Jane Edwards and Her 35-Year Career as a Partners in Care HHA
February 21, 2018–For the past few months, Frontline has been profiling home health aides (HHAs) who have been with Partners in Care since its inception in 1983. This month, we salute the fourth member of this distinguished group: Jane Edwards. Jane Edwards: “I’ll Always Be Here for You” Jane Edwards has been a home health aide (HHA) with Partners in Care since 1983. For 26 of those 35 years, she served as the dedicated night-shift aide for Valerie*. As Jane recalls, Valerie spent most of her time listening to classical music or audio books in her Manhattan apartment before she passed away last year at the remarkable age of 108. “When I started working with Valerie, she could help herself a little bit,” says Jane. “But by the time she was in her late 90s, she had to stay in bed most of the time. I had to reposition her every two
The Challenges and Rewards of Working with High-Risk Mothers and Babies
February 21, 2018–While many people must search to find their true calling in life, VNSNY public health nurse Chitrawattie “Shama” Raghunath knew while still in nursing school that she wanted to work with children. For the past 10 years, the Guyana-born nurse has been with VNSNY’s Maternity, Newborn and Pediatrics (MNP) program, with a special focus on high-risk pre- and postpartum mothers and babies. “I really love maternal and child health,” says Shama, who is a field nurse for MNP in Brooklyn, where about 60 percent of her cases involve high-risk babies or mothers. High blood pressure is a frequent risk for the mothers, yet getting them to monitor their blood pressure can be challenging. And because a lot of Shama’s patients are first-time mothers, they aren’t aware of the symptoms that can quickly spiral into emergency situations for their infant. Educating them and getting them to take prompt action—while also being
VNSNY Celebrates the Chinese New Year
February 12, 2018–The arrival of the Chinese Lunar New Year this Friday ushers in the Year of the Dog. To celebrate, staff from VNSNY’s Chinatown Community Center, Flushing Community Center and the Chinatown NNORC (Neighborhood Naturally Occurring Retirement Community) will be holding a series of New Year’s events for the local community. VNSNY representatives will also be participating in Chinese New Year gatherings being sponsored by community organizations that we work with as well as events hosted by some of our hospital partners—including NewYork Presbyterian Queens and NewYork Presbyterian Lower Manhattan Hospitals, Maimonides Medical Center, and NYU Langone Medical Center. “Celebrating the New Year with our partners in the community is a wonderful way to honor VNSNY’s 80-plus years’ history of serving the Asian-American population across New York City,” says Teresa Lin, VNSNY’s Director of Cultural Marketing Development Initiatives. With the approach of the Lunar New Year, Manhattan’s Chinatown district is ablaze with
Partners in Care Completes LGBT Training and Earns Platinum SAGECare Certification
February 6, 2018–Last week, VNSNY took another major step in affirming its role as a preferred healthcare provider for New York City’s 750,000 LGBT residents, when the LGBT seniors advocacy group SAGE announced that Partners in Care has been awarded Platinum-level SAGECare certification. This is the SAGE (Services and Advocacy for GLBT Elders) organization’s highest-level award, indicating that 80 percent or more of Partners in Care’s home health aides (HHAs), nurses and other staff have received SAGECare LGBT cultural competency training. “This credential means that our LGBT clients can be assured they’ll be treated with understanding and respect by every member of our Partners in Care staff,” says Barbara Maccaro, Director of Quality Assurance and Education at Partners in Care. Since Partners in Care launched its SAGECare educational initiative last year, all of its nearly 9,000 HHAs have attended a specialized training session designed to raise their awareness of cultural issues and