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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RN Tinu Fadamiro Explains that How You Talk to Patients Is Just as Important as What You Say
February 1, 2018–Over the past 13 years, VNSNY public health nurse Atinuke “Tinu” Fadamiro has treated patients for conditions ranging from postsurgical wounds to ostomy bag management. While her service area in Staten Island is a long way from her native Nigeria, she’s found that some of the most challenging aspects of her work at VNSNY are similar to those she faced as a sex counselor for teens back in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city. “As nurses, the skilled interventions we’re trained to do are the part of the job we can control,” says Tinu. “We can’t regulate people’s behavior, though.” One of the biggest issues, she adds, is getting patients to fully understand the part they need to play in their own care.” Knowing how important it is to encourage such “health literacy” inspires Tinu to be patient, compassionate—and persistent. A recent case that showed how Tinu helps patients connect the dots
Saluting Angela Richardson, a Partners in Care HHA Since 1981
January 18, 2018–Over the past several weeks, Frontline VNSNY has been profiling a select group of home health aides (HHAs) who have been with Partners in Care since it was acquired by VNSNY in 1983, and in some cases even longer. This week, we salute the third member of this group: Angela Richardson, who joined Partners in Care in 1981. Angela Richardson: Going the Extra Mile for Her Clients Partners in Care home health aide (HHA) Angela Richardson grew up in Princes Town, Trinidad, in a home big enough to house three generations within its walls: her grandparents, her parents, and Angela and her nine siblings. In the late 1960s, her beloved grandmother Nanny had a stroke, and Angela pitched in as her mother Brinnette took care of her—a foretaste of their future careers for mother and daughter alike. A decade later, Brinnette moved to New York. She knew she wanted to
CMHS Social Worker Christine Garcia: Providing Stability for Children in Crisis
January 18, 2018–Christine Garcia still vividly remembers one of the first young patients she cared for when she began her job as a social work assistant with VNSNY’s Home-Based Crisis Intervention program (HBCI), some 16 years ago. The ten-year-old boy’s parents were not available to him, and he had been sent to live with his aunt and her family in Brooklyn. After his discharge from an emergency psychiatric care setting, he was referred to HBCI, a part of VNSNY’s Community Mental Health Services (CMHS), to get home care treatment for deep depression. The referral came too late for the boy’s new home situation to be stabilized, though, and he was forced to re-enter the system. “It was heartbreaking,” said Christine. “If VNSNY had been involved earlier, we might have changed his life.” At the same time, she adds, “that case planted a seed for me, by showing that there is real potential
January 2018 Patient Letters
January 11, 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 resident who is a client of VNSNY’s Health Home program—a support program administered by VNSNY Community Mental Health Services for individuals dealing with mental illness and substance abuse—sent a letter of appreciation to the Health Home staff for their support. “I would like to express my thanks to the VNSNY Care Management team for all that you do and have done,” the client wrote. “I just celebrated my 60th birthday last Friday, and I am so emotional as I think back on how I may not have made it to this milestone birthday if it had not been for the VNSNY team. When I started working with your
Saluting Geraldine Singleton and Her Four Decades as a Partners in Care HHA
January 10, 2018–As we noted last month, of the 8,000 home health aides (HHAs) at Partners in Care, five of them have been with Partners in Care since it was acquired by VNSNY in 1983. This month, we salute another member of this distinguished group: Geraldine Singleton, who joined Partners in Care in 1979, and whose HHA career spans four decades. Geraldine Singleton: “I Like Nothing Better than Seeing My Clients Thrive” Looking back on her 38-year career as a Partners in Care home health aide, Geraldine Singleton fondly reminisces about the many people she’s cared for over that time. Her first client was Samuel, an elderly gentleman who lived in Astoria, Queens. A man of good cheer despite his heart and kidney problems, he loved smoking cigars and keeping up with the horseraces on radio and TV. Their relationship was one of mutual affection and respect, recalls Geraldine, and became one of shared
An Interview with Susan Northover, SVP, Patient Care Services
December 21, 2017–What developments do you foresee for VNSNY Home Care in 2018? One key development will be the implementation of our new HomeCare HomeBase electronic health records system. The system, which is currently being rolled out in VNSNY Hospice and Palliative Care, will be piloted in VNSNY Home Care starting in May, followed by a rollout that will last through November. Other areas of focus include redesigning our Home Care delivery models and continuing to increase our focus on quality and patient experience. What sort of care delivery refinements are planned for Home Care? We want to ensure that we’re utilizing our staff and our technology efficiently and effectively, so that we’re providing each patient with just the right level of care to meet their needs at all times. This will involve new technological approaches such as virtual clinician visits, as well as a more nuanced use of our caregivers. With
VNSNY Rolls Out Integrated Complaint and Incident Management System
December 14, 2017–New software platform allows VNSNY clinicians and managers to resolve patient incidents more quickly and efficiently. With the launch earlier this year of VNSNY’s new, state-of-the-art incident management system, VNSNY clinicians and managers are now able to record, track and address all patient complaints and incidents through a single, integrated digital platform. The new system, developed in collaboration with the healthcare software vendor RL Solutions and rolled out in May, includes a dashboard component that gives managers a comprehensive overview of all reported events for a given time period, and also lets them drill down to review and augment specific cases. “Previously we were using several systems that stored data in different places, with complaints and incidents compiled separately,” notes Robert Plaszcz, VNSNY’s Chief Information Officer. “Our new system has a single repository for all this data, which makes our compliance reporting more efficient and also makes it easier to
Saluting Patricia Watson, Partners in Care’s Longest-Serving Home Health Aide
December 14, 2017–Every day, over 8,000 Partners in Care home health aides (HHAs) provide care to thousands of New Yorkers, many of whom are VNSNY Home Care patients and CHOICE MLTC members. Out of this large and dedicated group of aides, five have been with Partners in Care since the affiliate was acquired by VNSNY in 1983—including two HHAs who have been working with Partners in Care since the 1970s. Over the next several weeks, Frontline VNSNY will be posting profiles of each of these HHAs. Today, we begin this series by saluting the longest-serving of these home health aides: Patricia Watson, who joined Partners in Care in 1976, a year when Gerard Ford was president, inflation was high, and the country celebrated its bicentennial. “I Love My Work So Much!” With 41 years of experience as a Partners in Care home health aide, Patricia Watson holds the distinction of having served
December 2017 Patient Letters
December 7, 2017–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. Brooklyn—A Brooklyn Heights resident who recently had hip replacement surgery emailed to say “what a great pleasure it was, and how grateful I am to have had Thobile Sibanda as my physical therapist.” The writer continued, “She is a great listener, very knowledgeable and very professional and pleasant to work with. I am very fortunate that she was part of my recovery, and I feel that whoever gets the chance to work with her is very blessed, as I was!” Manhattan—“From July to September, I was recovering at home from hip replacement surgery,” wrote a resident of Manhattan’s East Side. “During that time, I received wonderful care from my