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March 29, 2024

Strategy News

Welcome to Strategy News. In this section, you’ll find videos, articles, and information on VNS Health’s strategic plan to be the leading payer and provider of integrated, cost-effective home- and community-based healthcare.

Related Articles

Where Will VNS Health Be in 5 Years? This 10-Minute Strategy Video Explains It All!

July 27, 2022–From our organization’s recent rebrand to the launch of new services and programs, a lot of exciting things are happening at VNS Health. It’s all part of our Strategic Plan for the future — which you can learn about by watching this 10-minute video that explains our strategy for the next 5 years in what I hope is a clear, easy-to-understand way.   Once you’ve seen this brief video, you’ll know:  Where we’re heading as an organization  What we’re planning to do  And why we’re doing it  To learn all about VNS Health’s Strategic Plan, simply click on the screen below. Thank you for watching. 10 minutes of your time is all it takes to learn about our next 5 years!   

Michael Bernstein, EVP and Chief Administrative Officer, on the Role of Hospitality in Health Care

May 29, 2019–Michael Bernstein oversees a wide range of corporate functions for VNSNY, including Patient/Member Experience. You’ve identified hospitality as a key to improving the experience of VNSNY’s patients and plan members. Can you explain this? Whenever we’re delivering care, technical proficiency is obviously essential—but there’s another important element as well, and that’s emotion. How does the patient or plan member feel about their encounter with us? Hospitality means making our patients and members feel that we’re on their side. It’s about eliciting positive emotions by being empathetic, asking what we can do for them, and then finding ways to say “yes” instead of “no.” Hospitality is traditionally associated with travel and entertainment. How hard will it be to extend this approach to health care? It’s already happening. For example, a major New York City medical center just hired a hotel industry veteran as their new head of patient experience. That makes sense,

Five Key Take-Aways from the Latest VNSNY Pulse Survey!

May 15, 2019–Our thanks to everyone who completed the VNSNY April Pulse Survey! 60% of staff members sent in their responses—up from 58% for our last Pulse Survey in December. Here are five key take-aways from the April results: 1) The overall trend is positive. Compared to last December’s survey, there was an increase in positive responses for every one of the 11 items the survey asked about. 2) We’re responding to the changing healthcare landscape. The single most favorable response from staff came on survey item #11: “VNSNY is taking steps to respond to the changing world of health care.” 81% of April’s survey respondents agreed with this statement (up from 76% in December), while just 4% disagreed. 3) Some areas of communication showed visible improvement … 70% of respondents agreed that “communication is a two-way street” at VNSNY, while 67% agreed there is effective communication within their program or department, and 66% said

Our Top 10 Key 2018 Achievements and What They Mean for VNSNY in 2019

January 30, 2019–VNSNY’s Path to Success: Paving the Way for a Successful 2019 and Beyond! VNSNY’s three-year strategic plan covers 2019, 2020 and 2021. With input from across the organization, we’ve created a plan that moves us to a solid financial position by 2021. By accomplishing this and achieving financial sustainability, we will ensure the long-term stability of VNSNY so that we can continue to serve the people who depend on us every day. As 2019 gets underway, we are set up very well for success—because the numbers from 2018 indicate that this strategic plan is well on track! “Thanks to the efforts of everyone who works here, we had a strong performance in 2018, including a bottom line result that was better than budget. Yes, we still lost money, but we lost less than anticipated,” says President and CEO Marki Flannery. “Building on these results, we’re off to a terrific start

An Interview with EVP and Chief Financial Officer Dan Savitt

January 23, 2019–Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Dan Savitt, who joined VNSNY in January 2018, oversees finance in all VNSNY programs and corporations, and is also responsible for Information Technology and Data Science and Strategic Analytics. How would you sum up healthcare economics today? At the most basic level, the demand for health care services, and therefore the cost associated with these services, is outpacing the funding. Whether we’re talking about a government funding program, a managed care plan, or a self ­funded employer, the pressures of the demand for services are straining the system—and the need for care is only continuing to grow as the population ages. As a result, stakeholders are looking to bend that cost curve by reducing unnecessary or avoidable services. A big component of this involves helping people manage their health in a home setting, and VNSNY is in a great position to do that.

VNSNY’s Strategy for Success Video Series. Part Three: Moving Forward

December 11, 2018–“Financial sustainability ultimately allows us to do the things we love to do.” —Dan Savitt, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer VNSNY is now beginning to implement its three-year Strategic Plan. In this Strategy Video, the third in our series, Chief Financial Officer Dan Savitt talks about how VNSNY’s strategic goals all feed into one essential objective: long-term financial sustainability for our organization.

VNSNY’s Board Supports Strategic Plan; Implementation Is Now Underway

October 18, 2018–Earlier this month, the VNSNY Board of Directors formally provided support for the second phase of VNSNY’s strategic planning process. “This is an important milestone,” says Marki Flannery, VNSNY’s President and CEO. “We are now working with teams across the entire enterprise to refine the tactics and measurements of our plan so that we can prepare a high-level, three-year financial forecast for our business.” This next body of work builds on VNSNY’s strategic framework (outlined in VNSNY Strategy Video Part 1) and the strategic workshops held this summer (highlighted in VNSNY Strategy Video #2). During those workshops, employees from across VNSNY came together to help shape the strategies for each of the framework’s seven goals and to start the work of identifying what needs to be done to achieve each goal. A progress report on that work was shared earlier this month in two meetings with management staff. Here are

An Interview with EVP and Chief of Provider Services, Andria Castellanos

October 18, 2018–On October 1st, Andria Castellanos joined VNSNY as the new head of Provider Services, with oversight responsibility for VNSNY Home Care and Hospice, Partners in Care, Community Mental Health Services, and VNSNY’s Population Health and Business Development groups.   Q: Welcome to VNSNY! You arrived just as much of the organization’s Manhattan workforce was moving into the new office at 220 East 42nd Street. What was that like? Starting my first day in the new space was great, because I didn’t feel like the new person. Everyone was trying to learn where the bathrooms and the coffee machines were, so I was already a part of the rhythm of the building. It made my transition much easier! The space is modern and beautiful, and thanks to the hard work of our Facilities and IT teams the move happened seamlessly. Q: Previously you served in a number of important leadership roles at

An Interview with EVP and Chief Administrative Officer Michael Bernstein

October 11, 2018–This past June, Michael Bernstein rejoined VNSNY as EVP and Chief Administrative Officer, with oversight responsibilities for Quality and Customer Experience, Marketing, Development, Communications, Facilities, Administrative Services, ESPRIT Medical Care and the Center for Home Care Policy and Research. Michael previously held key leadership roles at VNSNY from 2005 to 2015, first as Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer and then as Executive Vice President, Business Operations & Chief Marketing Officer. Welcome back! How would you say the organization has evolved since you were here last? VNSNY is undergoing a fundamental shift. We have the opportunity today to reinvent how care is brought to the home, in a way that will enable us to be a major player in the New York marketplace. On the provider side, we’ve always been focused on providing patient care for a defined period of time. Now, like the healthcare industry itself, we’re moving to a