CBS News Highlights The MediSys Health Network’s Cancer Program

Earlier this year, the MediSys Health Network announced a partnership with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center to provide comprehensive cancer care to the Queens community.

Since the collaboration was announced, hundreds of patients have received high-quality services on the network’s Jamaica Hospital campus every month. Recently, WCBS reporter Jennifer Bisram visited the hospital to learn more about the impact the cancer care team is making in the community, including the announcement of a new dedicated cancer care center, scheduled to open shortly.

During her report, Jennifer interviewed Dr. Rosa Nouvini who discussed the importance of offering cancer care to a community that faces many healthcare barriers. Administrator Eugene Clark provided insight into the valuable services our patient navigator program provides our patients throughout their entire treatment.

The most powerful portion of the news segment however was an interview with cancer survivor, Ms. Leticia Aguilar, who gave a first-hand testimony of her diagnosis, treatment, and recovery from breast cancer. Ms. Aguilar shared details of the amazing care she received from the MediSys Health Network’s doctors, nurses, and patient navigation team.

To see the full CBS interview, click the link below:

Congratulations To The MediSys Health Network’s SEIP Award Winners

Congratulations to the MediSys Health Network’s Safety Excellence in Infection Prevention (SEIP) award winners.

The SEIP award recognizes employees who contribute to the success of infection control initiatives.

The criteria for the award are:

S: Surpasses above and beyond expected job role responsibilities as it relates to infection control.

E: Enforce actions that support infection prevention best practices.

I: I do the right thing, even when no one is looking.

P: Performs awesome acts of safety related to infection prevention.

We thank the following team members for leading by example and doing their part to reduce the risk of infection transmissions:

1. Dropattie Ramsammy, RN, PCCN, BSN, (AHN) – Jamaica Hospital

2. Dr. Nageswara Mandava, Chairperson of Surgery -Flushing Hospital

The MediSys Health Network cultivates a culture of safety by prioritizing infection control and prevention. All employees have an important part to play in preventing the spread of infections, and everyone’s contribution to safety is highly valued.

Congratulations To The MediSys Health Network’s Good Catch Award Winners

Good Catch awardees receive recognition and a certificate of excellence based on their actions in preventing accidents from occurring. These actions may include keeping our facilities safe, correcting a medication order, preventing a patient from falling or reporting a significant change in a patient’s status.

Please join us in congratulating the following employees on their Good Catch:

1. Vidya Ali, Clinical Laboratory Assistant – Flushing Hospital
2. Amy Lam, CNA – Flushing Hospital
3. Deborah Mandez, RN – Flushing Hospital
4. Ruiyi Kong, Pharmacist -Flushing Hospital

By identifying a problem before it became a patient safety issue, our awardees have helped our hospitals provide patients with excellent care. We thank them for being exemplary team members and contributing to our goal of being a high-reliability network.

Jamaica Hospital Nursing Home Reduces Patient Medications Through Partnership With United Hospital Fund

Jamaica Hospital Nursing Home, along with six other New York nursing homes, participated in a partnership with the United Hospital Fund (UHF) to tackle the issue of polypharmacy, the practice of prescribing an excessively high number of medications to long-term care residents. The initiative aims to reduce health risks of overprescribing for residents through a process called “deprescribing,” or decreasing the usage of inappropriate or ineffective medications.

A report assessing the results of the partnership, Reducing the Risk: Year 1 Report of the Polypharmacy in Nursing Homes Learning Collaborative, showed that participating nursing homes reduced the average number of medications prescribed to patients from approximately 11 to 9. The number of residents taking 10 or more medications also decreased across all participating facilities by 16%.

Deprescribing efforts focused on reducing medications that provided limited benefits and increased patients’ risk of experiencing harmful side effects, such as dizziness and falling. Jamaica Hospital Nursing Home specifically worked to deprescribe antihypertensives, proton pump inhibitors, and multivitamins.

“Antihypertensives and proton pump inhibitors are used very frequently in most nursing homes and hospitals,” said Louis Kaplan, the Assistant Director of Pharmacy at Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, who monitored the rate at which the targeted medications were prescribed to residents. “We suspected that it may not be necessary to continue their use for many of our patients.” Kaplan added that multivitamins were also targeted by the nursing home’s deprescribing efforts because of the sufficient nutrition patients already receive through their regular meals, making these supplements redundant in many cases.

Dr. Kaushik Doshi, the Medical Director of Jamaica Hospital Nursing Home, worked with doctors, pharmacists, and nursing staff to incorporate safe deprescribing guidelines from the UHF into the nursing home’s standard patient care practices. A key aspect of this initiative involved the introduction of helpful educational tools, such as electronic medical record alerts indicating whether the targeted medications were appropriate to prescribe continuously for certain patients.

“Physicians can be hesitant to stop medications, even when there’s no clear indication that they’re necessary beyond a certain point,” said Dr. Doshi. “This is an aspect of healthcare that needs to change, not only here, but across all facilities and organizations.”

Jamaica Hospital is proud of the results achieved through this partnership and congratulates everyone who participated in this initiative for the work they’ve done so far. We look forward to seeing the continuing impact of these practices for our patients and care provider teams in the future.

Congratulations To The MediSys Health Network’s CARE Award Recipients

The CARE Award Program recognizes employees who receive positive written remarks from patients or their loved ones after receiving high-quality and compassionate care.

The criteria for the award are:

C: Compassion- Through listening, identifying patient vulnerabilities, and conveying empathy.

A: Advocacy-Ensure quality care is given and the safety of the patients and environment is maintained.

R: Respect-Greeting or speaking to others in a kind and respectful way.

E: Engagement-Make individuals feel valued, important, and recognized.

Please join us in congratulating:

1. Rodrigo Villavicencio, Driver – Jamaica Hospital

2. Dr. Sanjit Konda – Jamaica Hospital

3. Joshua Sclair, Assistant Vice President Emergency Services- Jamaica Hospital

4. Abraham Resuello, RN- Jamaica Hospital

5. Ashley Schubert, RN – Jamaica Hospital

6. Larisa Kolyuyeva, RN- Jamaica Hospital

7. Christine Mullings, CNM -Flushing Hospital

8. Balwinder Kaur, CNA -Flushing Hospital

9. Delrose Smith, RN -Flushing Hospital

10. Estela Divino, LSW – Flushing Hospital

11. Althea Lalanne, CNA – Flushing Hospital

12. Carlene Smith, CNA- Flushing Hospital

13. Nicholas Caputo, Assistant Director Pre-Hospital Care- Flushing Hospital

14. John Keogh, Senior Planner Emergency Management- Flushing Hospital

15.  Dr. Visaharan Sivasubramaniam- Flushing Hospital

16. Dilraj Kaur, RN- Flushing Hospital

We thank our employees for their contributions to making our hospitals high-reliability facilities that focus on patient-centered care.

Congratulations To The MediSys Health Network’s SEIP Award Winners

Congratulations to the MediSys Health Network’s Safety Excellence in Infection Prevention (SEIP) award winners.

The SEIP award recognizes employees who contribute to the success of infection control initiatives.

The criteria for the award are:

S: Surpasses above and beyond expected job role responsibilities as it relates to infection control.

E: Enforce actions that support infection prevention best practices.

I: I do the right thing, even when no one is looking.

P: Performs awesome acts of safety related to infection prevention.

We thank the following team members for leading by example and doing their part to reduce the risk of infection transmissions:

1. Dr. William Nugent, Director of Surgical Intensive Care Unit- Jamaica Hospital

2. Dr. Ysaac Eusebio Ramirez, Internal Medicine Resident-Flushing Hospital

The MediSys Health Network cultivates a culture of safety by prioritizing infection control and prevention. All employees have an important part to play in preventing the spread of infections, and everyone’s contribution to safety is highly valued.

Congratulations To The MediSys Health Network’s Good Catch Award Winners

Good Catch awardees receive recognition and a certificate of excellence based on their actions in preventing accidents from occurring. These actions may include keeping our facilities safe, correcting a medication order, preventing a patient from falling, or reporting a significant change in a patient’s status.

Please join us in congratulating the following employees on their Good Catch:

1. Jonathan Alaby, Security – Jamaica Hospital
2. Samantha Ramirez, RT- Jamaica Hospital
3. Rossy Ramirez, CNA – Flushing Hospital

By identifying a problem before it became a patient safety issue, our awardees have helped our hospitals provide patients with excellent care. We thank them for being exemplary team members and contributing to our goal of being a high-reliability network.

 

Jamaica Hospital Receives “A” Rating for Social Responsibility from the Lown Institute

Jamaica Hospital Medical Center was one of 39 hospitals in New York to receive an “A” rating for social responsibility from the Lown Institute, a nonprofit think tank that advocates for equitable treatment and services among healthcare organizations. This rating is the highest awarded by the Institute.

Social responsibility ratings are given to hospitals across the country. Out of the 39 institutions given A ratings in New York, 22 (including Jamaica Hospital) were located in the New York City metropolitan area. Among all hospitals ranked for social responsibility in New York, Jamaica Hospital ranked ninth.

Hospital ratings are based on more than 50 metrics focused on elements such as pay equity, community benefits, cost efficiency, and patient outcomes. Historically, many New York hospitals have struggled to achieve an A rating for social responsibility; this is partially due to difficulties with pay equity amidst the constantly-rising cost of living in New York City and other parts of the state.

Overall, Jamaica Hospital was rated A in Equity (which reflects a commitment to inclusion and community health), A in Value (which reflects the avoidance of low-value services and an emphasis on cost-efficiency), and B in Outcomes (which reflects performance in relation to patient health and care experiences). The hospital scored particularly high in a few key metrics, such as Community Benefit (which measures the extent of a hospital’s investment in community health) and Avoiding Overuse (which measures the avoidance of inappropriate tests and procedures that offer little or no clinical benefit).

Thank you to everyone at Jamaica Hospital for the work you’ve done to earn us this accolade!

Congratulations To The MediSys Health Network’s CARE Award Recipients

The CARE Award Program recognizes employees who receive positive written remarks from patients or their loved ones after receiving high-quality and compassionate care.

The criteria for the award are:

C: Compassion- Through listening, identifying patient vulnerabilities, and conveying empathy.

A: Advocacy-Ensure quality care is given and the safety of the patients and environment is maintained.

R: Respect-Greeting or speaking to others in a kind and respectful way.

E: Engagement-Make individuals feel that they are valued, important, and recognized.

Please join us in congratulating:

1. Carlene Thomas, PCA – Jamaica Hospital

2. Dr. Karen Benabou – Jamaica Hospital

3. Yuliya Novikova, RN- Jamaica Hospital

We thank our employees for their contributions to making our hospitals high-reliability facilities that focus on patient-centered care.

Congratulations To The MediSys Health Network’s SEIP Award Winners

Congratulations to the MediSys Health Network’s Safety Excellence in Infection Prevention (SEIP) award winners.

The SEIP award recognizes employees who contribute to the success of infection control initiatives.

The criteria for the award are:

S: Surpasses above and beyond expected job role responsibilities as it relates to infection control.

E: Enforce actions that support infection prevention best practices.

I: I do the right thing, even when no one is looking.

P: Performs awesome acts of safety related to infection prevention.

We thank the following team members for leading by example and doing their part to reduce the risk of infection transmissions:

1. Dr. Buphinder Singh, CAUTI Physician Champion- Jamaica Hospital

2. Dr. Akbar Khan, CAUTI & CLABSI Physician Champion-Flushing Hospital

The MediSys Health Network cultivates a culture of safety by prioritizing infection control and prevention. All employees have an important part to play in preventing the spread of infections, and everyone’s contribution to safety is highly valued.