On Tuesday, March 5^th, two dozen members of the MediSys Health Network leadership traveled to Albany to participate in The Healthcare Association of New York State’s (HANYS) Advocacy Day to urge state lawmakers to reject this year’s proposed budget cuts to health care.

Members of the MediSys group were joined by over 1,000 other healthcare workers from across the state for a rally at the Empire State Plaza Convention Center and marched through Albany’s streets to have their voices heard in opposition to the potential cuts that could include:

• Cuts directed toward hospitals totaling $657 million for the upcoming state fiscal year and $1.3 billion dollars over the next two years.
• Cuts to nursing homes that would total over $400 million during the 2019-2020 fiscal year and more than $800 million in the next two years.

In addition, Bruce J. Flanz, President and CEO of MediSys as well as a handful of hospital delegates met with local elected officials to discuss the devastating effects the proposed cuts would have on Jamaica and Flushing Hospital.

The MediSys Health Network and HANYS are encouraging employees to join the fight.  Please contact your local state legislators to tell them why they have to oppose these cuts.

On a daily basis New Yorkers, especially low-income residents, face challenging financial and social issues. These factors can negatively impact their lives in many ways, most notably their physical and mental health. Lack of access to adequate housing, food, or safe and secure employment can impede their ability to seek and receive appropriate healthcare services for themselves and their families.  Jamaica Hospital Medical Center is working to remove these barriers by offering free legal services to its patients.

Every week an attorney from LegalHealth, a division of the New York Legal Assistance Group, comes to Jamaica Hospital’s Ambulatory Care Center to provide legal counsel to hospital patients on issues relating to government benefits, housing, workplace conditions, and immigration and credit problems. LegalHealth also assists patients and families develop advanced planning directives, wills and legal matters affecting families.

It is well established that unmet social needs have a direct correlation with poor health.  Social factors, such as food insecurity have been closely linked to a higher risk of chronic conditions. Studies show that those who lose their jobs are 83% more likely to develop stress-related health conditions such as heart disease and stroke.

Jamaica Hospital made the commitment to fund the LegalHealth clinic knowing that addressing these issues will ultimately improve the health of its patients and potentially reduce unnecessary emergency room visits and hospital admissions.  According to Dr. Alan Roth, Chairman of Family Medicine at Jamaica Hospital, “By understanding these social determinants that our patients encounter on a daily basis and providing a resource to have them addressed, Jamaica Hospital and LegalHealth can remove many of the obstacles that prevent our community from improving and maintaining healthier lives.”

LegalHealth is also providing ongoing training to Jamaica Hospital’s providers to equip them with the necessary tools to help them identify any social, financial or other problems patients are experiencing which can be addressed with legal support.

The Legal Health clinic opened at Jamaica Hospital in January 2019 and is on site weekly.

Patients who utilize LegalHealth services are assured of complete confidentiality and services are completely free to Jamaica Hospital patients.

Every month, employees at Jamaica Hospital who go above and beyond to help coworkers, patients and visitors are nominated for the G.E.M award.

G.E.M stands for Going the Extra Mile and recipients are recognized for their hard work, team spirit, kindness, and professionalism.

This month’s G.E.M recipients are Jose Castro, Transportation Coordinator, and Seydou Ndiaye Security Department Captain.

Congratulations to you both. Keep up the excellent work in helping us to serve our community.

Join us in congratulating Dr. Katherine McKenzie, Attending Physician; Surgery, and
Todd Hartmann, Physical Therapist on their Good Catch!

Every month, Jamaica Hospital Medical Center recognizes employees for their contributions to patient safety.

Employees who go above and beyond to ensure the safety of our patients are recognized and awarded a Certificate of Excellence for their Good Catch.

Good Catch nominees receive recognition based on their actions in preventing the potential harm of patients. These actions may include correcting a medication order, preventing a patient fall or reporting a significant change in patient status.

By identifying problems before they became patient safety issues, our nominees have helped Jamaica Hospital to improve our quality in patient care.

To our Good Catch recipients, thank you for being exemplary members of our team and contributing to our goal of being a High-Reliability Hospital.

To report a Good Catch, fill out the Good Catch Form and send by interoffice mail to Letha Walters, PI Department, Axel Building 4th floor or call ext. 8409 to leave a message.

Last year, as part of the network’s Corporate Wellness program, the MediSys Health Network partnered with the Fitbit Corporation to offer employees the opportunity to purchase fitness trackers at a discounted price and improve their health as part of the network’s Corporate Wellness Program.

The response has been overwhelmingly positive to this initiative! Since the inception of the program, over 170 employees and family members took advantage of this offer and purchased Fitbit trackers. Participants had the opportunity to enroll in fitness challenges and games such as most steps taken, most stairs climbed, and most calories burned. These friendly challenges were established to motivate employees to live a healthier lifestyle through exercise.

The results of the challenges were tallied.

MediSys employees walked an amazing 99,268 miles (or the equivalent of four times around the earth). They climbed over 150,00 flights of stairs and were active for over one million minutes.

The MediSys Health Network would like to congratulate our top five “steppers”

These results affirm the MediSys Health Network’s commitment to improving the health and well-being of our employees. It also demonstrates how excited members of the MediSys were to join this program and participate in the fitness challenges.

For all those who have not yet joined the network’s Fitbit wellness program, please contact Program Administrator, Josh Sclair at [email protected] or 718-206-8918 to become a part of a challenge.

Celebrating the first baby of the New Year is always a special event at Jamaica and Flushing Hospital Medical Center.

This year, Jamaica Hospital had the honor of delivering the first baby born in Queens.

On January 1st, each hospital welcomed these two bundles of joy:

Jamaica Hospital Medical Center

Baby Girl:  Baby Girl Parasram

Weight: 5 lbs 10.8 oz

Length: 18 ”

Time: 12:55  A.M. on 1/1/19

Flushing Hospital Medical Center

Baby Boy:  Simon Thu

Weight: 7 lbs 8.5 oz

Length: 20 “

Time: 4:14 AM on 1/1/19

Congratulations to the families, we wish them a lifetime of happiness. A special thank you to the staff who assisted with these deliveries.

On Thursday evening December 6, 2018, The Queens Chamber of Commerce held their Annual Building Awards and Gala at Terrace on the Park.

For over 90 years, the Queens Chamber of Commerce has been honoring architects, builders, engineers, lenders, interior designers and owners of buildings and building projects in Queens County.

This year, Jamaica Hospital Medical Center was the recipient of an award in the healthcare category for Best Re-adaptive Use of Space. The award was in recognition of the Ferrara Family Center for Hospice Care’s construction in what was once the Traumatic Brain Injury and Rehabilitation area of the hospital’s “C” Building.

The renovated hospice unit boasts 10 private in-patient rooms as well as a family meeting area and lounge; all of which includes many upgraded features and amenities. “Every detail from room design to lighting was carefully selected with the comfort of our patients in mind,” explained Hans Kuenstler; Jamaica Hospital Director of Construction.

Jamaica Hospital is honored to receive this prestigious award from the Queens Chamber of Commerce. It is a reflection of our hospital’s commitment to providing our patients with the very best in all aspects of care.

Join us in congratulating nurses Chenfei Huang, Intensive Care Unit; Stella Egbo, Michelle Si and Yelana Abayeva, Emergency Department, for their Good Catch!

Every month, Flushing Hospital Medical Center recognizes employees for their contributions to patient safety.

Employees who go above and beyond to ensure the safety of our patients are recognized and awarded a Certificate of Excellence for their Good Catch.

Good Catch nominees receive recognition based on their actions in preventing the potential harm of patients. These actions may include correcting a medication order, preventing a patient fall or reporting a significant change in patient status.

By identifying problems before they became patient safety issues, our nominees have helped Flushing Hospital to improve our quality in patient care.

To our Good Catch recipients, thank you for being exemplary members of our team and contributing to our goal of being a High-Reliability Hospital.

To report a Good Catch, fill out the Good Catch Form and send by interoffice mail to Rehana Jamali, Pharmacy,  email [email protected] or call ext. 5415 to leave a message.

Join us in congratulating Klara Gavrilov, RN; Veronica Zafonte, R.Ph.; and Dr. Mahendra (MC) Patel on their Good Catch!

Every month, Jamaica Hospital Medical Center recognizes employees for their contributions to patient safety.

Employees who go above and beyond to ensure the safety of our patients are recognized and awarded a Certificate of Excellence for their Good Catch.

Good Catch nominees receive recognition based on their actions in preventing the potential harm of patients. These actions may include correcting a medication order, preventing a patient fall or reporting a significant change in patient status.

By identifying problems before they became patient safety issues, our nominees have helped Jamaica Hospital to improve our quality in patient care.

To our Good Catch recipients, thank you for being exemplary members of our team and contributing to our goal of being a High-Reliability Hospital.

To report a Good Catch, fill out the Good Catch Form and send by interoffice mail to Letha Walters, PI Department, Axel Building 4th floor or call ext. 8409 to leave a message.

To help continue to meet the educational requirements of the hundreds of members of our professional staff, Flushing Hospital Medical Center was recently awarded Accreditation with Commendation for its Continuing Medical Education (CME) Program by the Medical Society of the State of New York (MSSNY).

The six-year accreditation will allow Flushing Hospital to continue to provide attending physicians, residents, midwives and other medical professionals across the MediSys Health Network the opportunity to receive the necessary continuing medical education credits needed to fulfill their annual requirements. Every year, Flushing Hospital offers hundreds of free opportunities to our clinical staff to gather their CME credits through regularly scheduled departmental conferences and seminars.

Although Flushing Hospital has been offering CME credit opportunities for decades, this is the first time that the hospital has received accreditation with commendation. This additional designation highlights that Flushing Hospital not only met but exceeded all of the expectations set forth by the MSSNY for maintaining its CME status.

This status was made possible through the leadership and guidance of Dr. Alessandro Solinas, MD, Associate Chairman, Department of Medicine, and Frances Goulston, Coordinator, Continuing Medical Education.

“We are honored that MSSNY has appreciated our hard work and we are pleased by the recognition of the strong academic foundation in all the activities performed at FHMC,” said Dr. Solinas.

Flushing Hospital Medical Center plays a key role in the formation and direction of CME activities across their entire CME program. The hospital shows complete flexibility in planning and carrying out continuing education activities.  The CME Committee members work closely with various hospital departments to develop highly informative educational seminars.

The administration and employees at Flushing Hospital congratulate our Continuing Medical Education program on a job well done.