Our people are all about going above and beyond to deliver the finest care possible. Our President’s Award recognizes those who go even further. Presented personally by our President and CEO, Michael Dowling at a gala event, the annual President’s Award celebrates those individuals and teams who represent the very best of Northwell Health.
Meet the 2019 President’s Awards Winners!
The Northwell Health President’s Awards program honors and celebrates employees who truly represent the very best of Northwell. Each year, these awards recognize team members who not only surpass our expectations and standards of excellence, but also those who drive innovative business outcomes throughout five distinctive categories Nurse of the Year, Leader of the Year, Teamwork and Exceptional Patient/ Customer Experience and Physician of the Year. Get to know this year’s winners and their incredible stories.
Leader of the Year
Ryan J. Guda, RN Nurse Manager, Dialysis Services, Ambulatory
Building on his array of experiences in different fields, Ryan Guda has rebuilt a workplace that adapts to change and established a culture of respect with dramatic effects on the quality of care.
Shortly after joining Northwell in 2015, Ryan met with each team member to hear their opinions about their work environment. By listening and acknowledging his team’s feelings, he was able to re-direct negative behavior in a nonjudgmental manner and win their trust. Even his adept computer skills helped during a transition to electronic record-keeping.
Ryan quickly became an agent of change that has improved the work environment and directly affected the quality of services delivered to patients living with end-stage renal failure. He was successful in turning the team members’ fear of change into hope.
Watch Ryan’s Made for this story.
Nurse of the Year
Jeffrey Rosa, RN Surgical Intensive Care Unit, Long Island Jewish Medical Center
Passion for his patients and awareness of the complexities of navigating the emotions and needs of those in the Surgical Intensive Care Unit drive the care provided by Jeffrey Rosa. He witnessed the excellent care provided to his grandmother, and, later, as a paramedic, responded to the horrors of the Sept. 11 attack at the World Trade Center, which solidified his determination to become a nurse.
At Long Island Jewish Medical Center (LIJMC), Jeffrey is known as “the go-to player,” someone who has made it his business to know everything he needs to know about every patient in a unit where extra compassion, understanding and respect for what patients and families are going through are crucial. He is completely dedicated to inspiring and teaching new nurses to share his passion and expertise. He coaches, mentors and serves as a role model for his peers. Jeffrey lectures the hemodynamics portion of the nursing fellowship curriculum and shares his passion for work he does daily.
Jeffrey participates in countless committees, including the Magnet task force, and as co-chair of the Surgical ICU’s Collaborative Care Council, he facilitates the agenda and pushes LIJMC nursing units to share innovative solutions and champion new ideas and processes.
Watch Jeffrey’s Made for this story.
Nurse of the Year
Alexa Damone, RN Medical Surgical Unit, Glen Cove Hospital
Alexa Damone’s passion for her work is evident to her patients and colleagues by constantly learning new skills to improve medical care.
Alexa has the ability to relate to patients and their families through her caring manner and attentive demeanor. Her deep commitment is evident to her patients and her colleagues and was recognized by the hospital when she was honored in the hospital’s first “Breakfast with the Stars.” She is empathic, compassionate, an excellent communicator, possesses solid clinical and problem-solving skills and serves as an advocate for her patients.
Her commitment to helping peers is inspirational. Upon returning from a sepsis conference, Alexa shared her newly developed knowledge with her peers to improve the identification and prompt treatment of sepsis. She was a part of a project on infection control that led to better hand hygiene and infection control practices on the unit. Alexa is involved in another project aimed at improving the patient experience. With diabetes becoming increasingly prevalent, especially among the elderly, she attended a two-day workshop recognizing the importance of diabetes knowledge, management and education, enabling her to become a unit champion and valuable resource for her peers and patients.
Watch Alexa’s Made for this story.
Teamwork
ECMO-TO-GO Long Island Jewish Medical Center, North Shore University Hospital, Southside Hospital
Made up of a team of well-honed specialists, ECMO-TO-GO takes its life-saving skills wherever they are needed, elevating the level of care available to seriously ill patients. The team develops its successes with the cardiopulmonary bypass technique through continuity of communication and care delivered by all team members, commitment to continuous improvement and the depth of care provided by experts from across Northwell. The innovative approach of the team traveling to the patient rather than the other way around means a highly qualified, seasoned team is available to the sickest of patients. With a mortality rate of about 50 percent in these kinds of patients, the concept of such a team grew out of the establishment of an acute lung injury program at Long Island Jewish Medical Center and the launch of a heart transplant program. Northwell physicians recognized the need to provide stable, quality care as quickly as possible, leading to the ECMO-TO- GO program.
The strength of the group comes from their ability to harness their differences in expertise to meet the dire needs of a complicated patient population. They do so with seamless coordination, deep compassion, and deliberate communication ultimately forging something stronger than any individual person.
Watch ECMO-TO-GO’s Made for this story!
Exceptional Patient Customer Experience
Adrian Mazur Chaplain, Cohen Children’s Medical Center
Chaplain Adrian Mazur has chosen to work in the midst of medical crisis, supporting the smallest patients and their families in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit as they try to cope with life threatening illnesses. It is his empathy that others quickly notice as he helps fearful, weary and distressed parents who are trying to cope with some of the worst days of their lives.
Adrian, who came to the ministry from a career in finance and volunteer work with an orphanage in Ukraine, works with adolescents in pediatric hematology/oncology. There he helps to establish a connection and genuine trust as the young patients face their own mortality, changes in their appearance and an overall loss of health and stamina.
Often, Adrian plays a significant role in the lives of families that ultimately lose their child to illness. In one instance, he later drove through a snowstorm to be with one such couple at the birth of another child. It is through his presence, compassion, dedication, prayers and listening ear that he helps patients and parents redefine their hopes and maintain their dreams. Adrian’s presence brings a vitality to the hospital and all those he touches.
Watch Adrian’s Made for this story!
Physician of the Year
Carmen Rodriguez, MD, FACOG Voluntary Physician, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Long Island Jewish Medical Center
An excellent bedside manner and the care she provides to her patients distinguishes the work of Dr. Carmen Rodriguez and moves many people to say, “She’s the best.” Regarded as reliable, dependable and talented, she is also humble and unpretentious. Dr. Rodriguez leads by example for all clinicians and team members. And her contributions go beyond kindness and compassion. She is known to take on some of the most difficult gynecological challenges via laparotomy, laparoscopic and robotic modalities. Dr. Rodriguez will always fight to defend the reproductive rights of her patients.
Dr. Rodriguez also plays an active role in the affairs and governance of the hospital. She is the associate chair of the Long Island Jewish Medical Center – Performance Improvement Coordinating Group (LIJMC PICG). She is also a member of the OBGYN department PICG. Dr. Rodriguez finds the time to participate in performance improvement initiatives because she believes that everyone benefits when better care is rendered, mainly for the patient and the community at large, but also for the clinical and administrative team member. She is the president-elect of the LIJ Medical Team member Society, making her the first woman to hold this distinguished position in the history of LIJMC.
Watch Dr. Rodriguez’s Made for this story!
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2019 President’s Award Finalist- Exceptional Patient/Customer Experience
Each year, Northwell’s President’s Awards recognize team members who not only surpass our expectations and standards of excellence, but also those who drive innovative business outcomes.
The Exceptional Patient/Customer Experience award recognizes an individual who is Made for Northwell Health: made for caring and protecting our patients and communities – made for leading innovation and change that inspires our colleagues and turns tomorrow into a breathtaking opportunity. Meet this year’s finalists.
Salvatore Dimatteo
Supervisor, Rehabilitation Services, STARS, Huntington
A football injury that could have ended his collegiate football career instead inspired Sal Dimatteo to the profession of physical therapy, where he leads a practice filled with compassion for patients. As a physical therapist supervising rehabilitation at the STARS Huntington location, he overcame his disappointment at low Press Ganey patient scores the office was receiving by reaching out to colleagues and coming up with distinctive and fresh ways of encouraging team members and patients to provide feedback.
Sal’s approach led to a huge surge in responses and improved scores. Under his leadership, STARS Huntington was ranked in the 98th percentile nationally (a score of 98.5) for Likelihood to Recommend for 2018. This was the highest ranking for all STARS locations as well as the Northwell Outpatient Rehabilitation Network.
His hands-on style nurtures a team approach to provide patients with the best care. And Sal’s leadership brings out the best in his team — bringing them together as a cohesive unit and empowered to provide the best possible service. His upbeat, positive style and work ethic encourages the team member to perform at a high level and bring the best possible care to patients.
Kacey Farber, LMSW
Social Worker, Huntington Hospital
Kacey Farber went from a teaching career to one of social work and a transformative role as a leader in helping families cope with the loss of a baby. Dissatisfied with the resources available that would allow her to assist grieving families, she decided to create her own.
Kacey connected first with the Star Legacy Foundation, which works to increase awareness about neonatal loss and increase family support. She then established the Huntington Hospital
Bereavement and Support Group. Working with a network of families who had lost babies led to a plan to create a perinatal bereavement garden, a warm and comforting space to memorialize lost children. She coordinated fundraising to support the garden, which opened last fall.
As a dedicated problem solver, Kacey identified a need and fixed it through research, planning, networking and fundraising. She also helps manage the bundled orthopedic patients and has become an expert on providing transitional care. In addition, she was the first-ever mentor for Master level social work candidates in the Case Management department. Kacey is also the certified intern supervisor for the department’s three social work interns. She is an incredible mentor and has motivated others to become a certified social work intern supervisor.
Bulah Martin
Lead Phlebotomist, Northwell Health Labs
As lead phlebotomist, Bulah Martin has a knack of turning an unpopular but vital task into an experience that makes people smile. Having their blood drawn is rarely a happily anticipated event. With Bulah, her skills at minimizing the unpleasant aspects of the service, combined with her cheery personality, make for successful outcomes.
Bulah often works with special needs or very sick children where making the procedure go smoothly can be a challenge. She frequently has physicians asking for her by name. By decorating two rooms with playful decals of animals and nature, she minimizes the presence of medical equipment. Bulah has her equipment ready when the patient enters the room, gives small gifts to young children, which she pays for out of her own pocket, and eases the worries of parents who in turn, are able to calm their children. Her creative solutions ensures the necessary work of blood collection happens successfully.
Phlebotomists at Northwell Health Labs provide blood collection services for more than one million patients every year — in many cases after taking into consideration and resolving the fears and resistance of patients. Bulah teaches techniques for collecting blood samples from children and infants, and mentors phlebotomists all over the health system to show them “how it’s done,” leading patients with a positive sense of the quality performance that Northwell represents.
Adrian Mazur
Chaplain, Cohen Children’s Medical Center
Chaplain Adrian Mazur has chosen to work in the midst of medical crisis, supporting the smallest patients and their families in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit as they try to cope with life threatening illnesses. It is his empathy that others quickly notice as he helps fearful, weary and distressed parents who are trying to cope with some of the worst days of their lives.
Adrian, who came to the ministry from a career in finance and volunteer work with an orphanage in Ukraine, works with adolescents in pediatric hematology/oncology. There he helps to establish a connection and genuine trust as the young patients face their own mortality, changes in their appearance and an overall loss of health and stamina.
Often, Adrian plays a significant role in the lives of families that ultimately lose their child to illness. In one instance, he later drove through a snowstorm to be with one such couple at the birth of another child. It is through his presence, compassion, dedication, prayers and listening ear that he helps patients and parents redefine their hopes and maintain their dreams. Adrian’s presence brings a vitality to the hospital and all those he touches.
Kelly Ann Moed MSN, RN-BC, CSPHP
Development Instructor, Staten Island University Hospital
Kelly Ann Moed turned an idea she developed during graduate studies into a program to safeguard the well-being of hospital staff through the prevention of injuries. Taking care of patients starts with making sure our team members are well. Her Safe Patient Handling Program has led to a significant decline in the number of workforce injuries. Kelly Ann’s passion, caring and knowledge are the driving forces that have made this innovative program a success.
She has been the driving force in making sure hospital team members are properly trained and educated on the use of equipment to move and transfer patients.
Her program took a creative turn recently with Workforce Safety Olympics. It was a fun way for the team members to demonstrate their Safe Patient Handling expertise and the use of equipment to transfer and lift patients. These groups were presented with various scenarios where, within a specific time frame, together they needed to exhibit the proper choices in equipment, communication with each other and the patient, and appropriate transfer technique. The Staten Island University Hospital team members took home the gold trophy.
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2019 President’s Award Finalists: Innovation
Each year, Northwell’s President’s Awards recognize team members who not only surpass our expectations and standards of excellence, but also those who drive innovative business outcomes.
The Innovation award recognizes team members who were finalists in the Innovation Challenge. Northwell’s Innovation Challenge empowers team members to come up with the next big health care innovation in areas such as revenue through new or existing channels, improve patient experience, improve quality of care, positively impact health outcomes and so much more. As an organization, we understand that our people are the ones who bring our patient care to the next level, and this program gives them an opportunity to share their big ideas. Meet this year’s finalists.
AccuLABeler
AccuLABeler represents a proprietary middle-ware solution that interfaces with existing robotics machinery and a lab information system (LIS) to more efficiently relabel tubes referred to the lab for analysis from non-system sources. At Northwell, the current workflow requires 12 FTEs who perform accessioning and relabeling of these tubes. The total available market encompasses reference laboratories in the United States and abroad.
Bedside Voice Assistant
The Bedside Voice Assistant (BVA) involves the continued development of an existing prototype of a bed-side Alexa based voice assistant created by members of the Northwell Innovation Center. This innovation represents a developed software product which is cloud based, HIPAA compliant and will be agnostic to EMR system for integration and scalability.
EDCAP aza-Peptide Building Blocks for Preferred Drug Characteristics
Many pharmaceutical drugs are peptides, small fragments of proteins. When carefully chosen, peptides offer the advantage of selectivity toward a target coupled with minimal adverse side effects. However, peptides suffer from a very short half-life, and their effect can be very short lived because they are destroyed in seconds in the blood. The EDCAP technology offers a general solution to this stability issue through changing the labile peptide bond to an alternate bond that is resistant to peptidases (stable for hours in the blood).
LabFly: Mobile Phlebotomy App
The proposed innovation reflects the development of a mobile blood drawing solution for patients and caregivers. As developed, LabFly would serve as the patient facing application, and integrate with LabFly Phleb, a phlebotomist facing application. The applications have been reviewed by the Northwell OCIO, OCIO security review, penetration tests and a QM validation. Future development of the application could support on demand appointments for flu shots and strep testing, and/or integration with care delivery within emergency rooms.
Real-Time Actionable Data (RAD)
The RAD invention represents a data analysis and reporting tool which provides real time, actionable data related to ED utilization and the allocation of clinical resources. RAD addresses an unmet need in many if not all emergency rooms by supporting data driven, patient specific, decision making. This product builds upon the work conducted over the past several years within the Northwell Emergency Medicine service line.
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2019 President’s Award Finalists: Teamwork
Each year, Northwell’s President’s Awards recognize team members who not only surpass our expectations and standards of excellence, but also those who drive innovative business outcomes.
The Teamwork award recognizes a team who is flexible, hardworking and made for unwavering support. They successfully collaborate to improve quality, financial performance and/or patient-centric care by leveraging and embracing diversity while creating a feeling of belonging. Meet this year’s finalists.
Deliver the Vote
Lenox Hill Hospital
A pair of nurses with a strong commitment to upholding the right to vote, and an amazing determination not to take no for an answer enabled dozens of hospitalized patients to participate in the American electoral system.
Their efforts began two years ago when a patient inquired about voting but at that point, they were unable to help. Ahead of the 2018 election, Lisa Schavrien and Erin Smith decided to be pro-active, exploring ways to help their patients be heard at the ballot box. Their inquiries led them to a series of rejections by boards of elections, non-responses from political offices and a trip to a courtroom in Queens.
With the help from other volunteers, they canvassed their hospital for patients who wanted to vote. In one room, a patient facing brain surgery managed to cast her vote before surgery; in another, a patient’s partner was unable to get a ballot for the patient because they weren’t married, but Lisa obtained a ballot for him.
Voting may not seem like an issue clinical team members need to tackle, and they could find no other hospital making the same effort, but thanks to this team that went above and beyond, 75 Northwell patients were able to cast their ballots.
ECMO-TO-GO
Long Island Jewish Medical Center, North Shore University Hospital, Southside Hospital
Made up of a team of well-honed specialists, ECMO-TO-GO takes its life-saving skills wherever they are needed, elevating the level of care available to seriously ill patients. The team develops its successes with the cardiopulmonary bypass technique through continuity of communication and care delivered by all team members, commitment to continuous improvement and the depth of care provided by experts from across Northwell. The innovative approach of the team traveling to the patient rather than the other way around means a highly qualified, seasoned team is available to the sickest of patients. With a mortality rate of about 50 percent in these kinds of patients, the concept of such a team grew out of the establishment of an acute lung injury program at Long Island Jewish Medical Center and the launch of a heart transplant program. Northwell physicians recognized the need to provide stable, quality care as quickly as possible, leading to the ECMOTO- GO program.
The strength of the group comes from their ability to harness their differences in expertise to meet the dire needs of a complicated patient population. They do so with seamless coordination, deep compassion, and deliberate communication ultimately forging something stronger than any individual person.
Food as Health Implementation Team
Long Island Jewish Valley Stream
Team members have put reliable access to food at the center of a pioneering effort to improve the health of their patients. After people in multiple departments recognized that some patients had trouble finding affordable, nutritious food when they returned home, a team came together to brainstorm some solutions. Their conclusions: provide discharged patients with the resources to find affordable foods and to prepare meals that would help restore them to health.
The Food as Health (FAH) Program screens patients from the outpatient wound care center, and one inpatient unit for food insecurity. Patients in need with nutrition-related conditions (e.g. diabetes, hypertension, unintentional weight loss) are referred to the appropriate FAH service arm for support. Patients who are mobile and able to cook for themselves are referred to the FAH hospital-based onsite resource center. The patient is provided two days’ worth of nutritious emergency food, nutrition education and counseling, and referrals to community resources.
The collaborative effort of the multidisciplinary workgroup to identify clinical partners, establish workflows, reports and outcomes is a significant reason for the successful implementation of the FAH program. The team continues to work together to identify the outcome measures and establish reporting to demonstrate improvement in patient outcomes and hospital data such as decreased readmissions.
Inpatient Charge Capture (IPCC)
Corporate, Revenue Cycle Operations, Medical Group
When a small group of data-savvy professionals began examining the question of whether Northwell was billing and collecting for every professional service provided in hospitals, it quickly became clear that they needed more expertise.
The question of revenue capture is a long-standing one and quantifying it and executing a process across the health system was huge challenge. The team grew to involve several Information Services disciplines and data experts and as it grew, so did the project. Instead of finding a basic report on where to find the revenue opportunities, the team produced much more. They came up with a real-time, web-based tool that allows service lines and/ or individuals to know what the missing billing opportunities are daily/weekly/monthly. It allows the user to filter by service line, hospital, provider and unit. The tool is easy to navigate and provides a weekly “subscription” service for providers.
The deep dive in the collaborative effort also identified a $10 million revenue opportunity for Northwell, the result of experts collaborating and using their own areas of expertise to produce a positive outcome.
Northwell Transfusion Medicine
Northwell Health Labs
A team of professionals collaborated to take on the challenge of ensuring Northwell hospitals maintained fresh and adequate supply of platelets to cope with both routine and emergency use. Maintaining a blood product supply is essential to optimal patient care, but daily usage can be difficult to forecast. Platelets, expensive to produce, test and store, have a short shelf life and frequently expire before they can be used.
This team’s bold solution to meeting the need and reducing costly waste was to develop a delivery system that moves blood products throughout the health system, with many ultimately winding up at the hospitals that routinely need them the most. Breaking away from the existing system, the team began with data, figuring out a system to outline a new distribution process. That birthed a “Round Robin” transportation system to reduce supplemental and emergency deliveries. The concept of rotating platelets from the community hospitals to the final destination of one of two tertiary hospitals is based on usage. Long Island Jewish Medical Center and North Shore University Hospital combined utilize as many as 50 units a day for Cardiac, Trauma, Surgical, Oncology and Transplant services. Through extensive monitoring and trending of patient platelet needs, a dramatic savings of more than $200,000 was realized in 2018 in expiration waste.
School-Based Vocational Services
South Oaks Hospital
A committed group of professionals provides students challenged by intellectual and developmental disabilities with services that are tailored to individuals from 27 school districts across Long Island. Students receive coachin g, job readiness training and social skills development in both a classroom and professional setting with more than 100 participating companies with the goal of promoting independence and developing skills to prepare these young adults to enter the workforce after graduation.
The collaboration of these team members led to 64% of the graduating students finding employment post-graduation. On a daily basis, this team manages to touch the lives of more than 200 youths and parents, on Long Island. Nearly all of the team members work remotely and are required to travel throughout their day to meet the needs of the various sites they are working to serve.
The team has been able to create new approaches to learning in school settings by implementing in-school businesses where students can improve work readiness skills. Through personal dedication and putting creativity to work, they are making big differences in the lives of these students.
The Fin
Feinstein Institute for Medical Research
Experts with a diverse set of skills devised and conducted the first pilot clinical trial of the Fin, a novel 3D-printed swim prosthesis designed for use in a recreational pool setting. The dedicated group was seeking ways to improve recreational opportunities for people with lower-limb amputations, who, according to studies, are less likely to participate in physical activity than the general population.
Often working on their own time, they established protocols to ensure a thorough test that respected each individual’s dignity and needs while examining all aspects of the prosthesis. The most common design for a swim prosthesis has a fixed angle foot (“ankle foot”) that is at 90 degrees with the floor, which, while it is easy to use in the water, is not useful when walking over ground or transitioning into and out of the water. The 3-D printing also significantly lowers the typical cost of the prosthesis.
All participants in the test found the prosthesis easy to put on and take off. The majority (71%) of participants reported being extremely satisfied with the prosthesis.
Every member of the multidisciplinary team brought to the project their passion for wanting to improve the quality of life, participation and inclusion for individuals with lower limb amputations.
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2019 President’s Award Finalist: Leader of the Year
Each year, Northwell’s President’s Awards recognize team members who not only surpass our expectations and standards of excellence, but also those who drive innovative business outcomes.
The Leader of the Year award recognizes an individual who is made for Northwell Health because Northwell was not made for just anyone. It’s their spark and instinct to care that changes lives. This leader always acts with intent, with heart and with passion. They communicate openly while providing empathy and support, gains and shares expertise with others, acts honestly, professionally, and consistently achieves high-level results. Meet this year’s finalists.
Mary Brennan, RN
Associate Director, Nursing Education, North Shore University Hospital
Mary Brennan’s dedication to improving the lives of patients inspires colleagues and many well beyond Northwell. She is a worldwide thought leader on wound and ostomy care, improving on the prevention and treatment of skin wounds, and teaching others how to help patients and their families avoid suffering.
Her work combating pressure wounds has led to the naming of a medical condition in her honor . Working with Nurse Manager Kathy Trombley, the pair identified the differences between pressure injuries and terminal tissue injury. This research has yielded a tool that assists nurses in identifying patients who are in the last hours of life, which allows team members to empathetically communicate with family members.
A Wound Care Symposium first proposed by Mary has turned into an interdisciplinary two-day conference at Hofstra University that attracts both physicians and nurses. Her leadership includes publishing papers on wound care, as well as building and overseeing a North Shore University Hospital team of more than 100 skin care champions. Her creative strategies have contributed to the success of this program, keeping others engaged and involved in identifying best practices to reduce incidents of pressure injuries. Thanks to her efforts, hundreds of team members at Northwell and thousands of others around the world know how to prevent and treat thiscomplex clinical problem.
Ryan J. Guda, RN
Nurse Manager, Dialysis Services, Ambulatory
Building on his array of experiences in different fields, Ryan Guda has rebuilt a workplace that adapts to change and established a culture of respect with dramatic effects on the quality of care.
Shortly after joining Northwell in 2015, Ryan met with each team member to hear their opinions about their work environment. By listening and acknowledging his team’s feelings, he was able to re-direct negative behavior in a nonjudgmental manner and win their trust. Even his adept computer skills helped during a transition to electronic record-keeping.
Ryan quickly became an agent of change that has improved the work environment and directly affected the quality of services delivered to patients living with end-stage renal failure. He was successful in turning the team members’ fear of change into hope.
Marcia Hall, RN
Director, Patient Services, Northwell Health At Home
Marcia Hall is known for her enthusiastic, even disposition and willingness to step up to assist team members. She has a talent for connecting with patients and staff alike. As a leader in a busy business unit, Marcia sees her role as the person who supports, teaches and always tries to lighten the load of those in the office and out in the field. By making herself available to patients and team members alike, she is able to allay concerns and offer encouragement to those who need it.
Marcia was an early adopter of “Leader Rounds,” an innovative approach more difficult to accomplish with patients in the community, and advises supervisors to take time each day to assess what they are seeing in patient care, to spot trends or potential problems.
As a leader determined to spread positivity, Marcia looks to motivate people to be their best, whatever the challenge. She stands by team members who might feel overwhelmed by the responsibilities of caring for patients in the field. Reducing unnecessary hospitalizations is a key part of the Health At Home program and requires attention to detail. Above all, she demonstrates a strong ability to connect with patients and their families, a calming force to those facing a difficult situation.
Robert Kerner Jr., JD, EdD, RN, EMT-P, CHSE
Assistant Vice President, Patient Safety Institute, Assistant Professor, Hofstra Northwell School of Graduate Nursing and Physician Assistant Studies
Dr. Robert Kerner engages his team through reflective questions, allowing team members to self-direct on projects and listening to them in a style that makes everyone feel that they’re a valuable part of the team. He demonstrates concern for his colleagues, both personally and professionally, strengthening their connection to their profession and their colleagues. Dr. Kerner is committed to educational and clinical innovation and regularly puts forth new methods to meet the needs of our customers.
His ability to bring innovation in education from PSI to the units has been instrumental in allowing team members from Northwell to benefit from these efforts. Dr. Kerner has and continues to nurture relationships with both new and seasoned customers, as well as serve outside communities. Leaders from across Northwell reach out to Dr. Kerner to assist with projects that will enhance communication, situational awareness and competency skill sets in a variety of venues.
Paula McAvoy
Senior Administrative Director, Hospice and Palliative Care, University Hospice, Staten Island University Hospital
Compassion and a set of values that includes connectedness, awareness, respect and empathy guide the work of Paula McAvoy. She is 100 percent committed to caring for those facing the end of their lives. She ensures that her team members feel valued and engaged as they apply those beliefs to their patients and each other. Paula believes in an open-door policy to make sure open lines of communication are maintained.
Despite her heavy workload, she sets an example for colleagues with her commitment to professional development. She leads a session “Building High Performance Teams” as part of Northwell’s Leadership Essentials program.
In nearly 30 years at Staten Island University Hospital, she has excelled in any number of roles, where she began as an on-call hospice nurse, and has become a recognized expert in the field of end-of-life care.
Nina Ng, RN
Assistant Director, Nursing, Syosset Hospital
A deeply held concern for the suffering of refugees, victims of war and poverty has stirred Nina Ng to travel the world to deliver compassionate care to those in need. Nursing was the career she chose and for the first few years, she focused on learning all she could to develop her career. Then a trip to Haiti to care for orphans after a hurricane refocused her priorities and has nurtured a desire to take a leadership role in health care by helping the underserved, underprivileged, abused and forgotten people of war-torn and destroyed countries. After several trips abroad, including into a war zone, Nina has a desire to continue to expand her influence locally, regionally and globally, and continues to find new ways she can positively affect the lives of others.
Nina’s desire to lead isn’t limited to the world stage. She insists on accountability and recently published an article in the Journal for Emergency Nursing about workplace bullying.
Nina also has taken the initiative to reduce pressure wounds in patients with enhanced collaboration between the Emergency and Inpatient departments.
Northwell and Syosset Hospital benefit from Nina’s leadership and compassion, and her actions represent a total commitment to our values.
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2019 President’s Award Finalists: Nurse of the Year
Each year, Northwell’s President’s Awards recognize team members who not only surpass our expectations and standards of excellence, but also those who drive innovative business outcomes.
The Nurse of the Year award recognizes a nurse who is made for going the extra mile for his or her patients, families and colleagues. Exemplifying our Northwell values and behaviors, this individual delivers high-quality clinical care and a compassionate patient experience. Meet this year’s finalists.
Angela Daly, RN
Physician Partners, Cardiology at Southampton
Inspired by the extra efforts she saw nurses and others doing to take care of her mother, Angela Daly knew nursing was what she was meant to do. During the course of her career, she’s demonstrated efficiency and compassion, finding the small ways in which nurses can have a major impact on patients’ lives. Angela has solved problems, finding ways to improve how nurses were deployed throughout the Cardiac service line and how information was conveyed.
Taking a creative approach, Angela developed a telephone triage and patient education guide for her Flex Pool to demonstrate the best workflow in addressing patient calls, elevating patient concerns to providers and educating patients in a way that they can understand. Her guide is used throughout Northwell’s Cardiac service line. Angela also sends letters to every doctor that her patients see to ensure interdisciplinary communication is intact and that the patient’s treatment course with an investigational drug product is considered in the spectrum of their care. When she saw some information wasn’t making its way to all inpatient team members, she worked to develop chart notes that would be delivered to those who need them. And after realizing that more nurses were needed in the Cardiac service line, Angela worked to create a “Float Pool,” and recruited more than 90 nurses, trained them to cover the practices and developed guidelines so that the nurses would have the tools they needed to care more efficiently for our patients.
Alexa Damone, RN
Medical Surgical Unit, Glen Cove Hospital
Alexa Damone’s passion for her work is evident to her patients and colleagues by constantly learning new skills to improve medical care.
Alexa has the ability to relate to patients and their families through her caring manner and attentive demeanor. Her deep commitment is evident to her patients and her colleagues and was recognized by the hospital when she was honored in the hospital’s first “Breakfast with the Stars.” She is empathic, compassionate, an excellent communicator, possesses solid clinical and problem-solving skills and serves as an advocate for her patients.
Her commitment to helping peers is inspirational. Upon returning from a sepsis conference, Alexa shared her newly developed knowledge with her peers to improve the identification and prompt treatment of sepsis. She was a part of a project on infection control that led to better hand hygiene and infection control practices on the unit. Alexa is involved in another project aimed at improving the patient experience. With diabetes becoming increasingly prevalent, especially among the elderly, she attended a two-day workshop recognizing the importance of diabetes knowledge, management and education, enabling her to become a unit champion and valuable resource for her peers and patients.
Maryann Portoro, RN
Emergency Department, Phelps Hospital
Maryann Portoro sets a calm tone for patients and team members who, in the sometimes chaotic emergency care environment, need reassurance and compassion. She has devoted 45 years of her nursing career to caring for patients requiring emergency interventions. Maryann’s nursing role is characterized by her philosophy “Don’t worry, I’ve got it.” She is noted for her quick assessment and innovative interventions to support excellence in patient care. She demonstrates her leadership skills by taking charge while not losing her compassionate approach in the Emergency Department, sometimes rocking babies, other times holding the hand of an upset or frightened patient.
Maryann’s care doesn’t stop with patients; she provides timeouts to ease a team member experiencing grief after a loss.
Her sensitivity to people’s needs is in real time with positive, thoughtful recognition. She uses her abilities to think quickly and creatively in any situation, de-escalating a crisis by knowing just what to do to calm and control a situation. Her dedication extends to finding and implementing ways to improve new nursing care delivery models.
Dominick Pugliese, RN
Northwell Health At Home
Dominick Pugliese represents the future of Northwell Health nursing care. As a young RN he has already impressed his supervisors with his ability to learn quickly and with his commitment to caring for those in need. Joining Northwell Health At Home just a little over a year ago, he made the switch from a hospital Respiratory Care Unit to Home Health because he wanted to work with patients as their primary nurse in their homes. He had been inspired by his involvement with Project Hope on Staten Island. He was among the part-time team member who went door-to-door to provide crisis counseling to families who were suffering from the fear, anxiety, anger and helplessness after the destruction wrought by Hurricane Sandy in 2012. He rode on a medical bus, which was run by nurses.
At Northwell Health At Home, he mixes an interest and skill in using technology, such as the telehealth program, with devotion to hands-on care that depends on personal attention to a patient’s needs. Dominick’s potential led to his appointment to a task force that created Northwell Health At Home’s Heart Failure program, which was recently certified by the Joint Commission.
Jeffrey Rosa, RN
Surgical Intensive Care Unit, Long Island Jewish Medical Center
Passion for his patients and awareness of the complexities of navigating the emotions and needs of those in the Surgical Intensive Care Unit drive the care provided by Jeffrey Rosa. He witnessed the excellent care provided to his grandmother, and, later, as a paramedic, responded to the horrors of the Sept. 11 attack at the World Trade Center, which solidified his determination to become a nurse.
At Long Island Jewish Medical Center (LIJMC), Jeffrey is known as “the go-to player,” someone who has made it his business to know everything he needs to know about every patient in a unit where extra compassion, understanding and respect for what patients and families are going through are crucial. He is completely dedicated to inspiring and teaching new nurses to share his passion and expertise. He coaches, mentors and serves as a role model for his peers. Jeffrey lectures the hemodynamics portion of the nursing fellowship curriculum and shares his passion for work he does daily.
Jeffrey participates in countless committees, including the Magnet task force, and as co-chair of the Surgical ICU’s Collaborative Care Council, he facilitates the agenda and pushes LIJMC nursing units to share innovative solutions and champion new ideas and processes.
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2019 President’s Award Finalists: Physician of the Year
Each year, Northwell’s President’s Awards recognize team members who not only surpass our expectations and standards of excellence, but also those who drive innovative business outcomes.
The Physician of the Year award recognizes a physician who is made for going the extra mile for his or her patients, families and colleagues. Exemplifying our Northwell values and behaviors, this individual delivers high-quality clinical care and a compassionate patient experience. Meet this year’s finalists.
Santhosh Paulus, MD
Hospitalist, Director, Family Medicine Residency, Huntington Hospital
Dr. Santhosh Paulus turned a personal crusade against the abuses of human trafficking into an innovative program at Northwell. He began his Northwell career at the Glen Cove Family Medicine Residency program and is now site director for Huntington. In that role, he strives to meet three challenges: to teach the art and science of family medicine, to advocate for the best interest of his learners, and to be the quintessential role model of diligent attention to patient care, humanistic practice and lifelong learning.
In 2014, Dr. Paulus’ passion for caring for those in need grew. He saw a presentation on human trafficking and realized that his four daughters were of the same age as many victims in the presentation about forced labor, commercial sexual exploitation and sexual slavery in the US today. He joined a team and biked across the country to raise funds and awareness about human trafficking. Then he created “Cycling for Change,” an organization which has raised more than $55,000 to increase awareness about human trafficking and help survivors. Still, he wanted to do more. After talking with senior leadership at Huntington Hospital, he assembled a team to create the first Northwell Health Human Trafficking Response Program to identify and assist human trafficking victims and care for survivors. To date, the Task Force has trained more than 2,700 caregivers with 13 potential victims identified.
Yili Huang, DO
Medical Director, Pain Management Center, Phelps Hospital,
Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology, Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell
Dr. Yili Huang has drawn on his empathy for the suffering of others to become a leader in treating pain on the individual and community level. In his pain management center, Dr. Huang meets with individual patients and finds creative ways to address their suffering. He delivers education to his team of physicians, nurses, and medical assistants, which has led to an improvement of pain scores at Phelps Hospital. He successfully performed an ultrasound-guided fascia iliaca nerve block recently to relieve intense pain in a patient with a hip fracture and a high tolerance for pain medications, controlling her suffering in preparation for surgery.
Dr. Huang’s commitment to his patients doesn’t stop there.
He is in the forefront of tackling a significant national problem: opioid addiction. He shares his knowledge with other physicians to reduce the use of opioid prescriptions by substituting other interventional modalities for long term relief, producing an immediate effect as many of these practices saw a dramatic decline in opioid prescriptions by their physicians. Dr. Huang also co-chairs the practice guidelines workgroup within the Northwell Opioid Task Force. He created practice guidelines, controlled substance agreements, and other tools to facilitate best practice opioid use. Those tools are being used across all the communities that Northwell serves to systematically confront the opioid epidemic and helps Northwell Health lead the nation in combating the epidemic in a compassionate and thoughtful way.
Carmen Rodriguez, MD, FACOG
Voluntary Physician, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Long Island Jewish Medical Center
An excellent bedside manner and the care she provides to her patients distinguishes the work of Dr. Carmen Rodriguez and moves many people to say, “She’s the best.” Regarded as reliable, dependable and talented, she is also humble and unpretentious. Dr. Rodriguez leads by example for all clinicians and team members. And her contributions go beyond kindness and compassion. She is known to take on some of the most difficult gynecological challenges via laparotomy, laparoscopic and robotic modalities. Dr. Rodriguez will always fight to defend the reproductive rights of her patients.
Dr. Rodriguez also plays an active role in the affairs and governance of the hospital. She is the associate chair of the Long Island Jewish Medical Center – Performance Improvement
Coordinating Group (LIJMC PICG). She is also a member of the OBGYN department PICG. Dr. Rodriguez finds the time to participate in performance improvement initiatives because she believes that everyone benefits when better care is rendered, mainly for the patient and the community at large, but also for the clinical and administrative team member. She is the president-elect of the LIJ Medical Team member Society, making her the first woman to hold this distinguished position in the history of LIJMC.
Andre Reyes, MD
Hospitalist, North Shore University Hospital
Dr. Andre Reyes has repeatedly impressed patients and team members with his deep commitment to providing personal and compassionate care and setting high standards for others. He has spent countless hours with his patients, making them feel comfortable and at ease regarding their care and the time they will spend in the hospital. Dr. Reyes is known for having dropped to a knee to console the weeping wife of a patient who had taken a turn for the worse, giving her time to compose herself. His commitment to patients contributes to the success of the Care Model Program, which engages all clinical partners in improving patient experiences in the unit. Beyond the emotional value of his compassion, statistics support his approach.
Under his leadership, ratings on clinical quality scorecards, and communication, have risen significantly. Dr. Reyes is also devoted to fostering our medical student education and Internal Medicine Residency program. He is involved in creating and standardizing expectations for residents with regards to their daily rounds and documentation, and sets a personal example by visiting his patients multiple times a day.
Dr. Reyes also took part in the hospital preparation for Magnet certification. He took the initiative to inform himself further on Magnet accreditation standards and met with Magnet evaluators.
Tara Liberman, DO
Associate Chief, Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine, Long Island Jewish Medical Center
While she has worked in almost every area of health care – post acute, outpatient practice and inpatient care — Dr. Tara Liberman has driven change in geriatric services. She is a proven leader at Northwell, spearheading several initiatives across the heath system to ensure that high-quality, patient-centered care is standard operating procedure. Dr. Liberman’s commitment to patient care began with her Northwell internship year in 2001.
She completed her internal medicine residency and Geriatric Medicine fellowship at North Shore University Hospital. When Palliative Medicine was established as a medicine subspecialty in 2010, Dr. Liberman became board certified in Palliative Medicine as well. In 2010, she received the academic title of assistant professor.
Dr. Liberman has piloted two programs to improve the care and medical literacy of the rapidly growing geriatric population. In response to the “Silver Tsunami,” she began the Geriatric ED program at Long Island Jewish Medical Center (LIJMC), which caters to older adults who arrive in the ED by aiming to prevent unneeded hospital admissions. The ED at LIJMC now has a geriatric-specific social worker to help these patients and their families connect with Northwell resources in the community to ensure appropriate levels of care that are in line with the goals of the patients and families. Dr. Liberman has continued this work to provide specialized care to this vulnerable population in all Northwell EDs by working towards a Geriatric Emergency Department certificate accredited by the American College of Emergency Physicians.
Brian McGinley, MD
Voluntary Physician, Orthopedic Surgery, Mather Hospital
Dr. Brian McGinley takes his orthopedic skills beyond his practice, into an underserved community on Long Island and beyond.
He is part of the medical mission team for Blanca’s House, a local nonprofit organization that brings much-needed, quality medical care to countries and communities throughout Latin
America. During several missions to Ecuador, Dr. McGinley performed more than 75 knee replacement surgeries. In addition to his pro bono medical services, he raises funds for Blanca’s
House by assisting in generating thousands of dollars in philanthropic support to these trips.
On Long Island, he helps at an orthopedic clinic, treating patients who can’t afford care. In his free time, Dr. McGinley volunteers for the local Three Village community sports leagues and has served as a coach and team doctor. He serves president of the Port Jefferson Ambulatory Surgery Center (ASC), a consortium of 19 area physicians and Mather Hospital, and was named PGA physician for the U.S. Open in 2002 and 2004.
In 2016, Dr. McGinley was the first surgeon worldwide to perform robotic-assisted total knee replacement with the NavioTM Surgical System, which allows for smaller incisions, less or no cutting of muscles, and no preoperative CT scan. His contributions are limited only by the number of hours in the day.
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