VA New York Harbor Director's Weekly Message August 14th - August 18th, 2023

Events Around the Harbor:

This week, we held an AES Recognition Breakfast at the Manhattan Campus! Thank you to all who participated!

We also held a Small Business Industry Days Product Showcase at all three campuses. A huge thank you to everyone who made this a success!

Upcoming Events:

**For links, please reference the Broadcast email sent out on August 10th titled "VISN 2 NCPS Team Training (TT) August Schedule"**

The Wall That Heals is Headed to New York City!

The Wall That Heals, a three-quarter scale replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C., will be in New York City from September 28th – October 1st at Flushing Meadows Park this fall.

The three-quarter scale Wall replica is 375 feet in length and stands 7.5 feet high at its tallest point. With the replica at this size, visitors are able to experience The Wall rising above them as they walk towards the apex, a key feature of the design of The Wall in D.C. Like the original Memorial, The Wall That Heals is erected in a chevron-shape and visitors are able to do name rubbings of individual service member’s names on The Wall.

VA New York Harbor is proud to be a part of the Host Committee for The Wall That Heals and our team attended the Host Delegation Kickoff Meeting earlier this week.

For more information, please visit The Walls That Heals website here.

Awards & Recognition:

Congrats to our August Employees of the Month: Sigmund James - Manhattan VAMC, Douglas Rosario - St. Albans CLC, and Maria Kazaki-Maher, Brooklyn VAMC!

Please see some of our amazing Employees of the Month below:

August Employee of the Month (NY Campus): Sigmund James!

Sigmund treats every Veteran with the respect they have earned. He uses his experience as a Veteran, his skills as a Social Worker and his knowledge of VHA, VBA and Homeless Services to provide thorough and caring assessments and short-term case management of Veterans in a housing crisis. He gives our Veterans hope and the feeling that they're not alone at a time when they are feeling hopeless and alone. He is honest and is always willing to go above and beyond for a Veteran whether it's his job or not. His positive energy is infectious. He is 100% an asset to our homeless program and to VA New York Harbor. Sigmund received a call from his supervisor one day about a veteran and his young family that was in needed assistance with housing. Before he could get all the details, Sigmund said, "Give me his number, I'll call him right now." The very same week he made sure that veteran’s name was on the minutes of the Weekly Homeless Committee and found the veteran was eligible for HUD VASH. It’s this type of dedication and commitment to the VA’s mission that sets the example of what all employees should be. It’s the reason why we’re here today to honor him as the Employee of the Month.

August Employee of the Month (Brooklyn Campus): Maria Kazaki-Maher!

Maria is always volunteering to do more and support the Veterans as they seek treatment for substance use disorders. She is always available for the Veterans and is the definition of a true team player. No matter what is needed, she is always there to support her colleagues and the Veterans they care for. Hearing the term “short-staffed” isn’t anything new, especially someone calls in sick. This is where Maria steps up and shows her commitment to her job. She’s the first one to volunteer to help when someone is needed to cover. She is not only covering caseloads but also maintains that groups are being facilitated, individual’s needs are being addressed and that Veterans are provided with safe and understandable discharge plans that best meet their needs. She is truly an asset to NY Harbor and most deserving of this award today. Congratulations Maria!

July Employee of the Month (Brooklyn Campus): Rosemary Joseph!

Rosemary has been a dedicated employee in Nutrition & Food since 2008. She is known to be one of the kind voices in the Diet Communication Center, where she ensures that all diet orders and food preference requests for our Veterans are processed accurately and efficiently. Her professionalism, courtesy and tact does not go unnoticed. Her effervescent personality and attention to detail even during peak service periods is extraordinary. She is quick to identify Veteran needs and always goes out of her way to assist her colleagues. She is a role model for staff and her service to the department and facility is immeasurable and so greatly appreciated. Recently, Nutrition & Food implemented a new diet processing software. Rosemary played a critical role as one of our primary users of the new software. She worked closely with the Informatics Dietitians to ensure that all patient records were accurately replicated in the new files requiring manual entry of each and every request, diet order and food preference. She quickly became the first "Super-User"! She voluntarily trained staff and worked tirelessly to identify glitches and patient smart-sub errors. During all of this, she has been the calm, supportive voice to medical center staff quickly providing service recovery during the past two months when concerns were identified. She truly is a star in Nutrition and Food and a vital part of the NY Harbor team. We’re proud to announce that she is our Employee of the Month for July. Congratulations Rosemary!

Nominate your colleagues for Employee of the Month here!

Nominate a Nurse for the DAISY Award: The DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nurses was created in memory of J. Patrick Barnes who died at 33 of ITP, an auto-immune disease. The Barnes Family was awestruck by the clinical skills, caring and compassion of the nurses who cared for Patrick, so they created this international award to say thank you to nurses everywhere.

Anyone may thank a deserving nurse by filling out a Nomination Form and submitting it to Britta Jennings, RN, MA, Resource Manager, Patient Services, or call her at 212-686-7500 x7564. The form can be found here.

Patient Experience:

Staff compliments regarding a Veteran’s overall experience:

"I want to praise the incredible job that Dr. Mikesha Williams and Dr. Ella Ginzburg do on a daily basis for the Veterans that use the VA. I am so very thankful for their professionalism and selfless service in going the extra mile to help Veterans. Their careers must be carefully managed and the must be placed in positions of significant responsibility! I am very appreciative of them. Thank You!!!.” (Pharmacy, Brooklyn VAMC)

“Dr. Pereguda listens carefully and gives excellent feedback. She is a great doctor.” (Primary Care, Manhattan VAMC)

"I love our Women's Health Department Clinic Staff and the entire medical team. They all truly understand our needs not just as female but as a female Veteran!” (Women's Health, Manhattan VAMC)

Facility Updates & Reminders:

Announcing the application period for the 2024 Supervisor Ready Program

The Institute for Learning, Education and Development (ILEAD) is looking for your help to encourage high-potential emerging leaders to apply for the VHA Supervisor Ready Program Class of 2024. VHA Supervisor Ready is a virtual aspiring supervisor program that is conducted through a cohort, online classroom experience across three months. The program curriculum covers key leadership competencies of accountability, technical credibility, political savvy, strategic thinking, decisiveness and resilience.

VHA Supervisor Ready is open to all current VHA employees in all grades who are permanent and full-time with a minimum of 12 months employment by Jan. 1, 2024.

Other eligibility requirements are:

• Current emerging leader or team leader aspiring to be a supervisor in VHA

• Must be a non-supervisor, not currently in a formal supervisory role in VHA and have never held a formal supervisor role within VA

• Must commit to devoting three to five hours per week to program learning activities and coursework, with approximately two of those hours completed during regular business hours

• Must be committed to completing the entire three-month program

Applicants can apply for the program by visiting our VHA Supervisor Ready website and selecting the “How to Apply” tab. The online application window for the 2024 cohort opens on Aug. 1 and closes on Aug. 22 at 9 p.m. ET.

For questions regarding VHA Supervisor Ready, please contact the ILEAD program management team: Bradley Reed or Richard Bruce, at vhasupervisorreadyprogrammanager@va.gov.

JSPR: Thank you for taking the time to report incidents and near misses to Patient Safety via JPSR. The reporting of incidents and near misses in JPSR is one of the simplest things you can do to improve how we care for patients. Not every issue can be dealt with quickly and simply, but these reports tell the facility where to focus our efforts—fall prevention, communication and handoffs, consents, equipment issues, and efficiency of diagnostic processes. Your reports continue to drive change in our organization and provide opportunities to share stories of staff identifying vulnerabilities and correcting them. Some changes are incremental and some are far-reaching. We’ve generated HRO Safety Stories out of incidents and near-misses that resulted in broad changes in systems and processes. Your reports are improving the way we deliver care to our Veterans and your reports have prompted action, discussion, and awareness in various areas, including pharmacy, laboratory, supply, infection control, equipment malfunctions, communication problems, supply issues, delays, and many more.

Every report is reviewed by facility leadership (without identifying the reporter) and followed up by Patient Safety, Quality Management, and the leader(s) of the affected areas. Individually and in aggregate, these reports help focus our process improvement efforts and push us forward in our journey towards becoming a High Reliability Organization (HRO). A high rate of incident reporting indicates a strong safety culture. NY Harbor can provide better, safer care when we have the opportunity to analyze and improve the systems issues that cause patient safety incidents.

Million Veterans Program: VA’s Million Veteran Program is less than 65,000 Veterans away from one million in their program. We need your help!

The Million Veteran Program (MVP) is VA’s largest research effort to improve health care for Veterans and one of the world’s largest research programs on genes and health. Here are three easy ways you can help us reach the one million milestone:

Mention MVP to patients or Veterans you meet. Spread the word that any Veteran can participate. They can sign-up online at mvp.va.gov or in-person at the Manhattan and Brooklyn VA by calling 866-441-6075. MVP also accepts walk-in appointments at the Manhattan VA on Tuesday through Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. in the Diagnostic Center, Floor 1, Room 1632a.
Display MVP posters and brochures in your clinic. Contact our MVP Research Assistant, David Abai, for materials: David.Abai@va.gov.
Invite MVP to speak at your outreach events. Local and national MVP staff would be happy to share information about MVP with Veterans at your events. Contact David Abai to coordinate.

For any questions or outreach ideas, please contact David Abai at the email listed above. Thank you for your help, we look forward to working together!

The Diversity & Inclusion Advisory Committee (DIAC) is looking for more members to participate with the committee.

No-Smoking Policy: There has been an increase in people smoking at our facilities and we want to remind staff that smoking is prohibited everywhere on campus. Breaking this rule can result in being issued a fine.

Whistleblower Protection: I encourage all employees to review information on Whistleblower protections, and to remind everyone that they are protected from whistleblower retaliation. Please see the flyer below for more information or visit https://www.va.gov/accountability/.

Also, be sure to complete your TMS trainings which you can find below:

Maintenance Updates:

Work Order System: To ensure the success of the new work order process, we kindly request that each work order request be submitted through our home page, NY Harbor Healthcare System INTRANET (sharepoint.com), scroll down the page and select “[Campus] Engineering Service Request.” In the event of an emergency please call the following extension for each campus:

Manhattan: Ext. 7919
Brooklyn: Ext. 3000
St. Albans: Ext. 2689

Manhattan Elevators: As of this week, seven out of eight of the passenger elevators in the main building are operational for patient, staff, and visitor use. Elevator five is being used by NFS during the day to facilitate the performance of needed maintenance on freight elevators. Two out of the four freights elevators are working, #11 and #12. This condition is expected for the next few months. OPC building has four passengers and two freights in service..

Brooklyn Elevators: As of this week, P1 – P5 main Passenger elevators are operational. Two main Service elevators are out of service, pending repairs, while S1 & S3 are running for dedicated Services. OPC P2 is under repair, while OPC S1, P1, P3 are in service, and the morgue elevator is also in service.

Thank you and have a great weekend!

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