Spring 2015 Newsletter

Volume 1
Issue 2
Spring 2015
A newsletter of the Eldercare Foundation From Our CEO
Greetings!
As the first quarter and winter (or so it would
seem) come to a close, we continue our work
on the exciting plans laid out for 2015.
Our system is dynamic —always growing and
seeking innovative ways to protect, preserve
and advance our region’s healthcare system.
And, always re-defining the role we play in
delivering high quality care to those who
mean the most to us, our patients. Making
sure we are proactive and poised to meet any
challenge.
For us, 2015 will be marked by a series of
changes that will allow our system to evolve
and better position us for continued growth.
Expansion of VNA Homecare Options, our
managed long term care plan, will enable
us to serve more who are chronically ill,
eligible for a nursing home level of care and
wish to remain at home. Eldercare Social
Day Program participants continue to enjoy
the new space and the program continues to
play an instrumental role in the health care
continuum. Continued work with our new
electronic medical record system will improve
communications and increase productivity.
We are also excited to embark on a capital
campaign titled “Re-imaging Our Home: So
we can bring care to yours”. The funds raised
will enable us to transform our space into
an operation that is even more efficient and
effective. We love to share the excitement,
so stay tuned; more information will come.
Things are busy, but we remain consistently
focused on delivery of our mission – giving it
everything we have, knowing it will come to
fruition.
Thank you for supporting VNA Homecare
and may 2015 prove to be just as exciting for
you as we know it will continue to be for us!
Kate Rolf, MBA, FACHE, CHCE
President & CEO
& VNA Foundation of Central New York
Dr. David Murray to Be Honored
by Eldercare Foundation at “Gift of Age” Cabaret May 2, 2015
T
here are two principals that
Dr. David Murray has lived by
during his lifetime: Never answer
a question with a question and never say
“no” to a reasonable request.
He has held true to these principles each
and every day, whether working with
patients and their families at SUNY
Upstate or donating his time to the
countless community organizations and
committees he volunteers for.
For his dedication and commitment to
Central New York and to the people he has
inspired throughout his 40-year
medical career, the Eldercare
Foundation will honor him as
a “Champion” at their annual
fund raising event, the “Gift of
Age” Cabaret, on Saturday, May
2, 2015 at the Sheraton Syracuse
University Hotel.
The Eldercare Foundation is
a division of VNA Homecare,
a full-service home and
community-based care system committed
to making a profound difference in the lives
of its patients by providing expert, highquality care where they want it most – in
their homes. The Eldercare Foundation
strives to increase the community’s
awareness of the needs of aging individuals
and their families, as well as to raise funds
to better serve the community’s elders.
“Dr. Murray is a class act who has
contributed so much to both medicine and
the community,” said Kate Rolf, president
and chief executive officer of VNA
Homecare. “He is a humble man whose
good deeds are done without a want or
need for recognition or praise. Dr. Murray
did, and continues to do, his work with a
true spirit of giving and for the betterment
of the people he cares for.”
Dr. Murray brought distinction to SUNY
Upstate by building one of the premiere
orthopedic surgery departments in the
Continues, last page...
VNA Homecare
News
Employee Recognition
and Holiday Celebration
VNA Homecare’s inaugural Employee
Recognition and Holiday Celebration
was a huge success, with more than
260 employees, family members and
community leaders in attendance.
Held at the Sheraton Syracuse
University Hotel on Friday, January
16, the event included a cocktail
hour, formal dinner, dancing and gift
basket raffles. The highlight of the
evening, however, were the employee
recognition awards presented to
employees who have made significant
contributions to VNA Homecare
throughout the course of the year.
The 2014 honorees were:
Mental Health Aide Specialist of the Year
Rosemarie Dristle, Home Health Aide
Hospice Aide Specialist of the Year
The Late Teesha Hills, Home Health Aide
Alzheimer’s/Dementia Aide of the Year
Deborah Chesbro, Home Health Aide
Aide of the Year
Patsy Crain, Home Health Aide
Outstanding Customer Service
Randi Klossner, Scheduling Team Leader
Craig Stevens, Driver
Office Employee of the Year
Sead Hozdic, Systems Technician
Rookie of the Year
Ken Stack, PT, MS, MSF, CSCS, Physical
Therapist
Nurse of the Year
Michele Hettler, RN, BSN, Case Manager
Clinician of the Year
Patrick Remenicky, PT, CWS, Certified
Wound Specialist
Awards were also presented to
employees who have achieved
employment milestones with the
system (e.g., 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25 years
of service). 53 were awarded in total a huge testament to employee loyalty!
VNA Homecare Options
89
-year-old Flora Giovinazzo can still
remember the exact date she and
her family started their new lives in
America.
“My husband, my three children and I arrived
in Syracuse on July 27, 1963,” she said. “It was
both the most exciting and the most frightening day of my life.”
Natives of Brazil and Italy respectively, Flora
and her husband, Francesco spoke little-tono English. Thankfully, her sister-in-law had
moved to the area several years before.
“She taught us what we needed to know to get
by in those first few weeks,” Flora recalled. “She
was the only family we had in the area, and we
were so lucky to have her in our lives.”
As one of eight children born to rural Brazilian farmers, the importance of both family
and hard work were ingrained in Flora from a
young age. Upon her arrival in America, she
immediately enrolled her children in school
and, shortly thereafter, began working for
Learbury Clothes, a family-owned clothing
company where she would serve as a seamstress for 17 years. Francesco found work as an
electrician, bringing home just $1.50 for every
hour he worked.
Life in America wasn’t easy for the Giovinazzo
family, but they were happy nonetheless. The
children excelled in school, and all three
went on to marry and have children of their
own. Flora became active in the community,
regularly volunteering for events at her
church, and Francesco was hired by General
Motors. Unfortunately, tragedy struck in
the midst of their success; Flora’s daughter,
Isabella, was diagnosed with Multiple
Sclerosis. The disease progressed quickly,
and Isabella passed away when she was just
31-years-old, leaving behind a husband and a
two-year-old daughter.
life in the company of others and, with her
opportunities for social engagement now severely depleted, she often found herself lonely
and depressed.
Knowing that their mother would want
to remain in her own home for as long
as possible, Flora’s sons suggested she
enroll in VNA Homecare Options, VNA
Homecare’s Managed Long Term Care
(MLTC) plan. As a member, all of the care
Flora needs is coordinated for her. Upon her
enrollment, staff worked with her to design
an individualized plan of care and services to
keep her safe and healthy in her own home.
She receives homemaker services from Home
Aides of Central New York, skilled nursing
services from the Visiting Nurse Association
of Central New York and is a participant
in the Eldercare Social Day Program. A
member of the Options team also provides
her transportation to and from doctor’s
appointments and the Day Program.
“As a member of VNA Homecare Options, I
know that all of the care I’ll need as I age will
be taken care of,” Flora said. “The people I
work with, from my homemaker, to my nurse,
to my driver, are truly special. I’m so lucky to
be a member of such a wonderful program,
where I’m surrounded by so many caring,
compassionate people.”
“It was too soon,” Flora recalled. “I miss her
every day, but I know she went home to where
she was meant to be.”
Filled with gratitude for all she has, despite the
many struggles she’s endured, Flora strives to
remain positive each and every day.
Following Isabella’s death, Flora retired from
her job at Learbury. She spent her days caring
for her granddaughter and providing daycare
services at St. Peter’s Italian Church. Francesco passed away in 2006, leaving Flora alone
in her Syracuse home for the first time in 40
plus years. An extrovert through-and-through,
she had spent a considerable portion of her
“I have so much to be thankful for,” she said.
“I’m healthy, I have a beautiful family, and,
thanks to VNA Homecare Options, I’m able
to remain in my own home.”
To learn more about VNA Homecare
Options, please visit us online at
vnahomecareoptions.org or call 315.477.9500.
Q&A
We sat down with Anita Lombardi, board chair of the Eldercare Foundation and VNA
Foundation of Central New York Board of Directors, to talk about why her involvement
with VNA Homecare is so close to her heart. What we found out will inspire you.
You were not originally from
Syracuse, what has made this your
“home”?
My parents were divorced – my father
from Ithaca, NY and my mother from
El Paso, TX. Most of my childhood and
teen years were spent in Texas, but I came
back to Ithaca to earn my bachelor’s
degree at Ithaca College. After a couple
of years, I went on to obtain my paralegal
certification. During this period, my
mother, who was a scrub nurse in Texas,
was diagnosed with Hepatitis C and moved
back to Ithaca to be closer to me and my
brothers. When she died in 1991, I headed
to Syracuse after securing a paralegal
position for a local law firm, where I
worked until I changed my career in 2000.
I met my husband, Tarky Lombardi in
Syracuse. Together with our two beautiful
children, we have established it as home.
Not only is it a nice sized city to raise a
family, but it is close enough to stay in
touch with my family in Ithaca. Tarky
also has strong ties and roots in Syracuse,
so it makes perfect sense that we stay
here to raise our children near both of
our families. My father-in-law is former
New York State Senator Tarky Lombardi,
who championed legislation known as
“Nursing Homes Without Walls.”
I love the sense of family, community
and giving-back that this area offers.
People are generous with their time and
dollars, allowing organizations like VNA
Homecare to transform and grow as
the need for more home-based services
increases within the community, from
pediatrics to the elderly.
What is the reason for your
advocacy for home care in the
community?
I was very close to my paternal
Grandmother, who lived in Ithaca. As a
child, my brothers and I would stay with
her during our summer visits and I just
loved spending time with her. She suffered
from diabetes and aged very quickly –
by the time I moved to Ithaca to finish
college, the disease had taken most of her
ability to walk and the majority of her
eyesight. My grandparents were extremely
proud of their family and especially their
home – the one that they had worked so
hard to obtain and maintain throughout
their lives. To my grandfather, his home
was one of the symbols of his lifetime
success and journey from a poor boy
from Italy to an upstanding citizen in
America. Grandma’s increasing health
care needs were difficult, and the thought
of sending her to a nursing home, was, at
first, simply not an option. It was the late
80’s, and Ithaca had just started a home
care nursing program that was a godsend
to my father and his siblings. While in
college, I lived in a cottage behind my
Grandparents’ home and saw the value
of what it meant for them to stay in their
home. Eventually, my Grandmother did
have to be placed in a nursing home as
her health deteriorated, but adding those
additional years at home with her husband
was a blessing. Subsequently, Grandpa
received home health aide service until
his death years later, fulfilling his wish to
stay in his home.
A few years later, I again found myself in
the same situation, only this time with
my maternal grandmother who lived in
El Paso, TX. Her story was much the
same – an immigrant from Mexico who
worked hard all her life and was proud to
have the opportunity to be an American
and raise her family in a home that she
owned. She never wanted to leave El Paso
nor her home, and when she began to
suffer from dementia, I was lucky to have
been able to hire aides from the Visiting
Nurse Association in her community to
keep her home as long as I could. I also
came to appreciate the services that New
York State offers versus those in Texas – it
was an eye opening experience to see the
differences in care options, or the lack
thereof, in comparison to New York.
For my grandparents, I truly believe that
the quality of their life was enhanced by
having the ability to stay in their home as
long as possible.
And so that brings us to your
involvement with the foundation
boards of VNA Homecare...
Yes, for me, the mission of the Eldercare
Foundation was a perfect fit. We are
addressing the “care gap” that exists
between the number of people who will
need supportive services to remain at
home and the number of workers available
to help them. Through the work of VNA
Homecare, the lives of thousands of
men and women, like my grandmothers,
are affected. People are being given the
option to stay at home in the comforts
that they know and trust, with family and
friends around them, but with professional
healthcare assistance at their side.
Anita is an Investment Adviser
Representative/CCO at Everest
Consultants, LLC. She resides in
Jamesville with her husband and
their two children, Tarky, 13 and
Cecilia, 4.
1050 West Genesee Street, Syracuse, NY 13204
www.477home.org
The Gift of Age Cabaret
will be held 6pm, Saturday, May
2, 2015 at Sheraton Syracuse
University Hotel.
Tickets are $150 per person
and can be purchased by calling
315.477.9301 or emailing
[email protected].
Sponsorship and advertising
opportunities to congratulate
Dr. Murray are also available.
For questions, comments
or story ideas, please
contact Development
Manager Aida Mariani at
[email protected] or
315.477.9301.
If you no longer wish to receive
the foundation newsletter, please
email your name and address to
[email protected].
Dr. David Murray, Continued...
world and by his international recognition
as a gifted surgeon, physician-scientist
and service to his profession. Dr. Murray
joined the SUNY Upstate faculty in 1962
and was promoted to professor in 1969.
He was named chair of the Department in
1966, a position he held for 30 years. While
at SUNY Upstate, Dr. Murray graduated
more than 120 orthopedic surgeons from
the Department of Orthopedic Surgery’s
residency program.
The Eldercare Foundation also benefited
from Dr. Murray’s vision and eagerness
to succeed. He chaired the Foundation’s
inaugural “Gift of Age” Cabaret in
2008 and generously volunteered in the
same capacity in 2014, helping to raise
thousands of dollars for the seniors in our
community who wish to be cared for in the
comfort of their homes. Dr. Murray retired
from the Eldercare Foundation Board at
the end of 2014.
“I believed in the mission of the Foundation
and what it does for the elderly population,”
Dr. Murray said. “When you are asked to
take the lead on something so meaningful
to so many, you must succeed. People are
counting on you.”
“When working on this event, it was just
as in his professional life - he gave his heart
and soul,” said Angela Bernat, a long time
Eldercare Foundation board member and
Cabaret Committee member.
Nancy Bottar, also an Eldercare Foundation
board member and Cabaret Committee
Member, agrees. “He is both dynamic and
humble,” she said. “We are honored to
know him and call him our friend.”
Dr. Murray has three sons and six
grandchildren. He resides in Syracuse with
his wife Judith Sayles, who is a practicing
attorney.