UR Medicine Professionals, Volunteer Recognized for Health Care Contributions

Seven professionals who work or volunteer at UR Medicine have been recognized with a 2016 Rochester Business Journal Healthcare Achievement Award for their efforts to advance health care quality and accessibility for patients in Rochester and our region. A total of 23 honorees – 21 individuals and two organizations – were announced Feb. 5.

 

The Health Care Achievement Awards recognize individuals and groups who are nominated by their colleagues, supervisors, and patients for significant achievements in health care. Honorees are selected in eight categories: behavioral health, health care staff, innovation, management, nurse, physician, senior care, and volunteer.

UR Medicine honorees for 2016 are:

 

Carole Farley-Toombs oversees all clinical services operations for the Department of Psychiatry and is recognized at local, state and national levels as a champion for patients with psychiatric conditions. She has been instrumental in developing and implementing  innovative approaches to mental health care that have earned URMC a national reputation. These include a medical-behavioral health inpatient unit where staff are trained in both internal medicine and behavioral health to improve care for inpatients with mental illness; a long-term outpatient treatment program for severely mentally ill that enables them to remain safely in their homes rather than be hospitalized; and introduction of specialized one-to-one care for patients with dementia or delirium that reduced falls by 60 percent.

 

E. Ray Dorsey is a pioneer in the application of web-based and mobile technologies to improve health care. Over the years, he has partnered with organizations such as Google, Verizon, the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, computer software and hardware companies, and 23andMe (direct-to-consumer genetic testing) to develop new ways to expand access to care, increase our understanding of diseases like Parkinson’s, and develop new treatments. Dorsey was the initiator of the mPower app from Apple that lets patients join a project to track their disease symptoms over time using their iPhone. Apple announced the release of this app in their new “ResearchKit” in March 2015, including one that Dorsey developed for Parkinson’s disease.

 

Colleen T. Fogarty, M.D., M.Sc., has spent her entire career delivering community-based, patient-centered family medicine.  She’s also leading efforts to make that care better for patients of the future. In addition to treating children and adults at Anthony Jordan Health Care Center/Brown Square, Fogarty has served as a consultant, trainer, and coach to Jordan Health since 2013 as it embarks on Practice Transformation.  Fogarty has led large group trainings for staff and clinicians to improve their communication with patients, and to initiate new care models for greater efficiency. Her work has strengthened providers’ and staff members’ skills in rapport building, agenda setting, empathy, and behavioral change.  Jordan Health has improved time management of visits, which helps clinicians meet patients’ needs and ensures that all team members are working at the top of their scope of practice. A compassionate and dedicated physician and community health advocate, Fogarty is helping instill these values in fellows and residents at UR/Highland Hospital Department of Family Medicine, where she serves as the Director of the Faculty Development Fellowship and Assistant Residency Director.

 

Michael F. Kamali leads an Emergency Department that each year sees more than 100,000 patients. The volume and complexity of patients that come through its doors require the ED team to continually adapt their system of care. Under Kamali’s leadership, the ED developed a rapid triage process to see patients within 30 minutes; currently more than 75 percent of patients are seen within that window. Kamali also has had a significant impact on medical education, expanding the EM Residency Program to 39 residents and retaining more residents in the community after training than ever before. He also engineered the addition of the Advanced Practice Fellowship Program, which provides an opportunity for physician assistants and nurse practitioners to train and evolve into emergency medicine experts, further strengthening the care that is provided by the entire team.

 

Robert M. McCann, M.D. has long been known in Rochester and nationwide as an innovator in the field of geriatrics. He was founding medical director of Independent Living for Seniors (now ElderONE) at Rochester General Hospital; it was a groundbreaking Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) which has been replicated across the country. As Highland Hospital’s Chief of Medicine, McCann has been instrumental in recruiting physicians, developing new subspecialty programs, and expanding its signature programs such as geriatrics, orthopaedics, and geriatric fracture care.  He has been CEO of Accountable Health Partners since its inception. This clinically integrated network includes physicians from the University of Rochester Medical Faculty Group (URMFG) and independent community practitioners from around the region; under McCann’s leadership it has grown to 1700 clinicians in 6 hospitals, with value-based reimbursement contracts in place.

 

Hospitalized Elder Life Program (HELP) is a program developed at Yale-New Haven Hospital to help prevent delirium in older hospital patients. Petrone led implementation at Highland, the first launch of the program in Rochester. In the past three years, Petrone has

has trained more than 120 volunteers of all ages who have made a major impact on the lives of more than 1600 patients and their families at Highland. She worked with Highland’s clinical staff to integrate HELP into the care regimen and trained volunteers to engage patients to keep them alert, more satisfied, and with better outcomes. Since implementation of the HELP program, Highland has significantly decreased the delirium rate in older patients. She has also improved satisfaction of patients, family members, staff and volunteers; several of her student volunteers have chosen to pursue careers in medicine because of their experiences at Highland.

 

The new $145 million Golisano Children’s Hospital was the biggest capital project in the University of Rochester’s history. It took many years to envision the facility for a new children’s hospital, design it, and create a plan for fundraising to finance it. Siewert was there every step of the way. As board chair, Siewert was instrumental in communicating the vision for a new children’s hospital to the community and spearheading its support.  His commitment and compassion were instrumental in the success of this project, and the new children’s hospital bears the lasting imprint of his work: the campaign drew 14,000 contributor gifts to the building, including 138 named-space gifts.

Awards will be presented at a March 22 luncheon at the Joseph A. Floreano Rochester Riverside Convention Center.