195-44 Woodhull Avenue, Hollis, NY 11423 January 2018 UPCOMING EVENTS January 1 st In House Party January 15 th Zumba Class January 19 th Rabbi Visit January 26 th Puppet Show A note from the Administrator What a month it has been! I am happy to report to all newsletter readers that we have had a successful NYS Department of Health annual survey. Although our dedicated staff works very hard all the time, during the annual survey they put in extra efforts to ensure we do well, and for that I would like to personally express my appreciation for their hard work. Keep it up!! February 5 th Drumming Circle February 12 th Musical Entertainment February 14 th Valentine s Day Zumba What a wonderful time of year! As we are busy during this holiday season let s remember those who are not running around from party to party and let s make sure to wish our residents, our fellow co-workers, and visitors a happy and healthy holiday from right here in Holliswood Center. Let s capture this joyous and festive spirit and let it carry us into 2018 with a bang! Wishing all of you a Happy Holiday season. February 23 rd Music W/ Jamal February 26 th Tai-Chi Zevi Lipschitz
2 January 2018 Hanukkah is the Jewish Festival of Lights and it remembers the rededication of the second Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. Hanukkah lasts for eight days and starts on the 25th of Kislev, the month in the Jewish calendar that occurs at about the same time as December. In 2017, Hanukkah is from in the evening of Tuesday, 12th December until the evening of Wednesday, 20th December. During Hanukkah, on each of the eight nights, a candle is lit in a special menorah (candelabra) called a 'hanukkiyah'. There is a special ninth candle called the 'shammash' or servant candle which is used to light the other candles. The shammash is often in the center of the other candles and has a higher position. On the first night one candle is lit, on the second night, two are lit until all are lit on the eighth and final night of the festival. Traditionally they are lit from left to right. A special blessing, thanking God, is said before or after lighting the candles and a special Jewish hymn is often sung. The menorah is put in the front window of houses so people passing can see the lights and remember the story of Hanukkah. Most Jewish families and households have a special menorah and celebrate Hanukkah. Hanukkah is also a time for giving and receiving presents and gifts are often given on each night. Lots of games are played during the time of Hanukkah. The most popular is 'dreidel' (Yiddish) or 'sivivon' (Hebrew). It's a four sided top with a Hebrew letter on each side. The four letter are the first letter of the phrase 'Nes Gadol Hayah Sham' which means 'A great miracle happened there.
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6 January 2018 A note from Kenny In every edition of our newsletter, I try to share with you something interesting that I ve come across, or to let you know about some of the things that our staff and residents are involved in. I always look forward to the opportunity of sharing these stories with all of you, but without fail the January newsletter is my favorite of the year. I eagerly anticipate the start of each new year. There s so much hope and promise that accompanies the changing of the calendar. This week, as I reflected on the year just passed and the year ahead, I realized that what I should be writing about in this edition is a look back at all we accomplished and a look ahead at what we hope to bring to you in the future. This was such an exciting year, and 2018 holds so much that I hope I have enough space! The biggest impact on our Centers family this past year was certainly our expansion. Seven facilities in the upstate New York region joined us in September, but that wasn t all. Our application to purchase the Indian River facility in Granville, where we had been consulting for several years, finally came to fruition and Granville Center is now a full member of the Centers Health Care family. Two more facilities, one in Cooperstown and one in Utica, are in the process of joining us and we are consulting daily with both of them, bringing the Centers spirit of Heart Health Home to the people of Central New York. And our expansion continued with Beth Abraham Center in the Bronx, Martine Center in Westchester, Far Rockaway Center in Queens and Oak Hill Center in Rhode Island, which became our fourth facility in that state. All together they brought our total to 42 of the northeast s finest skilled nursing and rehabilitation facilities. We are exploring additional opportunities as I write this and I look forward to telling you about more new family members throughout the course of 2018. Despite the growing size of our family, we found plenty of time to continue our efforts to upgrade our existing facilities. I wrote in the fall about Williamsbridge Center in the Bronx which now has a whole new look, but extensive renovations took place this year in Deptford, Hammonton, Buffalo, Ellicott, Bannister, Triboro, Richmond, Bronx, Corning, our Neurobehavioral Center and at Northern Manor. More and more of our facilities are taking on the look of world class residences, to go along with the world class care they provide. In 2018, we ll near completion of a stunning new facility on Buffalo Avenue in Brooklyn that the Centers team designed from the ground up. Ongoing or new renovation projects are slated for Corning, Ontario, Holliswood and others. Activities and lifestyle weren t forgotten either, and many homes increased their recreational staff and activity offerings, but the most popular was surely the expansion of Centers therapy pony program. Happy Horse Visits are now being made regularly to more than twenty of our homes and we hope to include at least a dozen more in 2018. In the fall, we added our second Centers Urgent Care location. Centers Urgent Care in Brooklyn joins our successful walk-in center in Queens, where neighbors get exactly what they need they walk in, get seen, and go home seven days a week. This past spring saw the introduction of the Centers Health Care Patient Advocacy Award, an award that we plan to make an annual event to honor the dedicated social workers in every part of the health care industry who do so much, for so many. Spring also saw us playing a pivotal role in the launch of the Institute for Pressure Injury Prevention, an international group supported by Centers Health Care whose sole mission is to eradicate bed sores from health care institutions the world over.
January 2018 7 As always, improving care, with initiatives like the Institute for Pressure Injury Prevention is always first on our list of priorities and our continually decreasing rate of resident hospitalizations points to the success we ve had. We introduced on-site, facility staff physicians in locations thought-out the three states we serve so that our residents won t necessarily have to be sent out of their homes for doctor-prescribed medical treatment. We augmented that with significant expansion of our tele-medicine program. Using the very latest in technology, an off-site physician can now work with a skilled nurse specially trained in tele-medicine, to meet with a patient 24/7, review their condition and prescribe an appropriate course of care. The program has already shown itself to reduce trips to the hospital by as much as 80%, and more facilities will see telemedicine coming to them this year. In all of our facilities we increased the amount, level and complexity of our in-service training to ensure that our residents get the very best care and that our staff is trained and fully able to handle the most complex medical cases who, more and more, are requesting placement at a Centers Health Care facility. In 2018, we ll be adding more skills to our training sessions and introducing a brand new Career Ladders program to encourage and provide financial assistance to those on our nursing staff- CNAs, LPNs and RNs who want to begin taking classes toward their next level of education and advancement within the Centers Health Care family. It s certainly a long term goal, but we look forward to the day when we can point to a facility Director of Nursing and say that he or she began as a CNA who joined us without skills or nursing training, and worked their way to LPN, RN, Unit Manager and ultimately Director though our Careers Ladder program. While we re proud of these accomplishments and have set ambitious goals for the coming year, what I am most proud of, personally and professionally, are the outstanding, dedicated professionals that do so much, every day, for the people they serve. And to all of our residents, you are the people who make our communities the very special places they are. If you have chosen to make us your home or have come here for help in completing your recovery and rehabilitation, I want to assure you that we will continue to do all we can to provide you with the finest care, the most comfortable accommodations and a thriving, vibrant lifestyle. Sincerely, Kenny Rozenberg, CEO Renderings of the new Buffalo Center lobby and therapy gym.
8 January 2018 195-44 Woodhull Avenue, Hollis, NY 11423 https://www.facebook.com/holliswoodcenter www.holliswood.net