Meet Truly Together Physician Assistant Ladise Everett
October 2019
This post is part of a blog series highlighting Northwell Health’s Advanced Clinical Providers (ACP). Each Northwell Health employee was nominated by their manager as an individual who exemplifies a Northwell Health value.
This month, we’re proud to introduce to you Ladise Everett who currently works as a physician assistant in the Department of Medicine at North Shore University Hospital (NSUH). Read below to learn more about her and her journey as an ACP at Northwell Health.
When Ladise was younger, she always dreamt of working as a caregiver, and when she got to college she realized that a career as a physician assistant was her true calling. Her desire for work/life balance and a family played a huge role in leading her to a career at Northwell at NSUH, where she has worked since 2005 as a physician assistant (PA).
While working within the Department of Medicine, Ladise spends a lot of her time providing care to admitted patients in the Emergency Department (ED). “I feel that I have an amazing job in the ED as a PA because you have the ability to help impact immediate positive change for patients and change outcomes,” says Ladise.
During her time at Northwell, she also has taken on many large projects which has showcased her approach to leadership. Others describe Ladise as a leader who always recognizes every team member on each project, large or small, with a smile and a heart to help. They know her infectious and positive attitude is just one of the many reasons why her team loves to work with her. It was this positivity, along with her dedication to care, that led Ladise to win PA of the Year at NSUH’s 3rd Annual North Star Gala this year.
And her team is with her every step of the way as they togetherness extends beyond patient care to include picnics, holiday parties, fundraising and more. “Our team really supports one another and we have created a family-like environment,” says Ladise. “That is hands down why I would work here as a PA.”
Ladise doesn’t just impact her team with positivity, she also impacts the next generation of healthcare leaders. When she isn’t providing direct patient care, she is working as a preceptor mentoring newly hired physician assistants and nurse practitioners. Ladise says, “by being a role model, you can give back to not only the individual but to future patients by developing that high standard of care.”
If you’re Made for working with a team of exceptional ACPs, explore our opportunities here.
An Appointment With: Dr. Dwayne Breining, Executive Director, Northwell Health Labs
October 2019
Starting his Northwell Health career as the director of Lab/Pathology at LIJ Valley Stream Hospital 13 years ago, Dr. Dwanye Breining held that title at multiple Northwell hospitals before coming to our Core Laboratory. Now as executive director of the Northwell Laboratories, he leads the talented team that coordinates laboratory testing for our new Core Laboratory at the Center for Advanced Medicine (CFAM), the new Core Microbiology Laboratory at Little Neck Parkway, and the 43 hospital laboratories that rely on our laboratories for reference testing. Northwell Labs is also responsible for testing for physician offices, nursing homes, the Department of Health, clinical trials, urgent care centers and more.
We sat down with Dr. Breining to discuss the growth of careers within Northwell Labs.
What types of careers are available within Northwell Labs?
While I think everyone is aware that we employ many MD & DO pathologists, as well as PhDs, laboratory technologists, and phlebotomists, not everyone knows that we also have people in sales and finance, as well as numerous IT specialists, data analysts, customer service representatives, materials management personnel and many delivery vehicle operators, and even a pharmacist. It is indeed a very big department, and we are a 24/7/365 operation – laboratory services never stop.
What makes our Labs at Northwell unique?
I like to think that we combine the best of both worlds: the high-efficiency of a commercial lab-type setting with the personal touch and hands-on engagement of your local hospital lab that knows you as a patient, and your physician as a colleague. As the largest nonprofit health system lab in the country, we have access to the most advanced medical testing technology available, including the largest Roche chemistry automation line in North America at the CFAM lab and the largest Kiestra automated microbiology system at the Little Neck Lab.
We are recognized internationally as an innovator in the laboratory industry, not just on the technology side but also in the business arena through forming unique partnerships with other health systems such as the one we formed with NYC Health & Hospitals, in which we also serve as the Core Laboratory for their 18 hospitals and affiliated clinics. Another unique innovation we just launched, and are especially proud of, is LabFly. This is an Uber-like app, available for both iOS and Android devices, to have our phlebotomy services come to you, in your home or office at whatever time is convenient, for a low convenience fee. We are seeing rapidly growing interest in this type of service.
Why should Bio/Chem students who are unsure of what they want to do as a career explore the clinical lab field?
The level of fulfillment and sense of purpose one derives from working within healthcare in general, and knowing that the work you do directly affects the well-being of our community, is second to none, as any healthcare professional can attest. In the lab tech arena specifically, you will never be bored, as there are over 30 different tech sub-specialty areas in which to train, which creates many opportunities for career advancement. There is regular interaction with colleagues from all aspects of the lab, and also with physicians, office and hospital staff, and even school students and the general public at times. In addition, many of our Laboratory Information System computer specialists started out as lab techs, and are now trained and regularly installing and troubleshooting the highly advanced medical information systems that make modern healthcare run.
Why is Northwell an employer of choice for lab professionals?
Because of our demanding position within a large, leading healthcare system, we will always be at the cutting edge of clinical laboratory medicine. There are abundant opportunities for career evolution and advancement, and our staff can choose to partake in as much as they like. We work hard to create a comfortable and collegial work environment (after all, we all spend almost half our waking hours at work) because we want to attract and retain the best of the best.
Where do you see the future of clinical laboratory sciences evolving?
The future of the lab industry is incredibly bright. New testing technology keeps coming along faster than we can automate the simpler testing, and it is always a challenge to have enough techs coming on-board to keep up with it. In addition, we are already seeing opportunities for the lab to step more forward in healthcare, and participate in things like patient risk assessment, care coordination and escalation, and population health, especially given an aging population., We expect these trends to continue well into the future.
Develop cutting-edge applications in Software Engineering Internship
Picture: Purna Prasad, Chief Technology Officer and Vice President of Northwell Health, comes to visit and gets a demo from one of the teams.
October 2019
Do you have an insatiable curiosity for new ideas and building innovative software? Then you might be Made for Northwell Health’s Software Engineering Internship!
This year Northwell launched a new Software Engineering Internship where our interns worked at the forefront of building new technology for healthcare as part of the Northwell Health Information Technology Innovation Center. With over 400 applicants, five top candidates with varied skill sets were selected to form our first elite summer cohort.
Our summer interns had the opportunity use the latest technologies to build advanced modern software that will deliver real value to our patients, clinicians and organization. Operating like a startup, the team incubated new ideas and worked collaboratively in an agile environment like a commercial software development team.
Joining the team of software engineers, product managers and UX designers, our interns are bringing new ideas to life with the goal of having a pilot-ready software for deployment at our hospitals at the end of their internship. Each intern was mentored by a software engineer to ensure their success throughout the summer.
During their first week, interns attended a Coding Boot Camp, followed by the kick-off of two full stack projects. After presentations from stakeholders outlining important requirements, the interns were off and running in two small teams creating architecture to review with their mentors, running daily stand-up meetings and presenting to stakeholders for feedback.
While delivering projects, students learned about cutting edge technologies and work with the latest development methodologies and frameworks, including self-organizing to create their own development boards and run their own Scrum stand-ups. “The working environment is great,” says Xuliang Sun, a dual Masters student at Carnegie Mellon studying Civil Engineering and Technology Innovation Management. “We work in an open space and our mentors are there to help us. We can easily jump into the huddle room and whiteboard the solution together.”
Nic Lorenzen, senior development lead for the Innovation Software Engineering team believes in giving interns the opportunity to push their comfort zone. He adds, “By the end of summer, they will have created continuous deployment pipelines that push out Microsoft Azure function microservice backends, progressive reactive front end applications and leveraged SignalR for real-time communication. Our interns won’t just ship code like every intern yearns to do; they will ship clean, maintainable code that they can be proud of and we can use and build off of for years to come.”
Ready to gain experience for your future career? Applications are now open!
Let’s hear what our interns have to say about their summer so far:
“I think it’s important to feel like you’re part of the actual team during an internship. I feel like if we were to start working here tomorrow full-time, not much would change since we are already so involved.”
Abrar Ahmed
“I think it’s important to feel like you’re part of the actual team during an internship. I feel like if we were to start working here tomorrow full-time, not much would change since we are already so involved.”
Abrar Ahmed
“We’ve discussed ideas with executives throughout Northwell, networked with top technology companies and gained real full stack software engineering skills, all while enjoying the view of the Chrysler building from our New York City office. It feels less like an internship and more like a partnership, innovating to build better solutions for healthcare.”
Fahad Hossain
Senior, CUNY Queens College
“I learned a lot from the first week Coding Boot Camp and as a team we benefit a lot from the weekly stakeholder meetings where we get direct feedback from users and create our own plan for the next iteration of features.”
Xuliang Sun
Dual Masters Student, Carnegie Mellon
“Interning with the Innovation Center at Northwell Health has been an eye opening experience. I had the opportunity to work together with a wide range of individuals, ranging from software engineers to doctors and nurses to innovate and solve some of the most pressing healthcare issues impacting patient care. Since day one of the internship, I’ve had the opportunity to drive a project on my own that solves real world problems and which I developed using cutting-edge technologies. I am learning a lot and feel like my project matters.”
Joshua Zeitlinger
Junior, Stephens Institute of Technology
“This internship did a great job in giving us a big picture view of healthcare and the future trends in healthcare technology. In a few weeks, I’m shadowing a clinician on rounds at Cohen’s Children’s Medical Center and can’t wait to see how the technologies we have been working on can be incorporated right into the clinicians workflow.”
Cindy Zhang
Senior, University of Maryland College Park
“I think it’s important to feel like you’re part of the actual team during an internship. I feel like if we were to start working here tomorrow full-time, not much would change since we are already so involved.”
Abrar Ahmed
“We’ve discussed ideas with executives throughout Northwell, networked with top technology companies and gained real full stack software engineering skills, all while enjoying the view of the Chrysler building from our New York City office. It feels less like an internship and more like a partnership, innovating to build better solutions for healthcare.”
Fahad Hossain
Senior, CUNY Queens College
“I learned a lot from the first week Coding Boot Camp and as a team we benefit a lot from the weekly stakeholder meetings where we get direct feedback from users and create our own plan for the next iteration of features.”
Xuliang Sun
Dual Masters Student, Carnegie Mellon
“Interning with the Innovation Center at Northwell Health has been an eye opening experience. I had the opportunity to work together with a wide range of individuals, ranging from software engineers to doctors and nurses to innovate and solve some of the most pressing healthcare issues impacting patient care. Since day one of the internship, I’ve had the opportunity to drive a project on my own that solves real world problems and which I developed using cutting-edge technologies. I am learning a lot and feel like my project matters.”
Joshua Zeitlinger
Junior, Stephens Institute of Technology
“This internship did a great job in giving us a big picture view of healthcare and the future trends in healthcare technology. In a few weeks, I’m shadowing a clinician on rounds at Cohen’s Children’s Medical Center and can’t wait to see how the technologies we have been working on can be incorporated right into the clinicians workflow.”
Cindy Zhang
Senior, University of Maryland College Park
“I think it’s important to feel like you’re part of the actual team during an internship. I feel like if we were to start working here tomorrow full-time, not much would change since we are already so involved.”
Abrar Ahmed
“I think it’s important to feel like you’re part of the actual team during an internship. I feel like if we were to start working here tomorrow full-time, not much would change since we are already so involved.”
Abrar Ahmed
“We’ve discussed ideas with executives throughout Northwell, networked with top technology companies and gained real full stack software engineering skills, all while enjoying the view of the Chrysler building from our New York City office. It feels less like an internship and more like a partnership, innovating to build better solutions for healthcare.”
Fahad Hossain
Senior, CUNY Queens College
“I learned a lot from the first week Coding Boot Camp and as a team we benefit a lot from the weekly stakeholder meetings where we get direct feedback from users and create our own plan for the next iteration of features.”
Xuliang Sun
Dual Masters Student, Carnegie Mellon
“Interning with the Innovation Center at Northwell Health has been an eye opening experience. I had the opportunity to work together with a wide range of individuals, ranging from software engineers to doctors and nurses to innovate and solve some of the most pressing healthcare issues impacting patient care. Since day one of the internship, I’ve had the opportunity to drive a project on my own that solves real world problems and which I developed using cutting-edge technologies. I am learning a lot and feel like my project matters.”
Joshua Zeitlinger
Junior, Stephens Institute of Technology
“This internship did a great job in giving us a big picture view of healthcare and the future trends in healthcare technology. In a few weeks, I’m shadowing a clinician on rounds at Cohen’s Children’s Medical Center and can’t wait to see how the technologies we have been working on can be incorporated right into the clinicians workflow.”
Cindy Zhang
Senior, University of Maryland College Park
“I think it’s important to feel like you’re part of the actual team during an internship. I feel like if we were to start working here tomorrow full-time, not much would change since we are already so involved.”
Abrar Ahmed
“We’ve discussed ideas with executives throughout Northwell, networked with top technology companies and gained real full stack software engineering skills, all while enjoying the view of the Chrysler building from our New York City office. It feels less like an internship and more like a partnership, innovating to build better solutions for healthcare.”
Fahad Hossain
Senior, CUNY Queens College
“I learned a lot from the first week Coding Boot Camp and as a team we benefit a lot from the weekly stakeholder meetings where we get direct feedback from users and create our own plan for the next iteration of features.”
Xuliang Sun
Dual Masters Student, Carnegie Mellon
“Interning with the Innovation Center at Northwell Health has been an eye opening experience. I had the opportunity to work together with a wide range of individuals, ranging from software engineers to doctors and nurses to innovate and solve some of the most pressing healthcare issues impacting patient care. Since day one of the internship, I’ve had the opportunity to drive a project on my own that solves real world problems and which I developed using cutting-edge technologies. I am learning a lot and feel like my project matters.”
Joshua Zeitlinger
Junior, Stephens Institute of Technology
“This internship did a great job in giving us a big picture view of healthcare and the future trends in healthcare technology. In a few weeks, I’m shadowing a clinician on rounds at Cohen’s Children’s Medical Center and can’t wait to see how the technologies we have been working on can be incorporated right into the clinicians workflow.”
Cindy Zhang
Senior, University of Maryland College Park
“I think it’s important to feel like you’re part of the actual team during an internship. I feel like if we were to start working here tomorrow full-time, not much would change since we are already so involved.”
Abrar Ahmed
Celebrating diversity, culture and traditions through the Mid-Autumn Festival
October 2019
The Mid-Autumn Festival is a celebration in Asian culture of hard work, harvest and family. This year, Northwell Health’s Bridges Asian Business Employee Resource Group (BERG) led celebrations throughout the health system for our team members to connect with each other and our patients.
We talked to two of the BERG leaders to learn a more about the Mid-Autumn Festival and the importance of creating a workplace where all holidays are celebrated.
Hoi-Sze (Suki) To, practice administrative manager, Colorectal Surgery, Lenox Hill Hospital and co-lead, Bridges Asian BERG, Western Region
What is the Bridges Asian BERG?
The BERG was created to enhance engagement, innovation, talent development, and promote an inclusive culture ensuring the delivery of culturally and linguistically sensitive, quality patient care. The Asian BERG nurtures a diverse, inclusive workforce that aligns with Northwell’s mission, values, business practices, and objectives.
What are the benefits of becoming a member of the Bridges Asian BERG?
It provides the opportunity for professional development and networking, a collective voice, a role in fostering community support, and most importantly, broadening cultural awareness throughout Northwell and the communities we serve. I joined the group because there is a need to address the importance of cultural diversity when providing patient care.
There are many Chinese American patients from the Asian communities Northwell serves and it is critical for us to create a comfortable and culturally-sensitive environment. For example, one of Lenox Hill Hospital’s prominent colorectal surgeons, Dr. Joseph Martz, would proactively translated the medical consent forms into the Chinese language and also recruited bilingual support staff in order to communicate effectively with his patients. Our BERG now helps with these needs.
How do you celebrate the festival?
The Mid-Autumn Festival is a chance for families to spend time together, just like Thanksgiving. One of the most common ways to celebrate is by eating moon cakes. Moon cakes are a dense, sweet pastry that’s baked or steamed and typically enjoyed with tea. You can also find moon cakes in other flavors such as green tea and chocolate. Many communities also celebrate by lighting paper lanterns because the lanterns serve a practical purpose of lighting the way as friends and family stay up to appreciate the full moon late into the night.
Yue (Lulu) Liu, senior administrative manager, Cardiothoracic Surgery, Lenox Hill Hospital and co-lead of the Bridges Asian BERG, Western Region
Why is the Mid-Autumn Festival important to Northwell?
The Mid-Autumn festival is important to Northwell because this is a holiday that is celebrated throughout Asia and by many of our employees. This year, the Mid-Autumn Festival was celebrated at Lenox Hill Hospital. The celebration was a collaboration with the Office of Diversity & Inclusion, Lenox Hill Hospital’s Human Resources, and the Lenox Hill Department of Food and Nutrition Services. The event was very well received and brought patients, hospital staff and leadership together.
Why did you become a member of the Bridges Asian BERG?
Prior to becoming a member of Bridges Asian BERG, I noticed there was a shortage of culturally and linguistically sensitive patient materials. My team and I would spend hours translating the pre-procedure and post-op care instructions over the phone with our Asian patients. After joining the Bridges Asian BERG, I started to collaborate with the Chinese Language Advisory Board (LAB), where we would help procure this information for the Northwell Health Physician Partner practices when they were providing care to the Asian American population.
How do you celebrate the festival?
During the moon festival my family and I always enjoy a meal that ends with sampling a of moon cakes and a special tea my mom selects to pair with the moon cakes. For me, the most important part of the moon festival is spending time with my family, being appreciative of our loved ones, creating new memories, and maintaining the bonds that we have.
