A recipe for culinary success — Northern Westchester wins Northwell Health’s 2021 Chefs Challenge
Wellness & Benefits
Each year at Northwell Health, we host the Chefs Challenge, where our chefs and their team members collaborate and create unique, healthy dishes that may be offered to their patients in the near future.
This year six Northwell Health hospitals recently competed in the 2021 Chefs Challenge at Glen Cove Hospital. Chefs, cooks and registered dieticians assembled to prepare healthy and delicious three-course meals within five hours — and using an assigned set of ingredients, in the style of an Iron Chef competition!
Northern Westchester Hospital was awarded first place in the competition. The winning menu included a butternut squash and shrimp wonton appetizer; entrée of braised lamb osso buco (shank) with spring vegetables, Yukon gold potato and slow-roasted cherry tomato; and caramelized pineapple upside-down cake dessert. South Shore University Hospital placed second, with a menu featuring butternut squash noodles carbonara, and Lenox Hill Hospital, whose meal included an herb and pistachio crusted rack of lamb, placed third.
Why join our culinary team?
When people consider hospital dishes, they usually don’t picture restaurant-quality three–course meals. Northwell Health believes in redefining hospital food because food is medicine, and our culinary departments strive to provide patients with the same level of nutritional care as the clinical care they receive altogether.
Our culinary department and chefs raise the standard of hospital food by designing meals with fresh ingredients, including herbs and vegetables harvested from Northwell Health’s gardens. Northern Westchester donates food from its recently opened wellness garden to discharged patients leaving who are food insecure or vulnerable, while Lenox Hill’s Victory Greens garden is New York City’s only hospital-based, organic rooftop garden.
In addition, our teaching kitchens partner chefs and registered dietitians together to share healthy recipes, basic culinary skills and nutrition education with team members and patients.
At Northwell, we believe food has the power to heal. Learn more about our culinary careers.
Meeting our winning teams and their menus.
First place: Northern Westchester Hospital
Appetizer: Butternut Squash and Shrimp Wontons
Entrée: Braised Lamb Shank Osso Buco with Spring Vegetables, Yukon Gold Potato and Slow-Roasted Cherry Tomato
Dessert: Caramelized Pineapple Upside-Down Cake with Cardamom Honey-Yogurt Sauce and Crystallized Pineapple
Second Place: South Shore University Hospital (SSUH)
Appetizer: Butternut Squash Noodles Carbonara
Entrée: Cider Mustard Lamb Chop with Polenta Spinach and Rutabaga Puree
Dessert: Caramel Cappuccino “Cup of Joe”
Third Place: Lenox Hill Hospital
Appetizer: Butternut Squash Risotto with Squash Medley and Coulis
Entrée: Herb and Pistachio Crusted Grass-Fed Rack of Lamb with Ratatouille-Stuffed Tomato and Pepper with Mint Couscous
Dessert: Caramel Coconut Ice Cream with Banana Brûlée and Coconut Cookie
Raising the standard of care for our team members at Northwell
Wellness & Benefits
For the fourth year in a row, Northwell Health has earned a spot on the Healthiest Employers’® “Healthiest 100 Workplaces in America” list, ranking eighth out of 100 organizations in the nation! Northwell offers our team members a variety of well-being programs and resources designed to promote a healthy and happy lifestyle. Below, you can find information on a few of the many initiatives that our team members can benefit from. Discover a career well cared for here and join an organization that puts its team members’ well-being first.
What better way to get team members moving than Northwell’s annual walk challenge
Wellness & Benefits
One of the many ways Northwell Health focuses on its team members’ wellbeing is an annual walking challenge. In this year’s step challenge, 3,068 teams made up of 16,421 team members participated as they competed for the chance to win $5,000! The teams have six weeks to walk two million steps collectively (with six team members per team). Nine teams overall were selected – such as the Revenue All Stars and Valley Cats, among the rest — with each participant receiving a $5,000 prize.
Each year, the walk challenge, led by our Employee Wellness team, features a different destination to help team members learn more about different locations throughout the world with Asia as the 2023 destination for our walkers. Leveraging Northwell’s wellness app, team members can view and track their physical activity, while unlocking different destinations across Asia throughout their wellness journey. Northwell’s Asian Business Employee Resource Group (BERG) helped provide information around each destination, including the history and culture, in tandem with providing team members with various wellness facts to help align mind, body and soul.
“The Asian BERG was honored to partner with Employee Wellness to identify breathtaking natural sites across Asia. We hope these carefully picked destinations spark interest in exploring new cultures and cuisines,” says Himani Patel. “We are excited to come together again and challenge each other to continue to prioritize our health by walking each day. This is the kind of healthy competition we all need to close out the year!”
From walks outdoors during lunch to gathering with friends on days off, our teams found fun ways to get their steps in while gaining more exercise and energy, developing healthy habits and improving mental health. In addition, for our remote team members, it provides a unique chance to connect with their teammates despite the distance.
In addition to Northwell’s annual walk challenges, Northwell offers more than 80 workshops and wellness programs for our team members. These resources were designed to assist our team members with building healthy habits, managing stress, sleeping better, and planning self-care. It’s just a few more ways that we show our commitment and support for the physical and emotional health of our team members.
With so many team members competing in this year’s challenge, Northwell Health is ready for a journey to Asia and wellbeing.
Raising the standard of care for our team members at Northwell
Wellness & Benefits
For the third year in a row, Northwell Health has earned a spot on the Healthiest Employers’® “Healthiest 100 Workplaces in America” list, ranking fifth out of 100 organizations in the nation! Northwell offers our team members a variety of well-being programs and resources designed to promote a healthy and happy lifestyle. Below, you can find information on a few of the many initiatives that our team members can benefit from. Discover a career well cared for here and join an organization that puts its team members’ well-being first.
SHARE THIS ENTRY
Fortune Again Recognizes Northwell as one of the 100 Best Companies to Work For.
Wellness & Benefits
Northwell Health is proud to announce that, for the third year in a row, we have been named one of Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For®. As the only health care organization recognized in New York State, our dedication to making Northwell a great place to work is evident in everything we do, and our commitment to our employees has earned us a ranking again on this distinguished annual list for 2022.
At Northwell, we’re dedicated to helping our people build careers that are meaningful and rewarding from day one. Following is just a sample of why our employees love to be part of the Northwell team!
Focusing on Employee Well-being
There’s no doubt about it: The pandemic brought enormous difficulties to all of us on several levels, whether emotional, financial, or physical. We put the well-being of our employees first with new offerings that meet people where they are, support them, and foster trust across the organization.
Northwell responded in several ways to support the emotional well-being of our team members from our Center for Traumatic Stress, Resilience, and Recovery to Team Lavender to our 24/7 Emotional Support Resource Call Center. These comprehensive support resources and networks provide employees with psychological and emotional assistance for those who need help navigating any emotional challenges.
To support our team members’ physical well-being during and after the pandemic, we expanded our wellness workshops, and shared healthy eating habits–even a healthy recipe cookbook series. We also offer apps like myWellness, which lets employees participate in step challenges and track healthy habits, rewarding them with points based on participation that they can redeem for gifts of their choice.
Northwell helps support our employees’ financial well-being by providing resources from housing benefits to subsidized in-person childcare to healthcare wellness credits and comprehensive paid time off and more.
Creating a Welcoming Workplace for All
At Northwell, equity, diversity and inclusion aren’t just buzzwords. We are dedicated to creating programs that bring those concepts to life, employing a workforce that is diverse in culture, background, and experience while celebrating the uniqueness of every individual. Our Business Employees Resource Groups, or BERGs, cover a broad array of areas, enabling employees to connect, develop new skills, and mentor others while contributing to initiatives that impact our communities in powerful ways. For example, our Bridges BERGs enable employees to explore and celebrate Asian, Black, Jewish, and LatinX communities, while other groups focus on health equity awareness for the LBGTQIA+ community, environmental sustainability, veterans, and more.
Other equity, diversity, and inclusion initiatives include the Inclusion Academy, designed to provide coordinators, front-line managers, and directors with the tools necessary to implement and manage diversity and inclusion strategies at their local sites. We also hold organization-wide town halls and listening sessions, where we engage with team members to learn more about their experiences so we can increase our action on these critical issues; and a course on unconscious bias training, which provides an overview on how experiences and identities shape biases, among other educational programs.
Northwell Celebrates You!
During 2021, in this transformational year of healing and growth, we introduced Northwell Celebrates, a multi-faceted campaign designed to enhance skills, insight, and resources that promote our employees’ welfare while recognizing and thanking them for their heroic efforts during the pandemic.
Northwell Celebrates included holding uplifting events such as live music and drive-in movies for employees and their families, meal kits sent to employees’ homes, recognition raffles, plus gratitude pop ups and mobile spas at Northwell locations, among many others.
A Culture of Care and Compassion
As you can see, Northwell provides team members with the inspiration, resources, and opportunity to not only succeed but to thrive, no matter what role. We value the contributions of each employee and work hard every day to create a sense of community filled with compassion, camaraderie, and opportunity.
Our focus on supporting and celebrating our people is the heart of our culture—and it’s what makes Northwell a great place work for all.
We’d love for you to be part of our dynamic team. Explore Northwell’s career opportunities today.
Prioritizing Self-Care and Well-being at Northwell Health
Wellness & Benefits
Every year, Northwell team members can rely on our employee wellness programs and trust in the implementation of new initiatives designed to create a happy, safe, and healthy work environment. Our well-being isn’t meant to be checked at the door when we finish our workday; several of the resources and activities available are devised with employees and their families in mind such as healthy recipes developed by our dietitians for home cooked meals. And in some cases, as with our annual walk challenges, the encouragement to get healthy has a ripple effect, inspiring family and friends to join in hikes for the sake of motivating our team members along.
This year’s walk challenge, Walk to the Caribbean, saw thousands of team members trek across state parks, local gardens, and sandy beaches, tracking their steps for a chance to win an all-expense paid trip to the Caribbean. Three lucky teams claimed the winning prize: a team from North Shore University Hospital, led by team captain Lydia Brown, a team from Northwell Health Physician Partners Long Island Jewish Medical Center, led by team captain Anna Costakis, and a team from Lenox Hill Hospital, led by team captain Jacqueline Pinksbennett.
Participation in the walk challenges always runs high and it is just one example of many programs aimed at promoting wellness both in and out of work by incentivizing team members to get active by rewarding them with myRecognition points which can be used to claim amazing products through our internal portal. The health and wellness of our team members is a top priority to leadership in the organization and because of that our initiatives are actively encouraged, such as Northwell’s Well-Being Credit Program which offers employees who are who enrolled in a Northwell offered medical plan the opportunity to earn a maximum of $2,080 in paycheck credits in exchange for four healthy actions. It is our belief that a healthy workforce is a happy workforce, and therefore a successful one.
Read on to learn about a few more of the programs and resources that have made Northwell Health #2 Healthiest 100 Workplaces in America by Healthiest Employers®.
Want to join an organization that puts employees first? Discover a career well cared for here.
A Team of Trailblazers in and out of the Operating Room
Wellness & Benefits
The perioperative team at Long Island Jewish Medical Center (LIJMC) and Cohen Children’s Medical Center (CCMC) takes their commitment to wellness very seriously. Not only the wellness of their patients, but also their own wellness and that of their colleagues. This is why recently the group of 14 registered nurses, certified surgical technicians, surgeons, managers, and support staff from LIJMC and CCMC laced up their hiking boots and hit the trails, something they do together regularly.
While these outdoor team-building exercises are a great way to enjoy nature, they are also a chance to get to know one another better and form bonds that help them work better as a team inside the operating room. . “Forming a better relationship/bond with your co-workers helps us work better as a team while at work,” says Danielle Colwell, assistant nurse manager, patient care at CCMC. “You gain more respect for one another and are more eager to assist each other when the need arises, which in the operating room is quite often.” It’s that kind of commitment, support and mutual respect among colleagues that makes Northwell Health a Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For®.
Northwell encourages its employees to find ways to make their wellness a priority both at work and outside of work. We provide the resources and support to make wellness more convenient and fun like incentives for exercising, such as walk challenges and wellness contests, as well as workshops, wellness apps, and access to resources for emotional and stress management, financial well-being, healthy eating, and more.
Nurturing wellness and empowering our people to decompress, get outside, and stay active however it best suits them is essential in healthcare. And we encourage and embrace opportunities for our teams to find ways to focus on their well-being together and bring that commitment and collaboration back to their careers at Northwell.
An Appointment With: Joe Molloy, Vice President, Workforce Safety
Wellness & Benefits
As vice president of workforce safety, Joe Molloy is responsible for ensuring a safe work environment for our 76,000-strong Northwell employees. Joe started his career with Northwell in 2005 as corporate director of benefits with prior job experience in employee safety in hospital settings in addition to expertise in benefits and employee wellness. In 2014, Joe’s role and proficiency resulted in the creation of the workforce safety department that carries out Northwell’s commitment to safety in the workplace.
We spoke with Joe Molloy to learn more about how this department keeps safety a top priority.
What is the role of workforce safety at Northwell Health?
Workforce safety is committed to reinforcing a culture of safety for everyone from patients to team members, and ensuring that we are all advocates for a safe work environment as employees across the health system. Patient safety starts with team member safety, so our department has developed many programs and educational modules to reinforce the importance across the organization. As a result, we have award-winning programs that have been recognized by New York State and nationally for their success.
What are some of the different positions on the workforce safety team?
A few teams operate under the workforce safety umbrella. We have roles that include safety training, communications, programs and care coordination, OSHA compliance, workers’ compensation, and industrial hygiene.
We take our mission to enforce a safe environment for all very seriously and really appreciate the partnerships we have throughout the health system, including with the safety officers, the office of legal affairs, security, HR, risk, engineering and the organization as a whole. We couldn’t drive safety without everyone’s participation. Workforce safety’s efforts are made easier by the culture of Truly Together that permeates every corner of the health system.
How did your team make an impact during the pandemic?
Like many departments at Northwell, our team members were re-deployed around the health system to help with the COVID-19 response. In addition, we organized the re-fit testing of more than 40,000 employees to ensure proper safety, fit and use of PPE. Further, the team made yeoman’s efforts to support wherever there was a need.
What advice would you offer someone thinking of a career in workforce safety?
If you are the kind of person that enjoys taking care of fellow team members, or, you have an interest in how we keep our team members safe, you may want to consider a career in workforce safety.
An Appointment With: Patricia Flynn, Assistant Vice President of Employee Wellness
Wellness & Benefits
Northwell Health’s Employee Wellness team helps enhance the well-being of every team member by delivering a healthy and safe work environment. Patricia Flynn, assistant vice president of Employee Wellness, helped develop the many programs that Northwell offers that guide our employees and their families.
Read our discussion with Patricia Flynn below to learn about the importance of well-being for our team members as we reflect on Employee Health and Fitness Month.
What is the significance of employee well-being at Northwell?
Caring for our patients begins with caring for our team members. At Northwell, well-being is so much more than a program; it is foundational to our culture – a culture that gives “permission” to be healthy! It includes healthy food choices, flexible leadership, resources for healthy living, and more. Well-being at Northwell is holistic – recognizing the physical, emotional, social, spiritual, and financial aspects of our team members.
How does your team champion Northwell’s culture of well-being?
It is an honor and privilege to lead the professionals on my team. We exist to serve the Northwell team members, providing resources to support good health. The team is from varied backgrounds, covering the spectrum of well-being disciplines. We have public health professionals, registered dieticians, exercise physiologists, psychologists, health coaches, licensed clinical social workers and physicians. Everyone on the team is dedicated to helping team members.
How has the wellness initiatives helped our team members manage their mental and physical health during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond?
In 2021 during the pandemic, we spoke with our team members, asked how this was impacting their overall well-being, and listened in order to create impactful programs to support them.
The Employee Wellness team partnered with a variety of departments throughout Northwell to support our team members, including but not limited to Employee Experience, Chaplaincy Services, the Employee & Family Assistance Program, Behavioral Health Service line and the newly formed Center for Traumatic Stress, Resilience and Recovery.
By listening to our team member’s wants and needs, the team came together to design well-thought out programs and resources that included:
- The well-being resource page – a focused well-being page that described all of our program offerings by topic area including emotional, mental, physical and spiritual.
- The Emotional Support Resource Call Center – a call line manned by the Employee Wellness team 24/7 where team members called in for emotional support and mental health referrals during the pandemic. Today, the Emotional Support Resource Call Center enables team members to speak with an Employee Wellness team member, a member of our Employee Assistance Program or Chaplaincy Services.
- An Employee Wellness YouTube channel – a channel that hosted over 100 videos including videos on guided meditation, deep breathing, self-care, healthy cooking, stretching, among others.
- Healthy Choice at Home cookbooks – developed by our own Registered Dietitian, these easy-to-make and heart-healthy recipes provided team members with a creative stress relief outlet through cooking.
- myHealthyBody Take 5 series – a series where team members could watch a pre-recorded stretch, have a certified personal trainer attend a team meeting, or join the myHealthyBody program and have a customized musculoskeletal program tailored to their needs. These were a hit among our team members and helped reinvigorate them before heading back to work.
- The first Healthcare Heroes challenge – a fundraising effort for our team members in financial crisis which raised over $25,000.
- And always a fan favorite among our team members, our “Walk to” challenge– an annual program our team members always look forward to and last year we continued our challenge virtually with Walk to the Parks.
What are some of the initiatives your team has planned for 2021?
Key priorities for 2021 are emotional well-being, supporting our team members’ families, a safe and healthy pathway back to the workplace and a continued focus on reducing chronic disease. We will also be launching another “Walk To” destination challenge. Last year over 20,000 team members participated in our Walk to the Parks.
In 2020 we also made progress in de-stigmatizing mental health – but much more work is needed. In 2021 we will continue to normalize the conversation around these issues.
This year, the Employee Wellness continues to bring a wealth of resources and support to our team members. We continued to ask our team members for feedback and listened to their needs through the Well-Being Support Survey, a collaborative survey with Employee Experience and the Center for Traumatic Stress, Resilience and Recovery.
As a result of what we heard, we are launching or have launched programs that include wellness workshops; projects around the importance of self-care and community; resources and programs for mental health; and an inspiration call line for our team members to receive uplifting messages of hope and encouragement.
What else should someone know about Northwell’s dedication to employee well-being?
A key success factor in any workplace well-being program is leadership commitment. At Northwell, it is real! Well-being IS the well in Northwell! Another key success factor is the integration of well-being into the plans of many partners and that has been critical here at Northwell. We partner with many teams across the organization.
Celebrating National Nutrition Month with Health Choice recipes
Wellness & Benefits
This National Nutrition Month, our Employee Wellness team and registered dietitians are helping educate team members across Northwell Health about making informed food choices. Their resources are helping improve well-being by providing the education needed to develop healthy eating and physical activity habits.
And at Northwell, we know our team members are all unique, with different personal and professional goals. Since there is no one-size-fits-all approach to nutrition and health, our Healthy Choice recipe videos provide instructions to a variety of recipes and dietary needs. Our team members even have the opportunity to submit recipes themselves, showcasing their favorite healthy dishes to eat at home with their family.
Join us at home with Loretta Desimone, outreach services associate from Staten Island University Hospital, to make her one pot, easy weeknight meal for the whole family.
Child care benefit programs support Northwell Health team members
Wellness & Benefits
Northwell Health is committed to our 74,000+ team members, creating careers well cared for that help them flourish professionally and also personally. Part of that commitment is providing a diverse selection of benefit programs that help our team members have a rewarding balance of workplace development goals and personal ones at home.
Child care programs are one of the benefits that Northwell offers to help support our team members as their families grow alongside their careers. “The COVID-19 pandemic really changed the way we look at child care,” says Diana Witkowski-Grubard, director of Benefits in Human Resources. “When schools began to close, we knew we had to change our vision. If schools are closed and our team members don’t have anyone to care for their children, then we’re not able to do what we do best – serving our communities.”
The Benefits team worked to develop new partnerships and programs that would support our team members during this unprecedented time. “Our focus shifted as we saw how vital child care services are and we knew we needed to help, whether through offering reimbursement or partnering with nationally recognized learning groups that can help support our team members.”
And these partnerships and programs are continuing to evolve through team member feedback from surveys that help us to continue to see what benefits might be necessary and get a better understanding of what benefits they want and need.
Learn about some of our child care benefit programs:
Back-Up Care Program: Through our partnership with Bright Horizons, eligible team members have access to 10 center-based or in-home, back-up care for child and elders in instances where a team member’s traditional care routine falls through, such as school closings, caregiver vacation or illness, unexpected shift cover, and business travel.
Subsidized Child Care: With a new partnership with the Learning Care Group, Northwell is now able to offer eligible team members 10 days per month of subsidized, in-person child care for the 2020-2021 school year. This child care is available within the areas our team members live and work for children up to 12 years old. In addition, Northwell has partnered with various YMCA locations throughout long island to offer similar subsidized child care services.
Crisis Care Reimbursement: The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic created a need for a new program within Northwell. Northwell has partnered with PayFlex to administer our COVID-19 crisis care reimbursement program to team members. Eligible team members receive daily reimbursement per child for up to 10 days during per eligible month for expenses incurred for childcare expenses.
Discounts: Northwell offers various discounts to summer camps throughout the New York region. We offer discounts to more than 10 summer programs/camps to help team members.
Find a career well cared for at Northwell Health. Apply today!
Celebrating our team members and their bundle of joy with new Baby Gift Program
Wellness & Benefits
Northwell Health’s new Baby Gift Program offers team members who have welcomed a new family member by birth or adoption a one-time delivery of gift items for both baby and parents.
Their delivery is celebrated with a delivery of our own – a care package that includes hand-picked items for baby and parents, including a Northwell-branded onesie, bib and tumbler. To further support our team members, a packet of information is included with related Northwell benefits and other well-being resources offered to our new parents.
On top of being an adorable gift, the Baby Gift Program also serves to help connect team members on leave of absence or paid family leave with their team members throughout their leave. And with Northwell feeling like one big family, it’s a fun way to celebrate our newest little team members.
“It felt great receiving a care package for my newborn and myself,” says Elena Popovski, marketing specialist on the Candidate Engagement & Experience team in Talent Acquisition. “Throughout my whole pregnancy, I felt support from my fellow coworkers and a special bond was created during that time. To receive this after delivery made it feel like he was being welcomed into my Northwell family too.”
This feeling of connection is more important than ever throughout the COVID pandemic when many new parents are celebrating their newest arrival in isolated and socially distant ways. By sending our team members a token of celebration, Northwell is able to promote our value of being Truly Together.
The Baby Gift Program is just one of the unique benefits that Northwell offers our new parent team members, on top of other offerings such as Baby Café, a free drop-in breastfeeding support group that has gone virtual to continue to offer support through the pandemic.
Join an organization committed to celebrating you throughout all your personal and professional milestones. Apply today!
*Please note that benefits for our union team members may differ and team members should reference their CBA for benefit information.
Turning a passion for wellness into an impactful career at Northwell Health
Wellness & Benefits
An integral part of our success as an organization, especially as it relates to providing our patients with care that empowers them to lead healthier lives, are the healthcare professionals on our teams that lead healthy lives themselves. One person in particular who has been extremely impactful in this regard during her time at Northwell Health is Mystique Haynes, PTA, AAS, a physical therapist assistant at ORZAC Center for Rehabilitation.
Thirteen years ago, Mystique received her license as a physical therapy assistant (PTA), a move that would direct her steps on a path toward a rewarding career. Driven by her passion for health and wellness, she soon discovered incredible opportunities for growth at Northwell Health. “As a PTA in the sub-acute rehabilitation setting I work closely with nursing and medical staff to follow the patients’ prescribed treatment plans,” says Mystique. “I have had the opportunity to rehabilitate patients recovering from strokes, traumatic brain injuries, joint replacements, fractures, amputations and much more.”
Now, as she approaches a decade as a dedicated and valued member of our staff, Mystique has found even more ways to bring her passion and purpose together though Northwell’s commitment to team member well-being. In 2018, Mystique was chosen by the Human Resources department to be on the wellness committee, and after only a few months in the role, she became the Lead Wellness liaison and spearheaded the facility’s program.
Encouraged to bring her own passion to her work, Mystique leveraged what motivates her to be at her personal best to drive impactful change within our company culture and her department at the ORZAC Center for Rehabilitation. With her hands-on approach and eagerness to help the lives of others, she began to introduce programming at Northwell that further pushed both her goal and ours of promoting healthier lifestyles. By educating on wellness and providing resources that team members can use to improve their overall health, Mystique believes it all comes down to one word: consistency. “Consistency is the key to longevity of the heart,” says Mystique, and her heart for the health of those around her couldn’t be more evident in her day-to-day.
As the lead wellness liaison, Mystique has developed and hosted activities like health and wellness fairs, walking trails, weight training, Zumba classes, line dancing, and self-defense training. Her work has helped encourage and incorporate a healthy lifestyle into the work culture of Northwell Health and lead our team members to a better version of themselves. And as a result, our patients also benefit as our team members are then able to pass that knowledge on. As Mystique explains, “We only get one body and wellness is a major source of determining our quality of life.”
Additionally, Mystique has created a space for team members at ORZAC to benefit from organic health produce through Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). CSA is an upfront investment in a local farm, which then provides weekly “shares” of the farm harvest. This promotes farm to healthy table eating by delivering a variety of seasonal vegetables, herbs and some fruit directly to ORZAC.
The work she does in wellness goes far beyond our facilities and overflows into the communities and lives of people she interacts with in her personal life too. “I try to pass along health tips, credible information, and encourage everyone around me to start where they are and to just keep moving depending on each individual person and what their needs are,” she says. “Being a wellness liaison is my opportunity to give back to Northwell to say thank you for investing in me, my co-workers and my family.”
Discover a career that invests in your passions at Northwell Health. Apply today!
Growth through career conversations at Northwell Health
Wellness & Benefits
As one of Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For®, Northwell Health is invested in our team members’ development and their career experience is of the utmost importance. With opportunities across our organization, Northwell implemented the GROW (Goals, Reflect, Opportunities, Will) model as a guide for important career conversations among team members and leaders to set goals, reflect on the career journey, explore opportunities, and how to get there.
We have a saying at Northwell that careers are well cared for and the GROW model truly supports our commitment in ensuring that the career aspirations of our team members are a part of their journey with us. Michael Dowling, Northwell President and CEO says, “We put our patients first, but to do that we need to take care of our employees and ensure a workplace that’s safe, life-affirming and team-oriented. Everyone at Northwell is connected by the common bond of service to our community.” Our commitment to the team member experience and alignment with their career aspirations is critical to our culture of innovation, and essential to ongoing efforts to create an environment where everyone feels welcomed, heard, and valued for their contributions.
Each member of the Northwell team is unique which means growth has a different meaning for every one of us based on our individual career interests and lifestyles. In order to celebrate these different strengths and goals, Northwell set out to create ways to support the personal and professional growth of our team.
Developing career paths with the GROW Model
The GROW model is what we use to guide career conversations and help leaders and team members collaborate on actionable, purposeful, and developmental plans aligned with their interests and available opportunities. This model shows members how to start or redirect themselves to their chosen and desired career path in one of our many career professions. It is completely customizable to meet their interests so that our team members can develop in a way that is most meaningful to them.
Careers conversations offer opportunities to strategize and develop action plans to reach certain goals and these conversations provide a structure that keeps the lines of communication open. They enable our leaders to be better career coaches and give a voice and a clear focus for our team members’ career paths.
Northwell is dedicated to helping employees achieve their goals by providing the steps and support necessary. Discover how you can GROW your career at Northwell Health.
Northwell’s Walk to the Parks step challenge is improving employee wellness
Wellness & Benefits
Focusing on team member well-being at Northwell Health is a walk in the park – a virtual one that is. 2,774 teams made up of 15,691 team members are virtually walking our National Parks as they compete in this year’s employee step challenge for the chance to win $5,000!
During our Walk to the Parks innovative employee step challenge, teams of six have six weeks to walk two million steps, the distance between all national parks. Tracking their physical activity, each day brings them one step closer to their goal and unlocks virtual destinations throughout their wellness journey. Any team that successfully goes the distance will be entered into the grand prize raffle – a $5,000 prize for each team member.
In these unprecedented challenging times, it’s more important than ever for our team members to find the time to focus on their own well-being. From walks outdoors during lunch to safely gathering in parks on days off, our teams are finding fun ways to get their steps in while gaining more energy, developing healthy habits and improving mental health. Additionally, for many of our currently remote employees, it provides a unique chance to connect with their teammates despite the temporary distance.
“Walk to the Parks is more than getting in your steps, it’s about team building, challenging yourself and taking time for your own well-being,” says Niha Malcomson, manager, Employee Wellness. “Now more than ever, it is something that is needed by all.”
And this isn’t Northwell’s first step challenge! Each year Northwell provides a fun opportunity to increase physical activity while allowing team members to focus on their own well-being in unique competitions. Last year’s Walk to Rome challenge included 2,018 teams who walked a total of 9,116,790,338 steps. That’s 4,558,395 miles – or enough steps to travel 183 times around the Earth!
With so many team members competing in this year’s challenge, Northwell Health is ready for a journey both to the parks and to better well-being.
Are you up for the challenge? Get moving and apply to Northwell Health today!!
Carol Battaglia, AVP of Benefit Operations continues to grow her career with Northwell’s tuition reimbursement program
Wellness & Benefits
No matter what stage of your career, there’s always room for continued growth and development. Just ask Carol Battaglia, AVP of Benefit Operations, who is currently benefiting from Northwell Health’s tuition reimbursement program to earn her master’s degree.
Since starting here 18 years ago as the team lead of Benefits, she’s grown her Human Resources career with a passion for helping others. Throughout the years, she has overseen Benefits, the HR Service Center, HR Processing and the myRecognition program, which all help to engage and reward our team members.
Today, Carol is responsible for the oversight and management of the benefits, retirement, leave of absence, tuition and physician/executive total rewards teams, where she strategizes new ideas to enhance processes and techniques to improve the overall experience. In addition to her daily operations, she is also responsible for the employee discount program, system-wide-blood drives and child care offerings.
Continued growth at every step of her career
Benefiting from the programs she helps develop, Carol is currently enrolled in a Human Resources master’s program at St. Joseph’s College. “Obtaining a master’s degree has been top of mind and something I always wanted to accomplish,” says Carol. “Pursing this degree will provide a sense of personal accomplishment.”
Beyond tuition reimbursement, Carol has also been able to participate in various programs unique to Northwell, such as being a culture leader and participating in the High Potential Program that develops future healthcare leaders. She plays an active role in our Business Employee Resource Groups (BERGs) as co-chair of the GreenBERG and recently became chairman of the Caregiver Support Fund, which provides resources to team members in need including programs and services related to emotional, psychological and financial well-being. She was also published in Closing the Engagement Gap-How Great Companies Unlock Employee Potential for Superior Results, a book about how organizations can inspire, inform and reward employees in order to get superior results.
For Carol, earning her master’s degree is just one more way to better serve our team members. “With this degree, I hope to grow my career and broaden my knowledge within HR. I’m always looking to attend workshops and conferences to stay on top of best practices and look for new ways to enhance the team member experience. Knowledge is power.”
Get moving with a career that grows with you at Northwell Health. Apply today!
Johanna Moustouka embraced the Northwell Heroes Challenge as she continues her wellness journey
Wellness & Benefits
When Johanna Moustouka started her career journey at Northwell Health 11 years ago she looked forward to a career as a nursing assistant and to developing her skills professionally. She never realized the impact that the organization would also have on her personal life, especially on her wellness journey. Today, Johanna is a wellness champion and liaison at Northwell and also at home, and she is a triathlete who is always striving to reach her professional and personal goals.
Starting out at Glen Cove Hospital in the Rehabilitation Unit and eventually transitioning to the Emergency Department at Huntington Hospital, Johanna has gained career experience caring for patients with different illnesses. Along her Northwell career journey, she also became more aware of her physical and mental wellbeing, realizing that by living a healthier lifestyle she could help provide better care for her patients. Northwell has helped Johanna achieve her wellness goals by offering a great environment for leading a healthy lifestyle.
“I have always loved the wellness awareness and initiatives that Northwell provides to their employees such as, the yearly walking challenges, the wellness app, and the many events that Northwell sponsors as additional motivation,” she says.
Being a Northwell wellness liaison, Johanna also shares her wellness experiences with her colleagues at Huntington Hospital. She encourages her teammates to exercise including three-minute workouts on their breaks and going for walks. She realized if she was healthy and strong, she would be able to provide better care for her patients and her family. She also wanted to teach her five kids good wellness habits and instill in them that you can do anything you set your mind to, but you must lead by example. And, Johanna did just that.
Leveraging Northwell’s benefits, Johanna was able to instill healthy habits such as clean eating, clean shopping, and being physically active. This helped her family to adapt a healthy lifestyle! Johanna explained that her kids enjoyed partaking in her journey as a triathlete and training for the half marathon. They have done multiple 5k runs, completed races, and they go to the gym together. “I absolutely love how on board they are with all of this because it’s keeping them healthy and it’s extra bonding time for us,” she says.
Johanna leads a very active life and understands the true meaning of dedication. “Being a triathlete or a runner requires a significant amount of determination and discipline. You have to be able to balance work, family time and training. That could mean doing an open water swim or run at 5:00 am before punching into work at 6:45 am or a late afternoon or evening bike ride or run before bed,” Johanna said.
While working in the Emergency Room Department during the COVID-19 pandemic, Johanna saw how hard her team members were working and wanted to give back to her fellow heroes. She decided to participate in the Northwell Heroes Challenge during the first weekend of August. This wellness Challenge allowed employees to get moving while raising money for the Northwell Heroes Caregiver Support Fund, which provides programs and services to team members in need of emotional, psychological or financial support and more.
Johanna is a Northwell hero who goes above and beyond for her patients, the organization, and her family. Northwell’s culture and wellness encourages our employees’ growth professionally and personally, and Johanna is Made for this.
Northwell’s Employee and Family Assistance Program: Taking care of our team members
Wellness & Benefits
At Northwell Health, we’re committed to creating benefits that are as unique as our team members. As New York State’s largest health care provider and private employer, we have more than 72,000 team members working to ensure we deliver compassionate care to our patients and communities. Our benefits help us to deliver that same compassionate care back to our team and their families in and out of the workplace.
One of these unique benefits is the Employee and Family Assistance Program (EAP). The EAP offers complimentary confidential counseling services to employees and their benefits-eligible family members. These services provide short-term, goal-directed coaching and counseling designed to help resolve problems that impact work and home life.
The EAP provides counseling through in-person services, both at their main office and through a dedicated EAP team member at each of our hospitals. These one-on-one sessions help guide team members through specific issues they may be facing, whether it’s dealing with a stressful professional or personal challenge. Phone and telehealth services are also available to help support our team members.
Working in healthcare also means the potential of working through critical times. As our healthcare heroes deliver care through the COVID-19 outbreak, the EAP is there for continuous support. Currently the EAP is offering emotional support and referral services to all employees. Through partnership with the Behavioral Health Service Line, Wellness, and Human Resources, they’re ensuring that all team members get the support, services, and information they need to navigate through this crisis.
“Problems are a part of life,” says Margaret Kuzminski, the EAP program manager. “But unresolved issues can lead to a crisis that may affect an employee’s health, home life and/or job performance. The EAP offers goal-directed assistance and sometimes all it takes is just a phone call to help them get back on track.”
And the benefits go beyond just one-on-one meetings. Team members can participate in educational programs at The Center for Learning and Innovation or customized programs on-site that provide guidance on a variety of topics. Additionally, the EAP offers Northwell supervisors and managers programs to help them mitigate potential stresses in the workplace, such as interpersonal workplace concerns, recognizing team members in need of help, and developing training strategies.
Are you Made for a career at Northwell Health? Explore jobs and apply today.
Northwell Health teams give back to their communities
Northwell Health teams give back to their communities
[/av_textblock] [av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=” custom_class=”] As the largest healthcare provider and private employer in New York State, Northwell Health is committed to giving back to the communities it serves across the greater New York area. Throughout the year, different team members at Northwell Health will dedicate time to volunteer for the local communities we serve. From service projects and fundraising to soup kitchens and clothing drives, our Northwell family is giving back in a rewarding way.Two recent teams who spent time giving back to our communities were our Center for Emergency Medical Services (CEMS) team and our Talent Acquisition (TA) team.
CEMS team launches Packages of Hope initiative
The CEMS team, through the launch of Packages of Hope, created care packages for homeless men and women to help take care of them during winter months. The Packages of Hope are distributed throughout NYC, Nassau and Suffolk Counties by our CEMS crews. The team donated items and their time to put together the care packages which included feminine products, warm socks, blankets, water, hand warmers and snacks.
Members from all over the department including EMTs, paramedics, the medical director and even children of team members came together to help make over 100 packages for initial distribution. The first event was such a success that there is already another day scheduled.
Seeing the difference volunteering makes has strongly impacted the team members. “I had the opportunity to hand out one of the packages,” says one CEMS team member. “His response to a small token of items was tears in his eyes and thank you as he walked away. What an awesome idea!”
“Giving back is a part of who this department is,” says Bernard Robinson, MHA, regional director at CEMS. “Not only does teamwork increase every time we volunteer, we’ve also seen an increase in new ideas and suggestions from our staff and occurrences of them taking the initiative to go above and beyond to serve our communities.”[/av_textblock] [av_textblock] [av_gallery ids=’41754,41755,41756′ style=’thumbnails’ preview_size=’portfolio’ crop_big_preview_thumbnail=’avia-gallery-big-crop-thumb’ thumb_size=’portfolio’ columns=’3′ imagelink=’lightbox’ lazyload=’avia_lazyload’ custom_class=”] [av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=” custom_class=”]
Talent Acquisition volunteers with Long Island Cares
TA’s leadership team also recently gave back to our community volunteering with Long Island Cares during a recent team building initiative. The TA team prepared bags of groceries for the senior population in the Long Beach area who Long Island Care serves. The groceries are then delivered to seniors who can’t drive, leave their homes, or can only drive limited distances.
Working together, the team was able to prepare over 300 bags of groceries in just one afternoon! It was such a rewarding experience to give back to our community that the team is already planning to make volunteering a routine event.
“Volunteering at Long Island Cares was an honor and it offered the leadership team an opportunity to fulfill the Northwell employee promise and contribute to something greater than ourselves,” says Patricia Brown, Assistant Vice President of TA. “It gave us a great sense of achievement to be able to play our part in contributing to the well-being of the community Northwell serves. The opportunity to give our time and to be in service of others does wonders for team bonding on an emotional level and helps us grow as a group on a personal level.”
Are you Made for caring and giving back to our patients and communities? Explore jobs.[/av_textblock] [av_gallery ids=’41757,41758,41759′ style=’thumbnails’ preview_size=’portfolio’ crop_big_preview_thumbnail=’avia-gallery-big-crop-thumb’ thumb_size=’portfolio’ columns=’3′ imagelink=’lightbox’ lazyload=’avia_lazyload’ custom_class=”] [av_social_share title=’Share this entry’ style=” buttons=” share_facebook=” share_twitter=” share_pinterest=” share_gplus=” share_reddit=” share_linkedin=” share_tumblr=” share_vk=” share_mail=”][/av_social_share] [av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=” custom_class=’feature-description visible-mobile hidden-desktop’]
Subscribe to our blogs
Stay up to date with stories you want to know more about right to your email inbox.[/av_textblock] [av_sidebar widget_area=’Sign up blog ‘] [av_comments_list] [/av_three_fourth][av_one_fourth min_height=” vertical_alignment=’av-align-top’ space=” margin=’0px’ margin_sync=’true’ padding=’0px’ padding_sync=’true’ border=” border_color=” radius=’0px’ radius_sync=’true’ background_color=’#5c0b8a’ src=” attachment=” attachment_size=” background_position=’top left’ background_repeat=’no-repeat’ animation=” mobile_display=” custom_class=”] [av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=” custom_class=’feature-description’]
Subscribe to our blogs
Stay up to date with stories you want to know more about right to your email inbox.[/av_textblock] [av_sidebar widget_area=’Sign up blog ‘] [av_sidebar widget_area=’Recent blogs’] [av_sidebar widget_area=’category for blog’] [/av_one_fourth][/av_section][av_section min_height=” min_height_px=’500px’ padding=’no-padding’ shadow=’no-border-styling’ bottom_border=’no-border-styling’ bottom_border_diagonal_color=’#333333′ bottom_border_diagonal_direction=” bottom_border_style=” id=” color=’main_color’ custom_bg=” src=” attachment=” attachment_size=” attach=’scroll’ position=’top left’ repeat=’no-repeat’ video=” video_ratio=’16:9′ overlay_opacity=’0.5′ overlay_color=” overlay_pattern=” overlay_custom_pattern=” custom_class=’blog-archive visible-desktop hidden-mobile’] [av_sidebar widget_area=’archives for blog’] [/av_section] [av_section min_height=” min_height_px=’500px’ padding=’no-padding’ shadow=’no-border-styling’ bottom_border=’no-border-styling’ bottom_border_diagonal_color=’#333333′ bottom_border_diagonal_direction=” bottom_border_style=” id=” color=’main_color’ custom_bg=” src=” attachment=” attachment_size=” attach=’scroll’ position=’top left’ repeat=’no-repeat’ video=” video_ratio=’16:9′ overlay_opacity=’0.5′ overlay_color=” overlay_pattern=” overlay_custom_pattern=” custom_class=’blog-archive visible-mobile hidden-desktop’] [av_sidebar widget_area=’archives for blog’] [/av_section]
How to strive and thrive on alternate work schedules
Wellness & Benefits
From more time spent with your family during the day to running errands without the crowds, there are a lot of advantages to working nights and weekends. We asked some of our Northwell Health team members who work shifts other than days about how they make the most of their alternate schedules.
Their tips? Technology, helpful neighbors and flexible spouses are just some of the things helping our team members manage their social lives and family time, including childcare.
Anacleto Bristol
Ward Clerk, Emergency Services, Plainview Hospital
“I let [friends] know my time constraints and I reconcile my calendar with them. My phone’s calendar app is invaluable for this. I color code it with colors for work, night/social life and ‘me time.’”
Lucy Grant
Administrative Supervisor, Northern Westchester Hospital
“I have been doing this for 29 years. When the kids were young, my husband was there. I also was lucky enough to have a neighbor who babysat.”
When it comes to adjusting to a new shift, getting adequate sleep and shifting from work to family/social time and back, our team members suggested blackout curtains, preparing meals ahead of time and being organized about scheduling. Here are their tips and tricks for staying healthy:
Patrick Wang
ED Technician, Emergency Department, LIJ Medical Center
“Power nap on your breaks. Keep in touch with your friends and family but understand that you also need time to yourself to decompress. Everyone needs some alone time to ease their mind.”
Caitlin Vega
Registered Nurse, Brain Injury Unit, Glen Cove Hospital
“Avoid coffee after a certain time during the night and eat fruits instead. Work out, try to eat right and drink a lot of water.”
No matter what one’s work hours may be, balancing multiple priorities is a universal goal. We asked our shift workers how they make the most of their time off. Several said that doing chores and running errands when most people are at work frees up the rest of their time for what matters most: family, friends and healthy activities.
Amanda Zilnicki
Registered Nurse, Emergency Department, Peconic Bay Medical Center
“I sleep, clean, do yardwork, do homework, or go to the beach or gym. Great time because no one is home to bother you and public places aren’t as crowded.”
Natasha Vasquez
Registered Nurse, Labor & Delivery, Southside Hospital
“I plan once a month group mommy dates and once a month date night with the hubby.”
Denise Walker
Supervisor, Patient Access Services, Emergency Department, Peconic Bay Medical Center
“I love riding my motorcycle, and during the day and during the week I get the most time in. When it’s a weekend, my husband and I will go for a ride and stop different places and enjoy the island. I also get the shopping done.”
Overall, we learned that our team members have impressive goals, are incredibly organized with their schedules, and are focused on healthy habits. With these helpful tips, they’re able to maintain a happy and healthy lifestyle outside of their alternate work schedule.
Are you Made for delivering care on an alternate schedule? Apply today!
Benefits with your health and financial well-being in mind
Wellness & Benefits
As New York State’s largest employer, Northwell Health is committed to offering their team members and their dependents a comprehensive benefits package that’s been designed to provide health and welfare options that optimize their health and financial well-being.
Medical choices
Northwell offers multiple medical plans which include a plan that provides our team members with additional savings when utilizing in-system providers and services. We also offer a plan that makes it affordable to go out-of-network for healthcare needs.
In addition to the medical plans, Northwell offers:
- Dental plans
- Vision plans
- Disability plans
- Life insurance plans
- Flexible Spending Accounts
To complement the cost of our medical plan Northwell offers medical plan participants the opportunity to earn up to $1,560 in pay credits in exchange for four healthy actions through the Well-being Credit Program.
Saving for the future
Northwell offers a robust retirement package, designed to encourage saving smart through access to free, one-on-one retirement consultations, an automatic saving escalation feature, and employer contributions.
The 401(k), 403(b), 457(b) and 409A plans allow team member contributions to grow tax-deferred until withdrawn at retirement. Newly hired team members are automatically enrolled in the plan for 3% of their annual pre-tax salary 30 days after their date of hire. To receive the maximum employer matching contribution (which starts after one year in which the employee worked at least 975 hours), they must contribute at least 6% of their annual salary to receive the match.
Educational opportunities
We have a strong commitment to the professional growth and development of all our team members through our Center for Learning and Innovation; nationally recognized for leadership in workforce development and as a model provider of continuous organizational learning. We also offer a robust offering of other educational resources such as our Tuition Reimbursement program, multiple scholarship programs, loan forgiveness and student loan refinancing.
Wellness
Northwell offers all team members access to fun and engaging online resources focused around health-related challenges, such as virtual walks and competitions to get and keep our employees healthy. Teamwork is encouraged with the opportunity to earn valuable rewards points redeemable for big ticket items and recognition in return for a commitment to living a healthy lifestyle.
We also offer organized sports leagues throughout the year, encouraging friendly competition and teamwork.
In addition, Northwell offers a suite of free well-being benefits that will enhance a participant’s physical and emotional persona through online coaching and education.
All team members, and their family members, have access to our Employee and Family Assistance Program (EAP). Staffed by licensed behavioral health experts EAP offers short-term, goal-directed coaching and counseling designed to help resolve problems that have an impact on a team member’s work and/or home life.
Work/life balance
We’ve also worked hard to support employee work/life balance with special services that provide back-up child and elder care, financial assistance for adoption and home buying, and banking. National and local discounts are offered on a rotating basis lowering the cost of gym memberships, entertainment, car purchasing and repairs, and so much more.
From unique health care and wellness to financially sound retirement plans with generous matching to educational and professional development support that takes your career growth to a new level, we are always looking for ways to ensure that our employees are truly well cared for.
*Please note that benefits for our union team members may differ and team members should reference their CBA for benefit information.
Northwell Health Wellness Recap for 2019
Wellness & Benefits
At Northwell Health, we know that wellness starts with our team members. By focusing on our employees’ wellness, we’re delivering a healthy, engaged workforce and a culture of well-being. With system-wide walk challenges, food and nutrition transformations, well-being programs and online resources, we’re constantly working to build on our commitment to our employee’s health.
Take a look at how we’ve helped our team members in 2019:
Learn more about our benefits at jobs.northwell.edu/benefits
Child life specialists help kids be kids
Wellness & Benefits
Four-hour blood transfusions used to tax 14-year-old Akayllah McEwan’s mind as much as her body. While the healthy red blood cells pumped into her body treated her sickle cell disease, she struggled with the scourge of adolescence: boredom.
Then Child Life Specialist Sammy Sherman taught Akayllah to make “Blood Soup,” mixing water, red food coloring, marshmallows, red hot candies and toffees in mason jars to illustrate sickle cell disease’s effect on a cellular level and what the transfusions do to help her.
“I wanted to eat the food,” Akayllah giggled, then acknowledged, “I always kind of understood why I needed the transfusions. Sammy made it specific for me.”
Supporting patients and their families
At Cohen Children’s Medical Center, Sammy is one of two certified child life specialists in the hematology-oncology division who accompany kids from diagnosis through treatment. Since 2014, her position has been funded by a generous gift from Delta Air Lines.
Over the past decade, Delta has contributed more than $2 million to Cohen Children’s Medical Center. “Child Life is one of the programs not covered by health insurance,” explained Tricia Rumola, Delta Air Lines’ general manager of Community Engagement. “We hope our support will help families and patients have a sense of comfort going through an incredibly difficult time in their lives.”
Helping kids overcome fear and embrace hope
Delta’s sponsorship of Sammy’s position helps kids overcome fears and anxieties and learn to cope with challenging medical experiences. “My goal is to empower patients and families,” said Sammy, who holds a master’s degree in child life.
She uses Surgi Dolls and makes treatments more relateable to patients by helping them understand hospital equipment through therapeutic activities. Sammy also supports kids when they receive a terminal diagnosis, giving them space to enjoy time with their family, and feel like kids who happen to be sick — not sick kids.
“Sammy has an extraordinary ability to connect with children,” said Cynthia Rodriguez, Child Life and Creative Arts Therapy Program director. “While they may think they are just having fun with Sammy, she is undoubtedly teaching them, supporting them, and helping them to learn how to navigate their journey successfully.”
Sammy also connects patients with each other since they have limited opportunities to socialize with other kids. She started a monthly newsletter where they can submit jokes, stories and artwork to express themselves.
“Sammy is my go-to person at the hospital,” said Akayllah. “She takes my mind off of the transfusion and makes the hospital a normal area where I can be myself.”
“Sammy is really doing the work that is her life’s calling,” said Tricia. “Delta couldn’t be prouder to have our name connected to Sammy and the work she is doing.”
Northwell Relay: The big bike ride — from tragedy to positive action
Wellness & Benefits
In health care, we face the realities of life and death every day — it’s what we’re made for — but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t affect us. In June 2019, employees in the Department of Population Health lost a colleague, friend and member of the Northwell family.
Their team member passed away at the age of 38, leaving behind three young children. While many knew about her health condition, the news was still a shock for her colleagues for whom she’d been a part of daily life for over five years.
Honoring a legacy and building a better future
While her colleagues struggled with this tremendous loss, they were soon inspired to take positive action.Three senior leaders set up a sponsored bike ride from Northwell’s corporate office in New Hyde Park, NY, to Montauk, to raise funds for Northwell’s Employee Assistance Program, which helps employees and their families in times of need.
Kris Smith, MD, Northwell’s senior vice president of Population Health joined forces with Michael Gitman, MD, medical director of North Shore University Hospital and David Hirschwerk, MD, executive vice chair of Clinical Operations for North Shore University Hospital and Long Island Jewish Medical Center Department of Medicine. Together they rode the 120-mile trip as a tribute to Fabiola and to show What matters most and what Northwell is made of.
Inspiring others to go above and beyond
The ride inspired team members across Northwell to get involved. “Our Northwell family pulls together to support one another,” says Michael Dowling, Northwell’s president and CEO. “Even in the worst of times, we find a way forward and take positive action.”
Kris says, “Going the extra mile (or 120) is an intrinsic part of who we are. It was a challenge, physically and emotionally, but we wanted to demonstrate to the organization that after we grieve, once we reflect — we pick ourselves up and fight on.”
Northwell’s What matters most employee giving program offers our employees a variety of ways to advance Northwell’s mission — all while providing critical support to the area that matters most to each individual employee donor.
Northwell Relay: Casual for Cohen – turning small change into big results
Wellness & Benefits
Each year, thousands of employees choose to give back to Northwell by participating in Casual for Cohen, a fundraising event where you can wear jeans to work for one or two days, for the donation of $5 per day. What some may consider small change adds up to big results for Cohen Children’s Medical Center — a cause very close to all of our hearts, including Dotti Ward’s, operations manager in Northwell’s Office of the Chief Information Officer.
Personal connections, professional pride
Dotti’s connection to Cohen Children’s stems from her personal experience, when her daughter became very ill with a virus at three years old. She was treated at the hospital and as Dotti remembers, “The level of empathy, compassion and professionalism was exceptional. I walked through those doors with a very sick child – now she’s a very healthy, happy young woman. I almost lost her. They saved her life.”
Dotti leads the employee activity committee in Information Services. She spends a lot of her time coordinating fundraising initiatives and over the years has seen her colleagues go above and beyond many times. “Our department is very supportive, they’re 100% behind us and they do everything they can,” says Dotti.
Last year, the department held a charity basketball tournament around the same time as Casual for Cohen, so Dotti spoke to the team captains and they all agreed to donate the proceeds to help Cohen Children’s. For Dotti, that’s what employee giving is all about, connecting people and spreading the message — why it matters and what fundraising can achieve.
What matters most
Dotti regularly sees huge acts of generosity at Northwell, which she puts down to the “absolute pride and honor of doing what we do for our patient community.” It’s the same mix of professional pride and personal empathy she experienced from the hospital staff. They’re leaders in pediatric care, but they’re also mentors and friends.
As a nonprofit organization, to keep doing what we do, we rely on the support of our communities. We already go the extra mile, for colleagues, patients and families, but together we can make things even better. Through What matters most, our employee giving program, we can develop more life-changing treatments, strengthen morale and meet our collective mission.
We’re currently spreading that message across the organization with the What matters most Relay in the run-up to employee giving day on December 3. Clinicians can show support by wearing blue accents — socks, a tie, jewelry or any accents that align with departmental protocols.
SHARE THIS ENTRY
