Paying it Forward for Patients

Why Janet Mann Gives

You do not need to be at the bedside to realize the difference that donations make in the lives of our patients. Janet Mann, Supervisor of Patient Centered Care Management – Medical Home, has witnessed the need in our community first hand over the past decade.

During her time at Medical Home, the team has helped countless patients secure everything from medications, blood pressure cuffs and scales to durable medical equipment, all while ensuring that patients are educated about their treatment plans. All of it is geared to the goal of helping patients get the care they need and avoid being readmitted to the hospital.

“We don’t only focus on the hospital admissions. Medical Home is also able to work with patients in the outpatient setting,” Janet explained. “The Medical Home department has Nurse Care Managers and Community Resource Advocates (CRA’s) that provide care management services from the primary care setting.  Nurses provide chronic disease education while CRA’s focus on the social determinates of health and connecting patients to needed community resources all with the goal of helping patients identify and overcome barriers and assisting with setting goals to achieve optimal health outcomes. Providing the extra support for patients while they are in the community helps prevent admission and unnecessary ER use. ” 

Janet also works closely with The Foundation of CVPH to help patients get what they need through programs like Transition Success.

“Grants from The Foundation help pay for blood pressure cuffs that insurance doesn’t cover or scales for congestive heart failure patients who need to see those small fluctuations in their weight,” she pointed out. “They cover medications that patients might not be able to afford. Without those medications, that person might end up right back in the hospital. So, The Foundation is very, very important to me and to our patients.”

One example Janet brought up was a woman who could not afford to get her oxygen machine fixed. Without that machine, the woman would have wound up back in the hospital. Instead, The Foundation stepped in to help out with the financial costs, and she was able to stay home.

The Foundation also helps provide resources for Medical Home employees that allow them to help more people in need. Janet pointed to a mini-grant that purchased five iPads and a year of data. Employees are now able to take those iPads into the community and use them for data entry, meaning they no longer need to re-enter everything they used to write down on paper when visiting with a patient.

“So cutting down that extra time that was being used to go from paper to computer, we can now work with more patients. So, that’s pretty exciting.” Janet said.

Even as she described the many job-related benefits of donating to The Foundation, Janet noted that personally, it really just comes down to helping others, because she can.

“I’m thankful to be part of the CVPH family. It gives me the chance to pay it forward,” she continued. “I’m very fortunate in life. I have worked hard to get where I am, but at the same time, not everybody has those opportunities. And so this gives me the opportunity to give it back and help people when they need it.”

And Janet is hopeful that more employees continue to join her and many of her colleagues in paying it forward.

Employees can join the cause by donating online, filling out an I Give pledge card and turning it into The Foundation office at 75 Beekman Street in Plattsburgh, dropping the pledge card in interoffice mail to The Foundation of CVPH or scanning the filled out card and emailing it to kkalman@cvph.org. There are also a variety of ways that members of the public can give. Click here to learn more.