This fall, winter and into the New Year, the Iroquois team has continued its focus on ensuring policy makers are aware of the challenges faced by our Upstate and Rural hospitals. In doing so we joined with the Assembly Upstate Delegation to hold our annual press conference highlighting the unprecedented challenges you all face as you make it your priority to ensure access to safe, high quality health care in Upstate New York. In addition, we bolstered our message by testifying at the Assembly hearing on the state of the health care workforce.
The IHA team makes it our priority to bring your issues to the attention of Governor Hochul and state legislators to let them know that access to healthcare is still under threat due to increased costs, crippling staffing shortages, severely limited days cash on hand, unfunded mandates, and the near constant concern that without additional resources access to care in Upstate will be limited.
IHA’s newsletter features highlights and updates on our advocacy efforts, programs & initiatives, United Iroquois Shared Services (UISS) group purchasing updates, as well as what’s happening inside IHA. We want to take a moment to fill you in on all the association has accomplished in 2023 and a bit of what's in store for 2024. We hope you enjoy this edition!
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IHA is preparing for the upcoming state budget and legislative session by meeting with state officials and lawmakers to lay out our priorities.
This December we leveraged a joint press event to bring attention to persisting problems. In collaboration with Dr. Dennis McKenna, CEO of Albany Health System, Sean Fadale, CEO of Nathan Littauer Hospital and Nursing Home, Assembly Member John McDonald, and the Upstate Assembly Delegation we highlighted the stark truth that you all face daily, financial turmoil, inability to recruit adequate levels of staff, and insufficient reimbursement. The event received broad media attention and sparked appropriate concern. This event received great attention by several news outlets across the state.
IHA WIO has again been funded in 2024 for the Mother Cabrini Scholarship Program in an amount of $500,000. This is nearly twice as much funding as we have received in the past two years.
Since the IHA Mother Cabrini Health Foundation Scholarship program began in 2022, it has allowed us to distribute over $500,000 to support the education of nearly 250 healthcare workers across Upstate New York.
Once the 2024 awards are distributed, IHA will have awarded over $1 million to member hospital employees pursuing education in the following fields; RN, Medical Assistant, Respiratory Therapist, Medical Tech, Surgical Tech. IHA uses a semi-annually conducted vacancy survey to determine the most needed job titles in member hospitals, and awards funding based on those results.
Interested in saving an average of 17% on travel staff? JoinUpstate Works!
Upstate Works, Iroquois Healthcare Association's premier private label staffing agency, has been operational for over 1 year now.
During this time, we have achieved a remarkable total projected savings of nearly $8 million and an impressive average savings between 16-19%. These savings highlight the significant impact Upstate Works has made in reducing costs and optimizing financial outcomes.
There is no cost to join and all IHA members are encouraged to participate in this unique initiative.
IHA members have already saved over $8 Million using the program!
UISS Update
Donna Gammarato
Executive Director, UISS
United Iroquois Shared Services, Inc. (UISS) is proud to announce our new Supply Chain Recognition Award! The 2023 award was granted to the MVHS Materials Management Department, for their successful opening of the Wynn Hospital.
“It was a team effort with a focused goal," said Mike Fegley, Director, Materials Management at MVHS, Inc. “We spent 3 months in our new Materials Management department assembling and filling over 300 par carts with the goal that clinicians would have supplies at their finger tips, thus being able to spend more time with their patients."
UISS admires the dedication and hard work in the design and implementation of MVHS's new low unit of measure program and capital sourcing across all departments. Congratulations to Michael Fegley and the Supply Chain Team on a job well done!
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Elite Business Associate Member Sponsors
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We'd like to welcome our newest Business Associate Members:
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