Gold Seal Of Approval For Sarah Neuman's Heart Failure Program

The New Jewish Home, Sarah Neuman in Westchester is proud to announce that its Heart Failure program has earned The Joint Commission’s Gold Seal of Approval® for Heart Failure Certification. The Joint Commission is an independent, not-for-profit organization that accredits and certifies more than 22,000 health care programs worldwide and sets the highest standards for health care quality.

Sarah Neuman’s Heart Failure program is the first in Westchester County and only the second in New York State to receive this Gold Seal certification. In fact, in 2017, The New Jewish Home’s Manhattan campus was the first skilled nursing facility in the State to achieve Disease Specific Certification in Heart Failure. These milestones reflect The New Jewish Home’s commitment to excellence and to meeting the focused goal of helping patients to get well and go home.

The Heart Failure program at Sarah Neuman – a short-stay rehab for patients with heart failure – offers rehabilitation, cardiac education and real-time heart health monitoring. Care is provided by a multi-disciplinary clinical support team which includes nurses, nutritionists, physical and occupational therapists and social workers who work in consultation with the patients’ primary care cardiologists.

Jeffrey I. Farber, M.D., President and CEO of The New Jewish Home, said, “Get well and go home! Simply put, that’s the goal of our short-term skilled rehabilitative programs, including our Heart Failure program. The New Jewish Home is committed to helping our patients regain their independence after heart failure by providing them expert care and rehabilitation that will allow them to live independently in their own communities. Congratulations to the Heart Failure program team at Sarah Neuman for accomplishing this milestone certification.”

“Heart Failure Certification recognizes health care organizations committed to fostering continuous quality improvement in patient safety and quality of care,” says Mark Pelletier, RN, MS, chief operating officer, Accreditation and Certification Operations and chief nursing executive, The Joint Commission. “We commend The New Jewish Home for using certification to reduce variation in its clinical processes and to strengthen its program structure and management framework for cardiac patients.”

Among the many services available through Sarah Neuman’s Heart Failure program are:

• 24-hour skilled nursing care

• On-call medical coverage, seven days a week

• Rehabilitation services seven days a week

• Cardiology and Rehabilitation Medicine consults

• Medication management

• Nutritional consultation and evaluation

• Medical Social Work

• Recreation/religious services

• Comprehensive discharge planning

A key component of the program’s success at Sarah Neuman is patient education. The Heart Failure program empowers patients to be active participants in managing their health and helps them identify problematic symptoms; understand their medication plan and the importance of good nutrition; learn to deal with stress and depression; commit to important lifestyle changes and understand the importance of routine tests and follow-up appointments with cardiologists.

To achieve certification, Sarah Neuman’s Heart Failure program recently underwent a rigorous onsite review. During the visit, a Joint Commission surveyor evaluated compliance with certification standards including clinical practice guidelines, functional improvement in rehabilitation services, managing of daily weights and rehospitalizations. Joint Commission standards are developed in consultation with health care experts and providers, measurement experts and patients.

For more information, please visit The Joint Commission website.

ABOUT THE NEW JEWISH HOME: Founded in 1848, The New Jewish Home serves 10,000 older adults of all faiths and ethnicities each year in their homes, on campuses in Manhattan and Westchester and in senior housing residences in the Bronx. As a comprehensive community benefit health care system, Jewish Home delivers dignified care that meets the evolving needs of people as they age. Offering an unparalleled integrated care continuum, Jewish Home provides specialized short-term rehabilitation; long term skilled nursing with expert dementia and palliative care; adult day health care; geriatric care management and a wide range of home health programs. The New Jewish Home is a proud partner and founding agency of UJA-Federation of New York. For more information, visit www.jewishhome.org.