iAWARD Winner Looks Forward to the Summit All Year

Figure 1

Haynes, Assistant Director of the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation (HHC) attended the 2011 NIATx Summit/SAAS National Conference as a 2011 iAWARD Winner. HHC’s entry, the 2010 Blue Book, won an iAWARD in the Management Category.

HHC is a $6.7 billion integrated healthcare delivery system and the largest municipal healthcare organization in the country. HHC serves 1.3 million New Yorkers every year and more than 450,000 are uninsured. It provides medical, mental health, and substance abuse services through its 11 acute care hospitals, four skilled nursing facilities, six diagnostic and treatment centers, and more than 80 community-based clinics.

HHC uses the 2010 Blue Book: A Guide to Person-directed Assessment, Recovery, and Discharge Planning in Chemical Dependency and Treatment Programs in all treatment modalities. This provides a single set of integrated, multidisciplinary forms that work in the various programs, allowing for streamlined transfer of patients between programs. It also eliminates the need to repeat paperwork as patients move between levels of care. Using the Blue Book has also helped HHC transform its chemical dependency treatment programs from an acute care model to one that incorporates Recovery Oriented Systems of Care.

Says Haynes, “I look forward all year to the NIATx Summit. When the world was saying good-bye to the Harry Potter series in July, I felt like a young wizard at Hogwarts who came to the Summit and left not with a magic wand, but with tools and recipes for success. The Summit plenary speakers wowed me—expanding my horizons by sharing visions of established leadership to apply back home. Fellow wizards shared the how-to lessons they’ve learned during the year in standing-room only workshops. I returned home energized and empowered. I can't wait to see what voo doo magic is in store for us at the Summit in New Orleans.”