Connections January 2024

TEAM

Evergreen has been providing primary medical care for nearly three decades. Our first service site, which opened in 1996, was staffed by a single doctor and nurse practitioner. We sure have grown!

Last month, we cut the ribbon at Evergreen's Prather Avenue location in Jamestown to celebrate the

recently completed renovation of the entire building. Though Evergreen has been present at this building for some time, the renovations expanded our capacity for patients and staff, and allowed us to combine all of our Jamestown programs (including Care Coordination, Primary and Specialty Care and the Syringe Exchange) under one roof.

Elizabeth Gattman is a nurse practitioner at Evergreen at Prather Avenue. She explains that they offer a wide array of medical and supportive services to the Southern Tier community. "At Prather we do Primary Care, HIV and hepatitis C care, and gender affirming care," she said. "We also have low-threshold Medication Assisted Treatment services once a week."

The impact these services have on the community can't be overstated. "We're the only office in town that treats HIV and offers gender affirming care," Elizabeth noted. "A lot of people refer friends because they feel comfortable in this office. They feel they're treated with respect and dignity. Many of our patients are in various stages of substance use. Because we use the Harm Reduction model, it’s often the first time they've felt comfortable discussing their substance use in a medical office."

"Elizabeth has truly transformed the practice," said Carly Casali, AVP of Practice Operations. "Resources are so limited in rural areas, especially for gender affirming care. We had people traveling to Buffalo from all over the Southern Tier to get care. Now they go to Prather, which is much closer and more convenient."

The numbers don't lie, and they're impressive. Elizabeth has a patient panel of 592 Primary and Specialty Care patients. So far this year, she has seen 92 new patients, compared to 29 in 2022. She also provides gynecological care to established patients, and continues to run our limited services Olean clinic for patients who can't get to Jamestown. "We are so lucky to have Elizabeth on our team," said Carly.

Elizabeth works hard to provide a welcoming, non-judgmental space for people to access healthcare. "I find it rewarding when a patient comes in, hesitant and nervous about seeing a provider, and leaves with a

smile on their face because they feel accepted, like they belong here. So many people experience stigma from other providers, and have been traumatized by the medical system in general. It's great to help people realize that we're here to help them."

The Jamestown office covers a lot of territory, much of it rural. "Transportation is a big struggle for a lot of our patients," Elizabeth said. "Medical transportation isn't always reliable, and Uber or Lyft don’t exist down here." She also notes that contacting patients can be challenging. "Many of them are housing unstable, so they're moving or getting new phone numbers a lot. It can be difficult to communicate results and next steps."

The expanded and improved Prather Avenue facilities will help to meet some of those challenges. "We are centrally located, and a lot of patients walk to us," she said. "It’s nice to have everyone in the same building. If someone is meeting with me, their care coordinator can come downstairs and meet with them, too. It's the same with the Syringe Exchange. If they have a patient who wants primary care or tests positive for hep C, they can just walk them down to us to schedule an appointment."

Elizabeth enjoys working in Evergreen's accepting, non-judgmental environment. "I worked in the ER as a nurse for years, and then as a provider in a primary care practice. Some of the people there were very jaded and judgmental. A lot of patients felt dismissed, or like they didn’t get quality care due to various other issues such as housing instability, substance use, etc."

Like many of our staff, Elizabeth took a long and winding road to Evergreen. "I grew up in a small town in Northern Indiana. I graduated with my bachelors from Purdue, then worked in a cardiovascular ICU for about four years." She and her husband then moved to Europe for his job. "We lived in Helsinki, Finland and then Stockholm, Sweden. From there we moved to Jamestown, and I pursued my nurse practitioner degree from D’Youville. I worked in a family practice office for five years before coming to Evergreen."

Elizabeth keeps busy in her off time. "I have two kids that are 15 and 9. When I’m not working I like to knit.

In the summer I train for sprint triathlons. We also love to travel and try new things."

Elizabeth's road took her halfway around the world, but we're so glad it brought her to Evergreen. Thank you, Elizabeth, for all you do for our patients.

Evergreen staff, local elected officials and supporters turned out in force for the ribbon cutting ceremony at the newly-renovated Prather Avenue facility.

Mark your calendar! The submission deadline for the February 2024 issue of Connections is Friday, January 19.

Be sure to get your content in before the deadline to guarantee placement.

Kids, pets, vacations, recipes -we want to share it all with Team Evergreen! Email EvergreenConnections via Outlook.

Kimberly Ebling........................................January 1 Mustafa Abucar........................................January 1 Arlene Torres.............................................January 2 Ventenese Palmer....................................January 3 Regina Anglada........................................January 4 Kevin Christy.............................................January 4 Stephan Taplin..........................................January 4 James Thompson...................................January 5 Josh Matecki............................................January 6 Amy Waild..................................................January 6 Justin Haag...............................................January 8 Tracy Eichelberger...................................January 8 Guimary Medina.......................................January 9 Danny Brown-Nelson..............................January 10 Christina Monroy......................................January 10 Natalie Gerdy............................................January 11 Megan Fagyas..........................................January 11 Glendalisse Lopez....................................January 12 Yvonne Bradley.........................................January 13 Rickie Metcalf...........................................January 14 Christian Bryant........................................January 14 Joshua Blair..............................................January 15 Emily Ryan.................................................January 15 Richard Smiley..........................................January 17 Alexandria Matyas...................................January 18 Danielle Baldwin.......................................January 19 Murray Wire...............................................January 20 Ricardo Quiros..........................................January 21 Samantha Gaerte.....................................January 21 Kirsten Smith............................................January 22 Jillian Ortwein...........................................January 22 Zachary Alessi..........................................January 22 Dwayne Melvin.........................................January 22 Sarah Stimpson........................................January 23 DeAirra Burroughs-Moore......................January 23 Annette Pabon..........................................January 24 Raghda Hirsi..............................................January 25 Isaac Resto Reyes....................................January 25 Eleanor Bacher.........................................January 26 Michael Nemeti........................................January 27 Emily Tyler.................................................January 30 Parker Leounis..........................................January 30 Lindsey Kelly.............................................January 31 James DeGarmo......................................January 31

All Evergreen, Community Access Services, and Pride Center employees have free access to training from the National LGBTQIA+ Health Education Center and the Center for Affiliated Learning.

CLICK HERE Information needed to log into the CAL: • Facility ID: 65002 • Security Code: HRC Reach out to Eric Poniatowski with any questions.

Amber Killian................................................1 Year Joey Torres..................................................1 Year Bryan Gonzalez...........................................1 Year Colin Davis....................................................1 Year Michael Chapman....................................... 1 Year Penny George..............................................2 Years Kristin Rivera................................................2 Years Kimberly McQueary.................................... 2 Years Annie-Lee Mahoney.................................... 2 Years Matthew Iwanski-Jackson........................ 3 Years Megan Fagyas.............................................3 Years Amanda Honan...........................................3 Years Robert Styles...............................................3 Years Shawn Caldwell...........................................4 Years Brittney Warham......................................... 5 Years Kristy Mangel...............................................5 Years Zachary Marchese...................................... 5 Years Jessica Schanne.........................................7 Years Kadie Desbordes.........................................7 Years Jillian Fanning..............................................8 Years Brianna Barrett............................................8 Years Rebekah Bongiorno.................................... 9 Years Harold Colburn............................................9 Years Grant Rogers................................................9 Years Anna Ihle.......................................................11 Years Lavine Hatten...............................................11 Years Magali Maldonado...................................... 11 Years Andrew Kiener.............................................13 Years Kaitlyn Gately...............................................15 Years Nichole Frank...............................................15 Years Kevin Bidtah.................................................24 Years

Pride Center and MOCHA staff met with members of Leaving Our Legacy, a group of teens and young adults who connect and guide their peers through systems of care by providing education and creating a platform, specifically, for LGBTQ+ youth of color, and their allies.

IN

2023, Evergreen's Analytics Team collaborated with Human Resources to use your feedback to develop learning pathways (LPs) to support Evergreen employees in increasing their data skills. We launched the first LP, Data Foundations, in Relias last October. Data Foundations is a great place to start if your role at Evergreen involves data. This LP helps the learner understand the Evergreen approach to data and the language we use, as well as get insight from people in various data-related roles. It has a little bit of everything and is a great foundation for the rest of the learning paths. The Data Foundations Learning Path includes the following modules: 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

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Data Literacy Definitions & Data Engagement at Evergreen Health Data Entry Skills Social Determinants of Health Data Collection Excel Basics Data Visualization Basics What is Data?

Evergreen Glossary

The Data Foundations LP takes about 3 hours total to complete, and can be completed in small bits at a time. This LP also includes optional conversation topics that can be used to set goals around data, or facilitate conversations with your team to help deepen our understanding around how we can use data to serve our patients better and ultimately eradicate health inequity.

We're excited to share that seven people have already enrolled in the data foundations LP and two people have completed it: congratulations, Mustafa Abucar and Mehida Gonzalez, for completing the data foundations learning pathway!

What’s next? Data Problem Solver, the next LP, will launch in February. Look out for emails on it soon! This LP is designed to help people who use data to solve problems gain more skill in drawing conclusions from data and support data-informed decision making.

Editor's note: For more information please contact Heather Wilson, business analyst, with questions about the Data Foundations content. Contact Evergreen Training and Development, with questions regarding navigating Evergreen University.

W E C A N U S E D ATA T O S E R V E O U R P A T I E N T S B E T T E R A N D U L T I M A T E LY E R A D I C AT E H E A LT H I N E Q U I T Y

Team Evergreen got into the holiday spirit in a variety of ways, from pot-luck lunches to bowling excursions.

In 2023, Evergreen's Analytics Team collaborated with Human Resources to use your feedback to develop learning pathways (LPs), and support all Evergreen employees in increasing their data skills. In a previous Connections article, we introduced what an LP is as well as the LPs we are creating.

As a reminder, the planned LPs are: data foundations, data investigator, data problem solver, data reporter, data designer, data communicator and data leadership.

In October, we launched the first LP in Relias - data foundations. This is a great LP to start with if your role at Evergreen is laden with data or if you're a beginner. This LP will help the learner understand the Evergreen approach to Data and the language we use, as well as get some insight from people in different data-related roles. It has a little bit of everything and is a great foundation for the rest of the trainings we will be launching.

Data Foundations includes the following modules: 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

Data Literacy Definitions & Data Engagement at Evergreen Health Data Entry Skills Social Determinants of Health Data Collection Excel Basics Data Visualization Basics What is Data?

Evergreen Glossary

There are also optional conversation topics that can be used to facilitate supervisions or goals around data. They can also be used for conversations with your team to help deepen our understanding around how we can use data to serve our patients better and ultimately eradicate health inequity.

This LP will take about 3 hours to complete. It can be done in small bits and pieces over an extended period to make them as easy to fit in as possible.

We are excited to share that despite so many of us trying to complete Evergreen's annual trainings by the end of 2023, seven people have enrolled in these trainings and two people have completed them! Congratulations Mustafa Abucar and Mehida Gonzalez for completing the data foundations learning pathway!

For a preview on what’s next: data problem solver is the next LP that will launch in February. Look out for emails on it soon! This LP is designed to help people who use data to solve problems gain more skill in drawing conclusions from data and support data-informed decision making. It will include interpreting data, bias, understanding data visualizations, aggregating data, getting insight from data and Data-informed decision making.

For more information please contact: Heather Wilson, business analyst, with questions about the Data Foundations content.

Evergreen Training and Development, with questions regarding navigating Evergreen University.

Publisher/Layout John Carocci

Copy Editors Jean Conway Kristy Mangel

Contributors

Shea's Performing Arts Center 650 Main St. Buffalo, NY 14202 4 - 5 p.m. presentation 5 - 6 p.m. reception (optional)

Jean Conway Megan Fagyas Eric Poniatowski Christopher Cline Heather Wilson

Connections is the official monthly newsletter for employees and board members of Evergreen Health and its affilliates, the Pride Center of Western New York and Community Access Services. You can submit photos, comments or a "hello" via Outlook at Evergreen Connections.