Fall/ Winter 2019-2020 LIFELINES MAGAZINE A Publication of JGS Lifecare Guided by Jewish Values. Serving All Faiths. 770 Converse St., Longmeadow, MA 01106 413-567-6211 • JGSLifecare.org Editorial/ Board Lists 2019–2020 JGS Lifecare 2019–2020 OFFICERS AND Officers & Directors DIRECTORS OF JGS LIFECARE JGS LIFECARE SERVICES Susan Goldsmith, Chair SUBSIDIARY ORGANIZATIONS Leavitt Family Jewish Home Mark Dindas, 1st Vice Chair Jewish Nursing Home of Robert Whitten, Executive Director Rudy D’Agostino, Treasurer Western Massachusetts, Inc. Stuart Anfang, Clerk Eric Berg, Chair Sosin Center for Rehabilitation Barry Berman, Chief Executive Officer Stuart Anfang, Treasurer Robert Whitten, Executive Director Adam Berman, President James Gordon, Clerk Cheryl Gumlaw, Guide Executive Committee Genesis Lifecare d/b/a Genesis House Spectrum Home Health & Stuart Anfang Hospice Care Stephen Krevalin, Chair Robert Baevsky Madeline Presz, Executive Director Brad Foster, Treasurer Eric Berg Richard Chase, Clerk Richard Chase Ruth’s House Assisted Director Rudy D’Agostino Michael Hirshberg, Living Residence Gary Rappaport, Director Mark Dindas Darlene Francis, Executive Director Martha Finkel Ceppetelli Robert Baevsky, MD, Director Wernick Adult Day Health Susan Goldsmith JGS Housing Services, Inc. Care Center Susan Kline d/b/a Ruth’s House James Rosenthal Carolyn Wence, Executive Director Eric Berg, Chair Board of Directors Michael Hirshberg, Treasurer Spiritual Life Stuart Anfang Stuart Anfang, Clerk Rabbi Devorah Jacobson Robert Baevsky JGS Home Care, Inc. d/b/a Spectrum Genesis Lifecare Eric Berg Home Health and Hospice Care, Inc. & Carr Management Christopher Carr, II Spectrum Home Care Carol Kantany Cassartello JGS Lifecare Programs Robert Baevsky, MD, Chair Richard Chase The Frances B. Cohen Palliative Care Program Anne Chernick Alan Bullock, Treasurer JGS LifeEd Stephen Dane Richard Chase, Clerk JGS Lifecare Music & Memory℠ Program Rudy D’Agostino Administrative Executive Team Mark Dindas Michele Feinstein Barry Berman, Chief Executive Officer Martha Finkel Ceppetelli Adam Berman, President Susan Goldsmith Betsy Mullen, Chief Operating Officer LIFELINES MAGAZINE James Gordon Ron Anglo, Chief Clinical Officer Peter Greenberg Terry Halliday, Chief Business Contributing Writers Richard Halpern Development Officer Mark G. Auerbach Susan Kline Jeffrey Landa, Chief Financial Officer Susan Kimball Halpern Gerald Lazarus Katherine E. Santos, Vice President of Sue Kline James Rosenthal Strategy & Operational Excellence Christina Tuohey Candace Weiner Karen Petruccelli, Vice President of Clinical Meyer Weiss Quality Improvement Design Susan Kimball Halpern, Vice President of Market Mentors Development and Communications Marcus Printing JGS Lifecare is a leading health care system serving elders and their families. 2 LIFELINES MAGAZINE Susan Goldsmith Chair of the Board Message from Susan As I reflect on the past year, I am overwhelmed with a day, and providing the care and comfort our residents and deep sense of gratitude to many people for the significant patients require. Thank you for your commitment to JGS accomplishments we have made through our partnership Lifecare and for embracing Chelsea and its management with Chelsea Jewish Lifecare. It has been a year of to help effect change. change, new relationships, adaptability, learning and To Adam and Barry, thank you for seeing the gem JGS growth for JGS Lifecare and our staff. It has been a year Lifecare is to our western Massachusetts community and of improved efficiencies, adoption of new technologies for your commitment to the mission of Jewish nonprofit and systems, and improved financial and organizational elder care communities here and across the state. From stability. And most important, it has been a year of your efforts, JGS Lifecare and our residents have truly enhanced quality of care for our residents. benefited. To the Board of Directors of JGS Lifecare, thank you for I’ll close with one last thank you – to our generous the hours upon hours invested in researching partnership donors—to you who have continued to fund the many options and then supporting the recommendation to enriching activities that come with a cost we cannot affiliate with Chelsea Jewish Lifecare. Be proud of the cover without your support. At JGS Lifecare, we know it’s results and the prevailing spirit of optimism with which the “extras” that engage our residents, stimulating their we now face the future. minds and bodies – art, music, yoga, gardening, current To the executive leadership from CJL, thank you for events, culinary activities, intergenerational activities bringing your expertise and insights to bear on our and more. Your gifts make it possible for us to deliver processes and procedures, and for partnering with these extras and continue to meet the highest standards our directors to combine best practice, learn from one of care. another, and nurture the qualities that have made JGS You will find in this issue of Lifelines many opportunities unique and will continue to distinguish us in the field of to support JGS Lifecare that will surely enrich the lives of elder-care. our elders. I hope you will consider giving generously. To our JGS staff, thank you for your hard, really hard, Wishing you health, happiness, and fulfillment in the work during difficult times and your even harder and coming year! smarter and longer hours of work since our affiliation. Thank you for arriving at JGS 7 days a week, 24 hours a 3 Barry Berman Adam Berman Chief Executive Officer President Message from Barry and Adam It was a year ago that we first wrote you, as we embarked January the building has been successfully staffed by our on our new and exciting affiliation with JGS Lifecare. It’s own team of JGS Lifecare employees, avoiding the need been a busy, but very productive year! When we began for agency staff. Having a consistent team of caregivers working with the board we decided that there was only drives the delivery of more personalized high quality care one goal for the organization: that of making JGS the and better healthcare outcomes. This is no small feat and Crown Jewel of Western MA. we owe it to the dedication of our committed staff! Ruth’s House, Wernick and Genesis Housing continue serving Being the Crown Jewel means that JGS be a magnet the community. Spectrum has grown and formed new organization with a culture of caring and a standard of relationships. In all, JGS has reached a level of financial care that attracts the highest quality staff and is the most and organizational stability in a much shorter amount of sought after resource for care by our community. More time than any of us expected. specifically, it means: As we look to the coming year, we will build on the • The Leavitt Family Jewish Home, including Sosin success of this past year and continue working toward our Center for Rehabilitation, is a 5 star facility as measured long-term goals. This will include resuming Phase II of by Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Project Transformation, and planning for upgrades and #1 option in the area for short-term and long-term care; renovations throughout the campus to de-institutionalize • Ruth’s House is the assisted living residence of choice in care. Specifically, we are looking at implementing the area; elements of the household model successfully introduced • Wernick Adult Day Care and Genesis Housing continue at Sosin to our neighborhoods at the Leavitt Family their paths of serving the community; Jewish Home, and creating households that are more • Spectrum is better integrated with the other JGS reflective of the heimish (Yiddish slang for comforting, service lines as well as forming key partnerships in the cozy and home-like) atmosphere we envision, as well as community; and making upgrades to Ruth’s House. • JGS is well-positioned financially for the future. All of these accomplishments could not have been We are delighted to say that major strides have been achieved without the hard work and dedication of the made in all areas. While obtaining 5 stars is not board of directors and staff of JGS. Thank you for your achievable until 2020-2021, tremendous strides have commitment and support. We look forward to working been made with regard to clinical quality measures that with you and the JGS community to ensure that JGS position JNH to obtain this status as quickly as possible. Lifecare is the Crown Jewel of Western MA! Of particular note, we are thrilled to share that since 4 KATZ AND WEBBER FAMILIES UNDERWRITE RUTH’S HOUSE ENHANCEMENTS Ruth’s House, now entering its 21st year of providing assisted living and memory care services to our community, is named for benefactors and sisters-in-law Ruth and David Katz Ruth Katz and Ruth Webber (of blessed memory), who together with their husbands, David B. Katz and Ralph “We have watched the rejuvenation of JGS Lifecare Webber (of blessed memory), made a $500,000 gift to since its affiliation with Chelsea Jewish Life care and are the 1998 Regeneration Campaign, chaired by David enthused with the progress and improvements taking Katz. To the Katz and Webber family’s great credit, they place,” remarked David. “With this in mind we - David understood, when the concept of assisted living was still and Ruth Katz and the trustees of the Ruth K. and Ralph new, the important role it would play in helping seniors G. Webber Family Foundation (Meg Steinberg, Jane maintain active and meaningful lives while receiving the Shernow and Jamie Polep) are very pleased to fund the critical services of daily living. remodeling of Ruth’s House. We know that Ruth’s House plays a pivotal role in JGS Lifecare’s continuum of care for Fast forward to 2019 and the Katz and Webber families seniors in our community and provides a warm, caring, have once again stepped forward to ensure continued comfortable environment for seniors without the need success with another significant gift.