JANET SULLIVAN, MD, RECEIVES DISTINGUISHED PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE AWARD FROM WESTCHESTER COUNTY BOARD OF HEALTH
Dr. Sullivan Developed Health Care 'Firsts' To Benefit Community
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 4, 2006(Tarrytown, NY)… Douglas G. Aspros, DVM, President of the Westchester County Board of Health, presented the Distinguished Public Health Service Award today to Janet (Jessie) Sullivan, M.D., Chief Medical Officer of Hudson Health Plan, the largest Medicaid managed care organization in Westchester. County Executive Andy Spano and Health Commissioner Joshua Lipsman, MD, also attended the ceremony, which was held in the County Executive Press Room to mark National Public Health Week April 3 - 7.
In a letter informing Dr. Sullivan of the award, Dr. Aspros wrote, "Your innovative programs directly help thousands of residents, their families, and the community's health care system…Your creativity in promoting preventive health care through physicians has assuredly reduced the number of individuals suffering from preventable illnesses and diseases."
Georganne Chapin, President and CEO of the not-for-profit Hudson Health Plan adds: "Since Dr. Sullivan joined Hudson Health Plan in 1997, she has used our organization as a platform to introduce several public health quality improvement 'firsts' that benefit not only the 37,000 Hudson Health Plan members in this county, but the community-at-large as well."
"This is a wonderful honor," said Dr. Sullivan, a resident of New Rochelle, of the award. "We applaud Westchester County's own commitment to public health, and look forward to continuing to work together with the county."
A Plan on a Mission
In accordance with Hudson Health Plan's mission to promote and provide access to excellent health services for all people, Dr. Sullivan has developed numerous preventive health programs that go above and beyond what is required by the State, including:
- A pay-for-performance quality incentive program for Hudson Health Plan providers, which pays providers a bonus for meeting certain quality benchmarks. Since the program was founded in 1999, Hudson Health Plan has seen a steady increase in the number of members who receive Pap tests, post-partum visits, childhood immunizations, and other measures of quality.
- CareFocusTM, a patient registry, developed in conjunction with the New York Diabetes Coalition, which Dr. Sullivan chairs. CareFocus is a low-cost patient registry designed for smaller medical offices to track the care of patients with diabetes. It alerts the office staff when a patient is overdue for a screening, which is necessary to prevent complications, including blindness, loss of limbs, heart attacks, and strokes.
- Case management of all pregnant members through the "Mommy and Me" program. A nurse case manager assists expectant mothers in arranging prenatal examinations and well-baby care of her newborn child through the age of two.
Dr. Sullivan is extremely active at both national and local levels as an advocate of better health care options, particularly for underserved populations.
- She is a member of the Board of the National Quality Forum (NQF), a national entity whose goal is to set standards for health care performance measurement, and is chair of its Provider and Health Plan Council. She is a member of the National Committee for Quality Health Care's Performance Measurement Task Force.
- This summer, the New York State Department of Health invited Dr. Sullivan to join its Workgroup on Pay for Performance.
- She is co-chair of the New York Health Plan Association Medical Directors Forum, and serves on the Westchester County Asthma Council and the Westchester County Bioterrorism Medical Advisory Committee.
- In 2003, Hudson Health Plan's Clinical Department, under Dr. Sullivan's supervision, participated in a Best Clinical and Administrative Practices project on improving services for disabled adults, sponsored by the Center for Health Care Strategies.
Dr. Sullivan earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Antioch College in 1972. She attended the Ohio State University College of Medicine, where she was elected to the Medical Honor Society, Alpha Omega Alpha, and graduated cum laude in 1987. She received two years of training in a combined Internal Medicine/Pediatrics Residency affiliated with Michigan State University in Lansing, Mich., then completed a residency in Dermatology at University Hospitals of Cleveland in 1992. She continues to participate in clinical practice and sees dermatology patients at the White Plains offices of the Westchester Medical Group, a large multi-specialty group, and at the Open Door Family Medical Center, a Federally Qualified Community Health Center in Ossining, N.Y.
About Hudson Health Plan
Founded in the mid-1980s by a coalition of community health centers, Hudson Health Plan works to serve the best interests of its members and providers. The Tarrytown based not-for-profit organization serves 55,000 members in the lower Hudson Valley. A leader among health plans, Hudson Health Plan has been driving health care innovation by developing technology to support clinical quality initiatives and streamline the enrollment process for Medicaid Managed Care, Child Health Plus, and Family Health Plus.
Hudson Health Plan is the winner of the 2005 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Corporate Award for diversity from the YWCA of White Plains and Central Westchester; the 2005 Advancements in Health Care Award from Hudson Valley Life and Hudson Valley Parent; and the 2003 Community Leadership Award from the New York Health Plan Association.
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