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Board of Directors John Bilello, R.Ph John Bilello has been a pharmacist serving the community for over 25 years. He has worked in retail pharmacies as well as having owned two pharmacies himself. Both pharmacies were located in Queens, one was in Ridgewood, and the other in Bayside, where he raised his family for over ten years. Presently, John is working for a retail pharmacy in East Setauket. John has always been actively involved with the care of his patients. He pays close attention to insuring that his patients take their medications properly. John always educates his patients about drug interactions and makes them aware of possible side effects.
Charles E. Cal., MS, MBA, R.N., Vice President
Mr. Cal is the Director of Program Evaluation at the Krasnoff Quality Management Institute a division of North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System and Adjunct Professor at New York Medical College, Valhalla, and Baruch College, New York City. He holds two Masters degrees from Adelphi University, one in Nursing Administration and another in Business Management. His expertise is in the coordination and development of quality management curricula. He provides evidence-based education, and assistance to health care and non-health care organizations in the assessment, development and implementation of quality management/ performance improvement delivery systems. His experience and educational focus centers on long-term care, geriatric medicine, behavioral health, pediatric critical care and oncology. He has held numerous positions within the NS-LIJHS and at present is on various professional organizations within healthcare.
Manouchkathe Cassagnol, Pharm.D., CGP, BCPS
Ms. Cassagnol is an Assistant Clinical Professor of Clinical Pharmacy Practice College of Pharmacy and Allied Health Professions St. John’s University. She is also the Clinical Coordinator of Internal Medicine Pharmacotherapy Department of Pharmacy Long Island Jewish(LIJ) Medical Center and an ABHP, Board Member. Ilene Corina is a nationally recognized advocate and community health speaker for patient safety. She is the president and co-founder of PULSE New York. Her work was honored by Long Island’s Channel 12 News. She was named Long Island’s Person Who Made a Difference in 2000.
A member of the board of the National Patient Safety Foundation, Ms. Corina co-chaired the Patient and Family Advisory Council from 2002-2006. In 2002, she spearheaded the first Patient Safety Awareness Week.
A popular lecturer, Ms. Corina has spoken at many medical conferences, hospitals and healthcare organizations throughout the country. She helps doctors, nurses and hospital administrators to understand the patient’s role in patient safety. She also helps healthcare professionals understand the needs of patients and their families after a medical injury or death has occurred. Ms. Corina has produced and directed numerous videos and audio productions for patient safety education. She co-hosted and directed a series on enhancing patient safety called “Patient Safety 101” for a local Long Island radio station. She worked as a researcher at the Veteran’s Affairs Medical Center in Northport, Long Island. While there, she developed the Long Island Patient Safety Coalition that brought together medical professionals for the purpose of sharing best-practice information. Ms. Corina is a board member of the Joint Commission and serves on many committees including the Patient and Family Advisory Group of Joint Commission International. She was the winner of the 2006 Institute of Safe Medication Practices Cheers Award and was declared a Woman of Achievement by Long Island Press in 2007. Ms. Corina has appeared as a patient-safety expert on CNN, Fox News, and other television and radio news shows. She has been interviewed by newspapers and magazines including: Child Magazine, Health Magazine, Long Island Newsday, New York Daily News, Washington Post, American Medical News and Modern Healthcare. Her work has been published by the American Journal of Nursing and Perioperative Nursing Clinics.
Dr. Farrington is a practicing gynecologist on Long Island. She completed residency training at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in 1989. After teaching and practicing Obstetrics and Gynecology in the North Shore LIJ Health System for most of the previous 20 years Dr. Farrington started a solo practice of Office Gynecology and Well Woman Care in 2009. This change enables her to spend more time with each patient and devote more time to educating the public in patient safety. Dr. Farrington was involved in the planning and participation of the PULSE Patient Safety Health Fair for Patient Safety Awareness Week in March 2006. She was active in developing the curriculum for the Family Centered Patient Advocacy Training and has co-presented numerous patient advocate training workshops. Dr. Farrington is presently training in Compassionate Communication and has been involved in developing presentations for clinician and patients using compassionate communication skills. Dr. Farrington’s personal experience in her own family has fueled her interest in making a contribution to ongoing efforts of PULSE. She lives in Freeport Long Island with her family.
Edmond Gold, BS, MS,
Mr. Gold graduated from Empire State College with a Bachelors of Science in psychology and received his Masters in Administration Education from City College. Mr. Gold spent over twenty years as a graphics arts and special education teacher in the Yonkers School District from which he is currently retired. He served for many years as a volunteer ombudsman and troubleshooter for the growing number of senior center assisted living and nursing home facilities on Long Island. Mr. Gold began the Work Release Program at the Nassau County Jail and is presently the volunteer lead chef at the Interfaith Nutrition Network (INN) Hempstead, New York. Ed Gold is a founding member of PULSE of NY. Sandra Gold, Financial SecretaryMrs. Gold has worked for over twenty years in the accounting department of a major hotel on Long Island. Currently retired, she has been a volunteer coordinator since 1999 at the Interfaith Nutrition Network (INN) Hempstead, New York. Mrs. Gold is the recording secretary for the Sisterhood of her temple, the In-Between-Club at the local Y, and is involved with numerous community organizations. Sandra Gold is a founding member of PULSE of NY.Andrea Goldstein
Since 1994, Andrea Goldstein has served as IPRO’s (the Quality Improvement Organization for New York) Vice President, Medicare/Federal Healthcare Assessment. She is responsible for the overall management of IPRO’s fee-for-service Medicare and Federal case review activities, including beneficiary complaints and notice of non-coverage appeals. Ms. Goldstein has been successfully directing consumer protection and education activities, program integrity contracts and medical review operations for 30 years. Most recently, she has spearheaded IPRO’s patient and family engagement activities with the creation of Medicare beneficiary empowerment workshops as well as a special project funded by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to provide Diabetes Self-Management education to underserved beneficiaries.
Ms. Goldstein, a Registered Nurse, received her Bachelor of Arts degree, Magna Cum Laude, from the State University of New York at Albany. She also received a Master's Degree, with a concentration in Community Health Education from the State University of New York at Stony Brook.
Grena G. Porto RN, ARM, CPHM
Grena Porto is a nationally recognized expert and leader in patient safety, risk management and quality improvement. She is the founder and principal of QRS Healthcare Consulting, LLC, a firm that specializes in providing customized consulting support to healthcare organizations. Working with a network of other nationally recognized experts, the firm provides services in the areas of patient safety, risk management and quality improvement, including, high reliability and teamwork,culture change, disclosure of error and communicating with patients, program analysis and enhancement, board development, strategic planning, staff and physician education, work process redesign and enhancement, and other related areas.
Ms. Porto has also served as Client Executive and Sr. Vice President with Marsh USA, Inc. and as Senior Director of Clinical Consulting for VHA, Inc., where she was responsible for the directing engagements and providing services in the areas of patient safety, quality improvement, clinical care management and design and healthcare risk management. She also served as Director of Clinical Risk Management at VHA, Inc., for over 7 years, providing services in the area of loss prevention, risk financing and program development to a member-owned group captive.
Ms. Porto has extensive experience in patient safety and is a nationally recognized expert in these fields, having served as President of the American Society for Healthcare Risk Management (ASHRM) in 1999 and on the Board of Directors of the National Patient Safety Foundation from 1998 to 2001. She currently serves on JCAHO’s Sentinel Event Advisory Group.
Ms. Porto is a Distinguished Fellow of ASHRM and has also attained the designations of Associate in Risk Management (ARM) from the Insurance Institute of American, and Certified Professional in Healthcare Risk Management (CPHRM) from the American Hospital Association. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Nursing and Master of Science in Health Administration from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Ms. Porto has lectured extensively both nationally and internationally, and is the author of numerous publications on risk management and patient safety.
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