ONEONTA — Hartwick College announced that David H. Long, chairman and CEO of Liberty Mutual Insurance Group, has become the new chair of the college’s board of trustees, effective July 1.

Long took over from Francis D. Landrey who had served as the board chair since 2013, the college said in a release. Long served on Hartwick College’s board of trustees from 2002 until 2011, and rejoined the board in 2016. He was elected to the role of vice chair in 2018.

At Liberty Mutual Insurance, Long oversees a company ranked 75th on the Fortune 100 list of largest corporations in the U.S., based on 2018 revenue. As of the end of last year, the business had $41.6 billion in annual consolidated revenue. Based in Boston, Liberty Mutual has operations in about 30 countries around the world.

Long began his career with Liberty Mutual in 1985 as a financial analyst. Since then, he has held positions of increasing responsibility in the company’s international operations, commercial markets, underwriting and financial, and mergers and acquisitions segments, the release said. His most recent promotion to chairman quickly followed his appointment as CEO in 2011, president and member of the board of directors of Liberty Mutual Group in 2010, president of Liberty International in 2009, and executive VP and president of Liberty Mutual’s commercial markets unit in 2005.

After earning a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Hartwick College in 1983, Long graduated first in his class from Boston College with a master’s degree in finance, the release stated. As an undergraduate at Hartwick, he was named a John Christopher Hartwick Scholar — the college’s highest academic recognition — and was selected as an all-American on Hartwick’s Division I soccer team. He was inducted into the Hartwick College Athletic Hall of Fame in 2004, and in 2013 he received the Distinguished Alumnus award from the Hartwick College Alumni Association. Long is married to Stephanie Isgur Long, a 1984 Hartwick graduate.

Hartwick College is a private liberal arts and sciences college of 1,200 students, located in Oneonta.  

UTICA — Mohawk Valley Health System (MVHS) on June 29 launched Epic, a new electronic health record (EHR) system, representing the first time that the organization’s two hospitals and physician practices will record patient health data on the same platform. 

The two hospitals are St. Elizabeth Medical Center and Faxton St. Luke’s Healthcare in Utica.

MVHS previously used five different systems in its facilities. The organization called it a “momentous step in improving and supporting patient quality and safety and outcomes at MVHS,” per a July 2 news release.

“I’ll state the obvious: St. Elizabeth Medical Center and Faxton St. Luke’s Healthcare have been operating on different medical-record platforms,” Darlene Stromstad, president and CEO of MVHS, said. “We couldn’t share real-time patient records even though patients may be seen on both campuses. The advantages are immediate.” 

The Epic implementation process has included about 127,000 training hours over the past year for a number of physicians, nurses, pharmacists, support and financial teams.

“We implemented this major change in a little over a year,” said Stromstad. “More than 90 million records were successfully transferred to Epic from the legacy medical record systems. Staff also manually rescheduled 120,000 appointments from the old systems to Epic over the Father’s Day weekend. This is truly a remarkable feat — it takes most organizations more than two years.”

Dr. Paul Davidson, MVHS chief medical information officer, along with John Lynch, MVHS chief information officer (CIO), led the efforts for the Epic implementation. 

“Changing the way we work every day can be a challenge to providers, particularly physicians who are not used to this technology,” Davidson said. “However, we’ve been very pleased with how they’ve approached the training and came in with the attitude that this is the future, and they’ll make it work. It will take a few months, but it will become second-hand for everyone.”

MVHS providers can now coordinate care more efficiently with health-care providers outside of the health system while accessing “real-time” data and a comprehensive view of patients’ information, Lynch said, which will help close care gaps and reduce duplication. 

Patients will also have “increased” visibility and access for managing their health information using Epic’s online portal, MyChart, MVHS said. 

Patients can “easily and securely” communicate with their providers, view their health history and past visit information, schedule appointments, request prescription refills, and pay their bills.

“MyChart is an important tool for patients, giving them control over their health information and becoming an engaged member of their care team,” said Lynch.

Patients can also access the portal via the MyChart mobile application, available in the app stores. 

With the launch of the Epic EHR, MVHS also has a command center in which about 100 people field phone calls and provide technical support to users and address issues in real-time, per the release.

Deployed across CNY

Epic is the “most widely-used” health-record system, MVHS said. It’s used by the “majority” of U.S. News and World Report’s top-ranked hospitals and medical schools. 

More than 60 percent of New Yorkers currently have a record in Epic, per the news release. MVHS peers, including St. Joseph’s Health Hospital and Upstate University Hospital in Syracuse; Bassett Healthcare Network in Cooperstown; and Rochester Regional Health and University of Rochester Medical Center in Rochester are also using the Epic EHR. 

All organizations using Epic can interoperate, or “easily exchange patient data for improved patient care.”     

SYRACUSE — Liberty Resources, a Syracuse–based health and human-services agency, will use two state grants to expand its services. 

The funding targets its therapeutic mental-health services for children and supportive housing for individuals with mental ill ness and/or substance-use disorders, Liberty Resources announced.

The New York State Office of Mental Health (OMH) awarded the grant funding. Liberty Resources didn’t disclose how much money it is receiving from the state.

Supportive housing

The grant award for supportive housing will help provide scattered site supportive housing for adults with serious mental illness across Onondaga and Madison counties. 

Empire State Supportive Housing Initiative (ESSHI) is funding the grant, Liberty Resources said.

The ESSHI program operates under the guidance of the ESSHI Interagency Workgroup, which is comprised of representatives from several state agencies including OMH.

The main objective of this program is to provide assistance that enables individuals to remain permanently housed in the community with long-term positive housing and health outcomes. The program will “support the greatest possible level of client independence and self-sufficiency, promote an integrated and seamless continuum of care while maximizing client engagement,” Liberty Resources said. 

The model will offer customized services to increase the availability of safe and affordable housing options; ensure the provision of community supports needed for each client; and “meaningfully” integrate them into their communities. 

Children’s mental health

The OMH award for expanded children’s behavioral health services will allow the Liberty Resources health-care center to provide therapeutic mental-health services to 500 additional children. The center is located at 1045 James St. in Syracuse. 

The expansion will help address the “significant” shortage of mental-health services available for children in Syracuse and surrounding areas, Liberty Resources said. Liberty’s established family health center, integrated care coordination, and on-site Genoa Pharmacy will provide access to health care and support services that will address the “whole” health needs of both the children served and their families.

“These awards will allow our agency to bring much needed support to some of the most vulnerable in Central New York,” Carl Coyle, CEO of Liberty Resources, said in a news release. “We are excited to implement our integrated care model in each of these programs…”

New guidelines allow more mental-health providers to utilize telehealth technology

The New York State Office of Mental Health (OMH) on July 9 announced the adoption of new, expanded telepsychiatry regulations to offer increased access to a range of mental-health services using electronic communication.

The new regulations allow more mental-health practitioners to use virtual technology to provide or support clinical psychiatric care at a distance. Prior regulations permitted only psychiatrists and psychiatric nurse practitioners to utilize the technology.

“Telemedicine is an exciting avenue for the Office of Mental Health to explore, as we work diligently to expand access to mental health services and psychiatric consultations,” Dr. Ann Sullivan, OMH commissioner, said in a news release. But as we adopt and use telepsychiatry and telemental health, it’s important to remember that this technology is to be used in combination with, but not as a replacement for a broader treatment plan and support services. With that in mind, the possibilities these expanded regulations provide are very promising.” 

In 2014, 65 percent of New York counties were designated as “mental health professional shortage areas” under either state or federal designations. Over the last five years, the OMH has been working to combat the state’s psychiatric and mental health professional shortage by exploring telehealth technologies to serve people who are unable to access care.

Utilizing telehealth technology can provide access to services when on-site treatment options are unavailable because of distance, location, time of day, or availability of resources, the OMH said. Participating providers are required to give prospective clients information about the use of telemental health as they consider treatment options.

The updated regulations build upon the 2016 regulations to now allow psychologists, licensed social workers, and mental-health counselors, marriage and family therapists, creative-arts therapists, and psychoanalysts (licensed under Article 163 of the New York State Education Law) to utilize virtual-therapy appointments. As a result of this expansion, the New York State service has changed names from “telepsychiatry” to “telemental health.”

Telemental health will now be permitted at more hub locations, including a practitioner’s home office and private practice settings. Prescribers may be located anywhere within the U.S., while other practitioner types may be located anywhere within New York state, the OMH said.

The regulations also expand the originating site to be anywhere the client is located within the state. Temporary locations are also permitted within and outside of New York. Additionally, the regulations add assertive community treatment and personalized recovery-oriented service sites as eligible treatment settings.