Lida Kiefer Named Practice Manager of The Wright Center for Community Health’s Hawley Location The Wright Center for Community Health recently promoted longtime clinical employee Lida Kiefer to the leadership role of Practice Manager. Kiefer will lead The Wright Center’s Hawley Practice at 103 Spruce Street, where she will be responsible for daily operations including oversight of patient flow, staff and services. The Wayne County office is home to clinical staff who provide primary and preventive care for pediatric, adult and geriatric patients, including routine check-ups, sick visits, behavioral/mental health, and addiction and recovery services. A graduate of McCann School of Business and Technology, Kiefer joined The Wright Center in 2012 as an administrative assistant and worked her way up to the role of certified medical assistant II. She most recently served as Co-Manager of Medical Assistants, responsible for monitoring patient care quality and coordination as well as daily oversight of all medical assistants on staff. In addition to her leadership responsibilities at Hawley as Practice Manager, Kiefer will also serve as a medical assistant there. “Throughout her career at The Wright Center, Lida has demonstrated her dedication to our mission of improving the health and welfare of our community. This promotion is a great fit for her proven skills and experience,” said Kathleen Barry, Deputy Chief Operating Officer. Kiefer resides in Honesdale.
The Wright Center Names Interim Associate Designated Institutional Official Michelle Ostroski, a licensed social worker with a background in nonprofit healthcare and educational settings, has been named interim Associate Designated Institutional Official (ADIO) for The Wright Center for Graduate Medical Education. In this leadership role, Ostroski is responsible for supporting and sustaining an environment that promotes academic excellence. The Wright Center trains close to 250 physician learners enrolled in internal medicine, family medicine and psychiatry residency programs as well as gastroenterology, geriatrics and cardiovascular disease fellowships. The ADIO oversees academic and organizational compliance with accrediting bodies and partnering institutions of higher learning, and also monitors the quality and safety of clinical learning venues where Wright Center residents and fellows rotate through. As the largest Teaching Health Center Graduate Medical Education Consortium in the country, The Wright Center trains doctors to provide care to the nation’s most vulnerable patients in high-performing, certified Patient-Centered Medical Homes, Federally Qualified Health Centers, and community-based hospitals. Residents and fellows train at Wright Center clinics and hospital systems throughout Northeast Pennsylvania as well as locations in four states across two coasts, including Tucson, Arizona (El Rio Community Health Center); New Richmond, Ohio (HealthSource of Ohio); Auburn, Washington (HealthPoint); and Washington, D.C. (Unity Health Care). Ostroski joined The Wright Center in June as the Director of Graduate Medical Education Workforce Operations, promoting innovative learning opportunities and best practices in education, and will continue to maintain that role in addition to her new responsibilities. “Michelle’s commitment to empowering our residents and fellows with the best educational experience possible makes her a great fit for this role,” said Dr. Jumee Barooah, Designated Institutional Official for The Wright Center. “My goal is to foster a collaborative learning environment that optimizes the training physician learners receive at The Wright Center and each of our partnering sites,” Ostroski said. “Ensuring these community-minded doctors emerge as competent and compassionate primary care providers goes to the heart of The Wright Center’s mission.” Ostroski earned her master’s degree in social work with specialization in behavioral health from Marywood University, and her bachelor’s in secondary education and English at Temple University. She is pursuing her doctorate in education and leadership in healthcare from Nebraska Methodist College and resides in Forty Fort.
The Wright Center’s Dr. Madhava S. Rao, Announces Retirement After four decades of faithfully serving our community, renowned area cardiologist and medical educator Madhava S. Rao, M.D., has decided to embrace a well-deserved retirement. Throughout the span of his 40-plus year career, Dr. Rao has touched the hearts and improved the lives of countless patients and families through his practice of cardiology. And thanks to generations of cardiologists — serving patients regionally and nationally — who trained under Dr. Rao in The Wright Center’s Cardiovascular Disease Fellowship Program, his life-saving legacy of service will continue well into the future. “We appreciate Dr. Rao’s legacy and his many amazing contributions over the decades to support delivery of our mission to improve the health and welfare of our community. We wish him and his family many blessings and great prosperity in his well-earned retirement,” said Dr. Linda Thomas-Hemak, CEO of The Wright Center for Community Health and President of The Wright Center for Graduate Medical Education. “Dr Rao’s valued passion for education, cardiovascular expertise and healthcare system insight have been great influential assets to our regional practicing physicians and learners. His career contributions have benefitted our community in immeasurable ways.” “Teaching made me a better doctor, because when you see that enthusiasm for learning, it makes you want to learn more, too,” Dr. Rao shared. “Even now, whenever I get asked to do consultations for my former student fellows, they always send me a note of appreciation. They’re great doctors, but when they come to me for a second opinion, it’s a validating confidence boost. It inspires me and feels good to continue to help them.” Dr. Rao graduated from Mysore Medical College in India and completed his internal medicine residency at Cook County Hospital in Chicago. He then completed his cardiology fellowship training at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio and notably went on to earn board certifications in nuclear cardiology, echocardiography and clinical hypertension. A fellow of the American College of Cardiology, Dr. Rao has served the greater Scranton community since 1979, most recently serving as Director of Non-Invasive Cardiology for the Geisinger Heart and Vascular Center at Geisinger Community Medical Center. Throughout his career, Dr. Rao held numerous leadership roles, including Chief of Cardiology at the former Community Medical Center in Scranton, where he also was a well respected president of the medical staff; valued chairman of the Mortality and Morbidity Committee; a vested board member of the Quality Committee; and a 10-year passionate member of both the Board of Directors and the Medical Executive Committee. He has been integral to medical education in the area, starting in 1980 when he was a preceptor for internal medicine residents and students enrolled in the Scranton Temple Residency Program, which later became The Wright Center for Graduate Medical Education. He passionately supported the development of The Wright Center for Graduate Medical Education’s Cardiology Fellowship and made numerous contributions to ensure it has thrived. For more than a decade, he has served as a key faculty leader and as the director of non-invasive cardiology for our fellowship. To date, 14 physician learners have graduated from this program, with nine more currently in training. During his time with The Wright Center, Dr. Rao has been honored by the students, residents and fellows he has taught cardiology, who have voted him Teacher of the Year on numerous occasions. “Throughout my years studying with him, Dr. Rao has been amazing,” said Dr. Neil Patel, a third-year Cardiovascular Disease Fellow at The Wright Center. “He has always been very passionate about teaching and the specialty of cardiology. as well as the profession of medicine in general. Everyone in our fellowship so far, myself and previous graduates included, are now board-certified in echocardiography and nuclear cardiology, and we all credit those accomplishments to Dr Rao.” “Dr. Rao has been a great mentor. His teaching skills, especially in echocardiography and nuclear cardiology, have been exemplary,” agreed fellow third-year Cardiovascular Disease Fellow Dr. Guarav Patel. “Dr. Rao has been a true inspiration not only to Wright Center cardiology fellows, primary care residents, and medical students, but he has also positively influenced the careers of many local practicing physicians, myself included. He’s been an exemplary doctor, teacher and mentor, and his years of service have been a blessing to our community. We will all surely miss him,” shared Dr. Jignesh Sheth, Chief Medical Officer and a practicing internal medicine and addiction medicine physician for The Wright Center for Community Health. “Physician learners and our community alike benefited from Dr. Rao’s decades of practice and his many contributions toward training the next generation of cardiologists, as well as other specialty and primary care physicians. I have been privileged to be his colleague and wish him well,” said Dr. Samir B. Pancholy, Program Director for The Wright Center’s Cardiovascular Disease Fellowship. “Teaching has been very rewarding, but the greatest satisfaction is knowing I did something good for the community,” Dr. Rao shared. “I have seen the commitment from Dr. Thomas-Hemak and The Wright Center to improve primary care and medical education in our community, especially when it comes to rural health, and I have appreciated the opportunity to be part of that.” An acknowledgement celebration is planned for the future when a gathering to honor Dr. Rao will be COVID-19-safe.
The Wright Center for Community Health Receives Grant From Robert H. Spitz Foundation The Wright Center for Community Health has received an $8,000 grant from the Robert H. Spitz Foundation to enable its Community Health Workers to assist patients who are coping with a variety of hardships that can impact their healthcare. Grant funding will be used to help individuals overcome economic barriers, such as lack of nutritious food or transportation to medical appointments, so patients can focus on addressing health issues. The Wright Center’s Community Health Workers will also connect patients with a variety of community resources, such as GED programs and job training. The Robert H. Spitz Foundation, a registered 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that supports initiatives and programs serving the residents of Northeastern Pennsylvania, is administered by the Scranton Area Community Foundation. Robert H. Spitz was born in Scranton and was a 1955 graduate of Scranton Central High School and the University of Miami. Before retirement, Mr. Spitz had been employed by the U.S. Department of Labor and owned several local restaurants. The Robert H. Spitz Foundation was established from his estate in 2015. The Wright Center was one of 42 nonprofit organizations in Northeast Pennsylvania selected to receive grants during the Spitz Foundation’s 2020 funding cycle, which collectively distributed $771,000. Pictured, from left, are care team members from The Wright Center for Community Health: Sydney Rentsch, Community Health Worker; Keri Macknosky, Certified Community Health Worker; Kari Machelli, R.N., Director of Case and Care Management Services; Kayla Kincel, Community Health Worker; and Whitney Cooper, Community Health Worker.
