The Institute for Community Living (ICL) is a nonprofit human service agency that provides clinical, rehabilitation, housing, and other support services to assist individuals and families affected by or at risk of mental illness in New York City. ICL runs two programs, Assertive Community Treatment and Personalized Recovery Oriented Services, that offer integrated comprehensive care designed to improve well-being, recovery, and participation in community living. In anticipation of operating these programs with reduced funding due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and potential cuts to New York State Medicaid, ICL enlisted a team to analyze both fixed and variable program costs. The team conducted a unit cost analysis and determined break-even points. With this analysis, the team developed recommendations for promoting data driven management, increasing program sustainability, and improving quality of care to improve the financial performance of both ICL programs.

LIFE Camp is a gun violence intervention and prevention organization in Southeast Queens that emphasizes customized wraparound services to prevent violence in at-risk communities and address the specific needs of each community. The organization enlisted a team to help locate gaps in its services and strengthen its public outreach and messaging, with a focus on communicating what makes LIFE Camp effective and distinct. In order to further the organization’s goals of helping other organizations replicate its approach, the team conducted a landscape analysis to understand what differentiates LIFE Camp from similarly-motivated organizations. The team utilized a powerful digital storyboard for promotion and funding, developed a white paper describing LIFE Camp’s services and highlighting its impact, and created a video that provides an inside look at the people who execute LIFE Camps’ vision, showcasing how its staff drive LIFE Camp’s organizational success.

The Department of Medicine is the largest academic department in the Mount Sinai Health System, a large New York City-based hospital network. At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, the Department of Medicine logged over 4,000 telehealth encounters. By June 2020, the number of telehealth encounters spiked to over 18,000, and remains far greater than prior to the pandemic. The Department of Medicine enlisted a team to identify and analyze the major barriers to telehealth access and utilization, and to develop mitigation strategies to address telehealth disparities in underserved populations. The team conducted a literature review, interviewed leaders in the field, ran provider and staff surveys, and analyzed de-identified aggregate patient utilization and satisfaction data. With its findings, the team produced a final report that confirms telehealth disparities across race, payer type, age, and sex/gender, and provides targeted recommendations to foster equitable telehealth utilization.