On May 4, 2017, Ishtpreet Uppal, MD received the Federal Executive Association (FEA) of Northeastern NY's L. Grady Moore Leadership Award - Supervisory Position. Dr. Uppal's nomination was based off the following:

1. Outstanding performance
a. Dr. Uppal is a wonderful geriatrician and Hospice/Palliative care physician. Her many duties include leading the Palliative Care consult team, organizing the Albany Medical Center resident training for geriatrics (and devoting significant time to ensuring a quality learning experience for the trainees), caring for Veterans on our Community Living Center and helping see patients whenever needed in our outpatient geriatrics clinic. Her work is very high quality and she consistently demonstrates the caliber of care that I would want for my own loved ones. She is detail oriented, hardworking (often going above and beyond and working outside her usual tour of duty to meet the needs of those in her care) and a wonderful team player. She has truly been an indispensable member of our department since she joined us approximately 4 years ago.
b. She has heeded the call to work with frail, complex elderly Veterans and those confronting serious often life threatening illnesses and their loved ones. On a daily basis, she has to deal with crises, intense emotional situations, complex family dynamics etc. Countless people have benefited from her knowledge, training and wisdom. She does this truly challenging work with skill and great compassion.
c. Both geriatrics and Hospice/Palliative care are fields that have significant staffing shortages because of the challenges and patience it requires. (Not many people want to go into these fields). Despite the emotionally draining and trying aspects of this work, she exhibits extraordinary kindness and compassion. I share an office with Dr. Uppal and have witnessed this time and again as she tries to help vulnerable and at risk patients during often stressful and overwhelming situations. I truly feel that the VA is extremely fortunate to have hired such an outstanding provider and would like her efforts recognized.
d. She stands out among other providers in often going the extra mile to make sure that questions have been answered and the overall situation understood so that she can then help devise the very important goals of care that will guide treatment approaches and priorities moving forward. The importance of this work cannot be overemphasized and Dr. Uppal is a true gem of a provider who has embraced this time consuming and difficult work with grace. She is an inspiration to those who work with her.

2. Imagination and creativity in developing solutions to problems
a. Please see below under #3. This past year has had a number of challenges (reduced staffing, unexpected closure of the inpatient hospice unit). Dr. Uppal has had to use both imagination and creativity as well as patience and calm to deal with these challenges.

3. Significant contributions to improvement processes or procedures
a. Our facility leadership made the decision to no longer offer inpatient hospice care on our Community Living Center in early 2016. This created a number of challenges to the provision of high quality end-of-life care for hospitalized dying Veterans. Dr. Uppal has worked hard to troubleshoot multiple issues that have since arisen with good results. Her work includes addressing coding and billing issues and training acute care nurses and inpatient teams to care for the increased volume of such patients. She has exhibited flexibility, commitment and creativity in her approach. She also participates VISN-wide and nationally to incorporate and spread best practices.

4. Demonstrates leadership potential
a. Dr. Uppal is the lead physician of the palliative care consult team. Due to budget constraints, 2 full-time providers on the team were not replaced after they retired in the past year or so. Furthermore, additional help recently dissipated as another provider who helped part time was shifted to work on another team. Dr. Uppal has managed to be a calm, steady leader during this period. She has inspired her team to not become demoralized through her own respectable example of hard work , positive attitude, sense of humor and admirable life perspective. She is a natural leader and loved and appreciated by her team.