High Peaks Hospice announced that Phil Pekar, RN, its head of nursing, and Mel Duerr, RN, NP, its our clinical lead, have both earned their certified hospice and palliative care nursing certification.
By earning this certification, they have proven competence and increased their knowledge across the spectrum of hospice and palliative care. The certification is a recognized quality marker by patients, physicians, providers, quality organizations, insurers, credentialers, and the federal government in an atmosphere of increasing awareness regarding quality in health care and appropriate utilization of services.
Pekar has worked for High Peaks hospice since August 2010. Prior to that, his nursing career was spent on the medical/surgical floor at Saratoga Hospital and with Visiting Nurses in Albany as a case manager. He has been involved in the health field as an EMT and was part of the Medical Emergency Response Team at International Paper.
Duerr has been with High Peaks Hospice since June 2019. Before she started at High Peaks, she was owner and partner at Fazzi Associates for 12 years, where she ran the international coding system for hospice and home care. Duerr has been in the post-acute services of palliative care and hospice for 32 years.
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Whiteman Osterman & Hanna LLP law firm has announced three new partners: Christopher W. Meyer, Monica R. Skanes and Brian M. Wang.
Meyer leads the firm’s Privacy, Cybersecurity and Information Management practice, helping clients protect critical business and consumer information. He also represents clients in commercial litigation, corporate transactions, and regulatory compliance matters. He represents clients in the financial services, health care, education, information technology, digital marketing, website development, mobile application, and manufacturing industries.
Meyer also volunteers as the chairman of the Albany KnowledgeNet Chapter of the International Association of Privacy Professionals and vice chairman of the Clifton Park-Halfmoon Emergency Corps.
Skanes joined Whiteman Osterman & Hanna in 2011. She is a member of the firm’s Education, Labor and Employment, and Litigation practice groups. She represents both public and private employers, including schools and colleges, on a wide range of education and employment law issues. She regularly counsels employers to help avoid legal issues, conducts complex and sensitive student and employee investigations, and defends employers in discrimination actions and other complex litigation.
She has served as the Secretary of the Labor and Employment Law Section of the New York State Bar Association. She frequently shares her expertise by presenting on education and employment topics, including First Amendment issues, the Fair Labor Standards Act and paid family leave.
Wang joined Whiteman Osterman & Hanna in 2018. He focuses his practice on all aspects of immigration law, including family- and employment-based immigration, I-9 compliance and work site enforcement, nonimmigrant employment and investor visas, asylum and humanitarian relief, naturalization, inadmissibility waivers, and removal defense.
He consults with criminal defense attorneys on the immigration consequences of criminal convictions and advises on crafting plea agreements to avoid deportation. He has developed an expertise in citizenship matters, including military naturalization, expeditious naturalization, and complex acquired/derivative citizenship claims.