PEDIATRIC PROGRAM
Physicians
Craig D. Lapin, MD
Nurses
Ginny Drapeau, BSN, RN
Ginny is the Clinical and Research Coordinator for the CCCFC. She coordinates the CF clinic for both pediatrics and adults. She also runs our clinical research program, which involves recruiting people for the various studies and conducting study visits and collecting data.
Debby Potticary, RN, BSN
Debby is the Clinical and Research Coordinator for the CCCFC. She coordinates the CF clinic for both pediatrics and adults. She also runs our clinical research program, which involves recruiting people for the various studies and conducting study visits and collecting data.
Pulmonary Division Nurses – Christine Mozille, RN, and Linda Sheerman, RN, handle the day-to-day phone calls, paperwork and insurance issues for the CF population.
Respiratory Therapists
Toni Grady, RRT, Melaine McLeod, RRT, Lynn Dougherty, RRT and R.B. Curtis, RRT
Both the pediatric and adult respiratory therapists will perform pulmonary function testing in the clinics, assist with obtaining necessary respiratory equipment, and teach airway clearance techniques and well as appropriate use and cleaning of respiratory devices.
Physical Therapist
Anne Lapin, MCSP, LPT
Anne provides instruction and review of various airway clearance techniques. She is also available to provide advice about exercise and pulmonary rehabilitation programs.
Natalie Moore, DPT
Natalie graduated from the University of Vermont with her Doctor of Physical Therapy in May 2010. She started working with the Adult Cystic Fibrosis population in July of 2011. She collaborates with patients to work on maintaining exercise tolerance during and after a CF exacerbation, as well as to assist with maintaining chest wall mobility and instruction and review of various airway clearance techniques. She is working with the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation in a PT mentorship program in order to further her understanding and to develop her role as a PT working with adult patients with CF.
Social Worker
Sarah Cabahug, LCSW
Sarah is the pediatric and adult social workers for the CCCFC program. They are available at all clinic visits and via phone outside of clinic times to provide assistance with dealing with all of the issues of a chronic disease, assisting with coping, providing support and information regarding insurance and financial assistance. They can also make referrals to outside agencies and therapists as needed.
Dietitian
Joann Kosinski, RD
Joann is the pediatric and adult Dietician for the CCCFC program. The dietician provides nutritional counseling and support for all of the people who attend our center, during clinic visits and also outside of scheduled clinic hours.
ADULT PROGRAM
Physicians
R. Frederic Knauft, MD / Medical Director
rknauft@harthosp.org
J. Samuel Pope, MD / Assistant Medical Director
spope@harthosp.org
Erika Cappelluti, MD
ecappel@harthosp.org
John McArdle, MD
jmcardle@harthosp.org
Nurses
Sandy Trifiro, RN
strifiro@harthosp.org
Research Coordinator
Dee Rendock, APRN
drendoc@harthosp.org
Dee has been a Nurse practitioner with Connecticut Multispecialty Group for the past 11 years, joining them in 1999. She has been a nurse for 25 years, all associated with Hartford Hospital. Ms. Rendock has spent 15 of those years as an RN on various medical- surgical, neurosurgical and surgical intensive care units. Prior to completing her educational requirements as a nurse practitioner, she was the nurse manager in the surgical trauma intensive care unit. Her association with cystic fibrosis began with providing hospital care to CF patients during acute exacerbations. Since then, as the Adult CF program has expanded, her involvement with cystic fibrosis patients has also grown as she became the Adult CF Program Coordinator. She functions as one of the providers in the CF clinic and follows up with various patient issues, both emergent and routine on a telephone basis.
In addition to CF clinic and inpatient treatment , she has been involved with CF patients as an active member of the Family Advisory Board with subgroup membership and participation in the Transition Task Group. For the past 2 years, she has also participated in the evolution of a separate Adult Patient Advisory Board.
Ms. Rendock has attended the North American Cystic Fibrosis Conference for several years, both as a speaker and to maintain up to date knowledge on the latest in CF care. She has also participated in the CF Foundation multisite visit of our Center in LLC VI.
She continues to assist in the CF educational process and collaboration with the hospital based residency program, medical and surgical specialists as well as providing inservices to respiratory, nursing and physical therapy students and staff.
Jenifer Ash APRN, MPH
jash@harthosp.org
Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS) / APRN Hospitalist: Department of Medicine : Hartford Hospital: October 2002 - present
Jenifer has been a member of the Adult Cystic Fibrosis team for the last 10 years. Initially, her involvement was in the inpatient arena and helping with inpatient standards of care, quality of care and patient satisfaction. Her scope has broadened to assume more of the CNS role accountabilities and span both the inpatient and outpatient settings. Her involvement includes: daily operations and process management, integrating Microsystems as the Adult CF Clinic has fully transitioned over to the Hartford Hospital campus, quality improvement initiatives, patient safety and patient-centered care. She has participated in two Learning and Leadership Collaboratives (LLC), LLCII and LLCVI and is very committed to continuous quality improvements and to improving the quality of life for those with the disease.
Dietitians
Tessa Mah, RD, CD-N
tmah@harthosp.org
Tess began in her position as the Dietitian for the Adult Cystic Fibrosis Program in June 2006. She collaborates with patients to implement an appropriate plan of care by helping them to identify realistic goals to attain optimal nutrition status and providing guidance regarding individualized meal plans and nutritional supplements. She completed a Dietetic Internship at Saint Joseph College in 2006 and in 2007 received a certificate in weight management from the American Dietetics Association (ADA). In pursuit of her Masters in Nutrition at Saint Joseph College which she completed in 2009, she conducted a research project which explored dietary vitamin D intake in adults with CF.
Social Worker
Amy Mueller, LCSW
amueller@harthosp.org
Amy is the pediatric and adult social worker for the CCCFC program. She has been a Licensed Clinical Social Worker since 1992, practicing previously in Massachusetts. She obtained her Master of Social Work degree from Smith College, and has held several outpatient and inpatient mental health positions since then. She began in her current position as the Social Worker for the Adult Program of the CCCFC in January 2006 and has steadily developed and maintained relationships with patients in order to advance their quality of life.
Mrs. Mueller developed a standardized Psychosocial Assessment Form for Clinic use, as well as a Patient Satisfaction Survey to track the quality of patient Clinic visits. She has been involved in the CCCFC’s Patient Family Advisory Board and recently helped launch a separate Adult Advisory Board specific to the Adult CF Program. She has also been heavily involved in developing new protocols for transition from the Pediatric to Adult CF Program and has done so as part of the Center-wide Transition QI project and in forming a Transition Task Group comprised of parents and patients from our CF community.
Her contributions also include items in the CF Spirit Newsletter and content for the Center’s website. She has attended the North American Cystic Fibrosis Conference in 2006 and 2008, and participated in the Learning and Leadership Collaborative VI of the CF Foundation in June 2008. In February 2009, she was invited by the CF Foundation as an expert in adult CF Social Work to participate in the development of a curriculum for a new Learning and Leadership Collaborative devoted to quality improvement in adult CF centers nationwide.
Allison Moreau, BS, RRT
amoreau@harthosp.org
Respiratory Coordinator of Adult CF Clinic, Pulmonary Rehab Specialist, Hartford Hospital Pulmonary Lab, JB 240
Allison Moreau is a pulmonary rehab specialist who has been involved with the CF population for the past 12 years. She has been at Hartford Hospital since 1987 and has enjoyed working in the respiratory field in several different areas. In December of 2006, she assumed the role of respiratory coordinator of the Adult CF Clinic. Her other roles include being adjunct faculty member at the University of Hartford (2000-present) and a pulmonary rehab educator (1988-present).
Her focus during CF clinic is to work collaboratively with her patients to form a partnership and bond of trust to ensure goals of care such as airway clearance and infection control. The clinic allows her the opportunity to integrate her pulmonary rehab knowledge to motivate patients in self management of an individualized care plan based on patient preference.
Jenn McLeod, RRT
Jmcleod@harthosp.org
Jenn graduated from the University of Southern Indiana with an Associates of Science in Respiratory Care. She has been with Hartford Hospital for 10 years, and for the past six has been the Core Therapist on EISD. Her primary role is to care for the needs of pulmonary patients, including those with asthma, COPD and Adult Cystic Fibrosis. This involves working between EISD and the Respiratory department to ensure quality care and education to all staff. She is also very involved with the plan of care and holds a personal goal of quality improvement of inpatient care of all patients. She is a member of AARC and NBRC and attends the NACFC every year to be current in treatment of the patient with Cystic Fibrosis. She enjoys working with the CF population due to the variances of the disease and the feeling of helping someone who truly wants to have a better quality of life.
Patty Perritano
Lori Ducette
Wende Raymond
wraymon@harthosp.org
Administrative Associate