Handing off the future of Niagara Hospice
Jan. 6—President and CEO of Niagara Hospice John Lomeo has announced he'll be retiring from the organization on July 31.
Lomeo said that part of his job now is to plan for his "succession" by Carlo Figliomeni, current chief financial officer and chief operating officer.
Figliomeni came to work for Niagara Hospice 19 years ago and has worked closely with Lomeo all the while. His background is in finance and information technology, but since the early days of his career with Ernst & Young, he has worked with healthcare systems.
Over the next seven months, Figliomeni said, he'll be working on finding his own replacement in the CFO's office. He said this may be an opportunity to hire from within the organization, something he'd welcome, and by the time Lomeo formally steps away, the non-profit organization will be ready to continue delivering the level of care that the community has come to expect.
"There's never a dull moment," he said.
Lomeo's own story goes back to 1978 when he was attending Canisius College. A professor and friend, Marguerite Kermis, asked whether he'd be interested in enrolling in a new gerontology program. With that certificate, on top of majoring in psychology, he was able to get a job at a nursing home in New York City, and later worked at the Downtown Nursing Home on Seventh Street in Buffalo, where he met his wife, Tina, who was working as a nurse's aide. He credits Kermis for shaping both his professional life and personal life.
After a 44-year career in health care administration, Lomeo said now is a good time to step away. All of the companies under the Hospice and Palliative Care Group's umbrella, including an insurance company and medical transport company, are "humming" and the organization is in a strong position for the future.
To grow Niagara Hospice, Lomeo said, he went about building a "hotel that has health care capabilities" rather than a nursing home with a hospice wing. At the end of life, patients and their families should be treated to hospitality, he said.
The approach paid off and Niagara Hospice ended as a model for others in the industry; Lomeo himself visited different states and Canada to design similar programs.
As part of his long-term plan, he said the organization is moving toward "chronic care" rather than "terminal care." Chronic care focuses on long-term illnesses such as diabetes and dementia so the transition to hospice care, when it does come, is easier for the patient to make.
Asked about some of his accomplishments, Lomeo mentioned a series of firsts for Niagara Hospice. It was the first hospice in the country to have an accredited pharmacy program, and the first hospice in New York state to have a relationship with a nearby nursing home, in this case, Northgate. It also is the only hospice in Western New York that has voluntarily brought in a third party to evaluate its operations, the only hospice in New York to have two service wings in one building, and the first hospice to have its own ambulance.
During the Covid pandemic, Lomeo oversaw construction of "negative pressure rooms" at Niagara Hospice House in order to allow for admittance of patients with Covid.
"We never stopped visitation during Covid," he said.
Following his retirement, Lomeo plans to remain in the community and see what else he can do. He was a longstanding volunteer for the Historic Palace Theatre as the building was renovated and he thinks he'll try to do something along those lines.
"I'll take a little time off and see where I can be useful in the community," he said.
