FAQs: Frequently asked questions

Northwell Health Physician Partners (Physician Partners) is the medical group practice of Northwell Health, representing more than 4,900 employed physicians. Physician Partners is the largest group practice in New York State, representing over 100 specialties, practicing in all 21 hospitals and more than 890 ambulatory care locations throughout Northwell Health. For more information about Physician Partners, please visit www.northwell.edu/physician-partners.  

All employed physicians are eligible for five of the six Truly Awards, specifically: the Truly Caring Touch Award, Truly Rising Star Award, Truly Leadership Award, Truly Mentorship Award, or Truly Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Award.  

All voluntary physicians who are a part of the credentialed medical staff and not employed are eligible for the Truly Outstanding Contribution Award. This award is new in 2023.  

When visiting the nomination form, please search for a physician using the search box. Only eligible physicians will appear in your search, and then you may select the physician that you want to nominate.

If you would like to check on the eligiblity of a physician, please email trulyawards@northwell.edu.

Allied health providers including nurse practitioners and physician assistants are not eligible for The Truly Awards. 

Northwell Health Physician Partners created The Truly Awards to inspire all Northwell Health team members to recognize the physicians of Northwell Health. Working alongside us, their courage and determination inspire and change the lives of their patients, colleagues and communities. With The Truly Awards, we’ll celebrate our physicians for their positive impact on our lives. 

The Truly Awards is designed to align with the Northwell Health values; Truly Compassionate, Truly Innovative, Truly Ambitious, Truly Together and Truly Inclusive. Our values help guide how we act, and they inspire us to bring our best selves to work every day. The Truly Awards aim to honor physicians who embody these values. New this year, we are expanding The Truly Awards to include our voluntary physicians, helping us recognize all of the physicians who work alongside us. 

Beginning Monday, Oct. 16, 2023, all Northwell team members and physicians can nominate physicians (both employed and voluntary) for one or more of the six Truly Awards. The nomination phase will be open through Friday, Dec. 1, 2023, at 11:59 p.m. ET.  

• Only employed and voluntary physicians and dentists are eligible for a nomination (see Nomination Criteria section for details). Nominations can only be submitted through The Truly Awards website at TrulyAwards.northwell.edu. 

• An HR review will occur throughout the nomination phase to ensure nominees meet the criteria for eligibility. All nominations will be reviewed by the Physician Scoring Panel, which includes physicians who are members of the Northwell Health Physician Partners Physician Engagement Committee and voluntary physicians. 

• After the Physician Scoring Panel, the top-ranked nominations will be reviewed by an Initial Selection Committee, which includes members of the Northwell Health Physician Partners Executive Committee, the Physician Partners Governance Committee Chairs, Medical Directors, and other designated reviewers to determine finalists. 

• The selection process will run through mid-January 2024. At that time, we will identify our top 30 finalists. Those finalists will move forward to the voting phase, where team members and physicians can cast their votes for one physician to receive an award in each of the six award categories. 

All Northwell team members and physicians will be invited to vote beginning Monday, Jan. 29, 2024, through Friday, Feb. 9, 2024. Voting will take place on The Truly Awards website at TrulyAwards.northwell.edu. 

• A Final Selection Committee will be engaged from Monday, Feb. 12, 2024, through Friday, Feb. 23, 2024 , to determine the award recipients. The Final Selection Committee is representative of select senior executives throughout Northwell Health. Voting results will be a factor in helping determine the six Truly Award recipients. 

The Truly Awards are awarded based on the voice of Northwell Health team members and physicians, whereas the Patients’ Choice Awards are based on the voice of our patients. The Northwell Health Physician Partners (NHPP) Patients’ Choice Awards are awarded to any NHPP physician or dentist who scores five stars on their Patient Satisfaction rating for an 18-month period. To be eligible for the Patients’ Choice Awards, physicians and dentists are required to see patients at least 50% of their time. Recipients of the Patients’ Choice Awards and The Truly Awards are honored during The Truly Awards celebration phase. 

The Dr. Lawrence Smith Lifetime Achievement Award honors a Northwell Health Physician Partner leader who embodies Dr. Smith’s commitment to clinical excellence, education, mentorship and the promotion of diversity, equity and inclusion. This extraordinary physician has distinguished accomplishments in the medical field over a significant term of service and a career that is an example for others. Members of the Board of Governors, Hospital Medical Directors and Executive Directors and other medical group leaders nominate potential recipients of this award. The Selection Committee then determines the award recipient. The Selection Committee is representative of select senior executives throughout Northwell Health. The recipient will be honored alongside our Truly Award finalists and nominees and Patients’ Choice Award recipients during The Truly Awards celebration phase.  

You may nominate an eligible physician or dentist who has been honored in the past. To be eligible for The Truly Caring Touch Award, Truly Rising Star Award, Truly Leadership Award, Truly Mentorship Award and The Truly Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Award, physicians and dentists of Northwell Health must meet the following criteria: 

• Be an active employed physician of Northwell Health with an MD, DO, MBBS, DDS, or DMD degree. Northwell Health Physician Partners allied health providers such as nurse practitioners and physician assistants, as well as residents and fellows, are not currently eligible.

• Employed by Northwell Health on or before July 31, 2023. 

• Be in good standing as determined by the Service Line leaders, Ambulatory Human Resources and Northwell Compliance Office. 

Physicians who hold a specific leadership title have been excluded from eligibility including any Senior Vice President, Executive Director, Service Line Chair, Medical School Chair and Physician System Executives such as the Physician-In-Chief and Chief Medical Officer. Of note: The following titles are eligible for nomination: Medical Director, Vice President, Associate Medical Director, Hospital Chief Medical Officer, Chief Medical Information Officer and any local Chair of a facility or clinical service. 

The Rising Star Award includes one additional exclusion: The physician or dentist must have fewer than ten years of clinical practice experience. This will be measured by the individual’s New York State license issue date, which must be issued no later than Aug. 1, 2013.  

To be eligible for the Truly Outstanding Contribution Award, physicians and dentists of Northwell Health must meet the following criteria:

• Be a voluntary doctor or dentist with an MD, DO, MBBS, DDS or DMD degree. Northwell Health allied health providers such as nurse practitioners and physician assistants, as well as residents and fellows, are not currently eligible. 

• Credentialled by Northwell Health on or before July 31, 2023. 

• Be in good standing as determined by the Service Line leaders, Medical Directors, and Northwell Central Medical Staff Services Office. 

All team members and physicians of Northwell Health with a Northwell universal ID and password can nominate the physicians of Northwell Health for The Truly Awards. Physicians cannot self-nominate. 

Northwell Health physicians and dentists should possess attributes that align with the award for which they are nominated, and those attributes must be documented in the nomination submission. Nominators should provide specific examples to demonstrate the attributes of the person they are nominating. Read below for the award descriptions and attributes.  

Truly Caring Touch Award  

Award description: This employed physician embodies compassion and has an exceptional caring touch and bedside manner, reflecting the deep caring that is the essence of doctoring. 

Attributes: 

• Builds extraordinary connections with patients. 

• Embodies compassion and shows great care and respect for patients, team members, caregivers and communities. 

• Excels in the art of medicine and prioritizes the well-being and care of patients. 

Truly Rising Star Award 

Award description: This employed physician, while relatively new to medicine, shines brightly by making significant contributions to education, research or healthcare delivery. 

Attributes: 

• Is an innovative solution seeker and embraces additional responsibilities and growth. 

• Has an open mind and demonstrates great promise in the advancement of healthcare. 

• Significantly contributes to education, research or healthcare delivery by always looking for new ways to improve the field of medicine. 

Truly Leadership Award 

Award description: This employed physician has the desire and ability to create a vision that pushes boundaries, unlocks potential and inspires colleagues and teams to seize opportunities to make healthcare better. 

Attributes: 

• Has demonstrated meaningful accomplishments leading others formally or informally to support Northwell’s growth and advance its mission. 

• Sees the big picture, is visionary and inspirational, empowering colleagues to realize their strengths to contribute to the advancement of healthcare. 

• Creates and effectively communicates a vision for improvements in medicine and how it can be provided to patients and the community. 

Truly Mentorship Award 

Award description: This employed physician selflessly gives time, energy and support to help colleagues and others recognize their potential and achieve greatness. 

Attributes:  

• Understands the power of togetherness and proactively offers time, energy and support to lift colleagues and others to their full potential. 

• Builds trusting teams, unity and connection, while coaching colleagues and others in a caring manner without any expectation of recognition. 

• Constructively guides colleagues and others through their work challenges toward one collective mission. 

Truly Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Award  

Award description: This employed physician promotes belonging, values diversity, and advances inclusion and the equity of care for all. 

Attributes: 

• Champions inclusion in the workplace, creates equitable growth to maximize the potential of all team members and advances healthcare through educational experiences supporting diversity and inclusion for colleagues, team members and trainees. 

• Values diversity, breaks down biases, raises health and advances the equity of care for all. 

• Seeks new ways to advance diversity, health equity and inclusion for all and is actively involved in community-based diversity and health equity programs. 

Truly Outstanding Contribution Award  

Award description: This voluntary physician has made an outstanding contribution to Northwell Health and the communities we serve. 

Attributes: 

• Promotes a compassionate patient experience and demonstrates collaboration working alongside fellow clinicians and team members. 

• Embodies and is committed to our values. 

• Makes an outstanding contribution to the communities we serve through the advancement of education, effective leadership and exemplary service. 

All Northwell Health team members and physicians can nominate one or more physicians for each award. You cannot nominate a physician more than once for the same award, but you can nominate the same physician for two or more different awards (where applicable). Please note, voluntary physicians are only eligible for one award, The Truly Outstanding Contribution Award.  

Yes, you may also nominate the same physician. 

Yes, recipients of the Patients’ Choice Award may be nominated for and be recipients of The Truly Awards.  

Double-check that you have searched for the individual correctly. Follow the exact search naming convention described above the search box. Search for a physician by entering only the physician’s first name or last name. Start typing the first few letters of the physician’s first name or last name, and then a list of physicians with the closest match will appear. Scroll through the list and select the physician you would like to nominate. You may need to wait a moment for the list of physician matches to appear. Read all the instructions on the nomination form carefully.  

If the physician you are trying to nominate is not appearing in the search, he or she may not be an active employed physician, or he or she does not meet the criteria. Remember, only voluntary physicians are eligible for The Truly Outstanding Contribution Award, while employed physicians are eligible for the other five awards. 

See the nomination criteria under “Who can be nominated?” for more information or contact trulyawards@northwell.edu for help with your search.

You can find an eligible physician or dentist of Northwell Health by searching for his or her name within the nomination form for all awards, except the Truly Outstanding Contribution Award. You may search for voluntary physicians in the nomination form of The Truly Outstanding Contribution Award. If you would like assistance to determine eligibility or do not see the name of a specific physician or dentist, please email trulyawards@northwell.edu and a member of the Physician Partners Administrative Team will respond in one to two business days. 

Yes, you can save your nomination and submit it at a later time. We encourage you to save your nomination frequently. The site will save your work every five minutes but will log you out after 30 minutes of inactivity. You may find your saved nominations at “My Account” > “My Nominations” > “In progress.” Each time a nomination form is started it will automatically save to your account. 

You will see a confirmation message on your screen after submitting the nomination form, which will confirm that your nomination was received. You will also receive an email in your Northwell Health email inbox that confirms your nomination submission. 

Nominated physicians will be notified of their nomination after the nomination phase has ended. Additionally, a copy of the nomination will be mailed to every nominated physician.  

All nominated physicians receive multiple levels of recognition to highlight their extraordinary efforts for going above and beyond. These include organization-wide and leadership announcements, participation at  The Truly Awards celebration event and a certificate, plaque or crystal. At the hospital, practice, regional and service line level, local recognition activities will include department communications and acknowledgements in honor of all nominated physicians. The recipients of The Truly Awards will also receive public recognition in videos and print advertising. 

Voting will take place on Monday, Jan. 29, 2024, through Friday, Feb. 9, 2024, at 11:59 p.m. ET.  

All Northwell Health team members and physicians are eligible to vote.   

Read the nominator’s story about each finalist. Consider how well the finalist’s attributes, as explained in the story, meet the award category criteria for which the finalist was nominated. Then cast your vote for the physician you feel best deserves to be recognized with a Truly Award. Vote for one physician for each award category. Each team member and physician has the ability to cast six total votes: one vote in each of the six award categories.  

You may only vote for one finalist in each of the six award categories. You may vote for the same finalist if they are nominated in more than one award category. You cannot vote for a finalist more than once within one award category. 

Yes, you may encourage team members and physicians to vote for the physician you nominated.  

You can submit your votes during one or more sessions until Friday, Feb. 9, 2024, at 11:59 p.m. ET when voting officially closes. Once a vote is submitted, it is final. 

Once a vote is submitted, it is final and cannot be changed.  

All votes are automatically captured after you place them. You will see a confirmation on the screen after each vote. 

There are five finalists for each award category, for a total of 30 Truly Award finalists.

First, all nominations are reviewed by the Physician Scoring Panel, which includes physicians who are members of the Northwell Health Physician Partners Physician Engagement Committee and voluntary physicians. Each nomination is reviewed and scored using a rating scale based on how well the nominee meets the award attributes. Every nomination is scored by multiple judges. The more specific and detailed the nomination story is with examples of how the nominee meets the award criteria, the better the chance of the nomination scoring higher. After the Physician Scoring Panel, the top-scored nominations are reviewed by an Initial Selection Committee including members of the Northwell Health Physician Partners Executive Committee, Medical Directors, and other designated reviewers to determine finalists. The Initial Selection Committee selects finalists for each award category based on the nomination stories submitted by Northwell Health team members and physicians during the nomination phase from Oct. 16, 2023, through Dec. 1, 2023.  

Following the Northwell Health team member and physician voting period, a final selection committee will consider the vote results and determine the award recipients. 

The six award recipients (one for each of the six award categories) will be announced system-wide in the spring of 2024.  

For the best user experience, use Google Chrome. 

Questions about The Truly Awards should be directed to Trulyawards@northwell.edu. If you experience a technical issue using The Truly Awards website, call the IT Service Desk at (516, 631, 718) 470-7272. Or engage the Northwell Health myTech Chat via the team member intranet. 

The new Truly Awards app icon is an easy way to access The Truly Awards site on your desktop. Don’t have the app? Contact IT for support at mytech.northwell.edu

Double-check that you have searched for the individual correctly. Follow the exact search naming convention described above the search box. Search for a physician by entering only the physician’s first name or last name. Start typing the first few letters of the physician’s first name or last name, and a list of physicians with the closest match will appear. Scroll through the list and select the physician you would like to nominate. You may need to wait a moment for the list of physician matches to appear. Read all the instructions on the nomination form carefully.  

If the physician you are trying to nominate is not appearing in the search, he or she may not be an active employed physician, or he or she does not meet the criteria. Remember, only voluntary physicians are eligible for The Truly Outstanding Contribution Award – employed physicians are eligible for the other five awards. 

See the nomination criteria under “Who can be nominated?” for more information or contact trulyawards@northwell.edu for help with your search.

Use your Northwell Health credentials to log in. Users can only log into The Truly Awards website with their Northwell Health email/user id and password (Northwell credentials). Still having difficulty? Contact IT for support at mytech.northwell.edu.

Yes, you can save your nomination and submit it at a later time. We encourage you to save your nomination frequently. The site will save your work every five minutes but will log you out after 30 minutes of inactivity. You may find your saved nominations at “My Account” > “My Nominations” > “In progress.” Each time a nomination form is started it will automatically save to your account.