

UHS Senior Living at Ideal partners with Binghamton University to provide best-in-class speech therapy services
August 18, 2025
UHS is proud to foster strong community partnerships that help deliver leading healthcare across the Greater Binghamton region. As part of this commitment, UHS Senior Living at Ideal has joined with Binghamton University to provide exceptional speech therapy services for patients while giving future caregivers hands-on training and real-world experience.
Encountering a shortage of speech therapy resources in the area, the team at UHS Ideal contacted the Division of Speech and Language Pathology (SLP) in Binghamton University’s Decker College of Nursing and Health Sciences to explore a partnership aimed at filling this critical community need.
"Speech therapy is probably the most difficult discipline to recruit for long-term care facilities, but it is a very important role to fill,” said Lakshmi Poranki, director of physical rehabilitation at UHS Ideal. “With Binghamton University employing highly qualified faculty and educating so many promising students right here in our community, it occurred to us that a partnership could have a huge mutual benefit.”
When the University’s Division of SLP was founded in 2020, Rodney Gabel, PhD, CCC-SLP, professor and founding director of the program, also identified the shortage of speech therapy resources available locally. For Dr. Gabel and his team, forming community partnerships to address this need for services has always been an important part of their mission.
“We take seriously the importance of utilizing University resources to benefit the local population. Community partnerships are also hugely valuable for our students, rounding out their learning experience,” said Dr. Gabel. “Going into 2025, we had the goal of establishing a partnership with a community-based, long-term care facility. This opportunity with UHS Ideal emerged at the perfect time.”
Representatives from UHS Ideal and the University’s Division of SLP sat down for a preliminary meeting in June 2025. By the end of that first discussion, the two parties had signed an agreement, in which the licensed speech therapy pathologists on the University faculty will provide their services to patients at UHS Ideal.
“This agreement is a true ‘win-win’ for both parties, and a huge win for the community. UHS Ideal will now be able to offer comprehensive speech therapy services not typically found in long-term care facilities,” said James Shadduck, administrator at UHS Senior Living at Ideal.
This new partnership comes on the heels of existing training programs for students enrolled in the Physical Therapy and Occupational Therapy programs at Binghamton University, who have been given the opportunity to gain firsthand professional experience at UHS Ideal, learning from staff and working directly with patients on their care.
The new speech therapy partnership is unique, as it provides a part-time employment opportunity for faculty members, who will also be able to bring along students for training sessions. These students in turn receive a one-of-a-kind training experience, shadowing the professional practitioner as they care for patients and experiencing the clinical space firsthand.
Sundeep Venkatesan, PhD, CCC-SLP, assistant professor in SLP at Binghamton University, began working part-time as a speech therapist at UHS Ideal in the summer of 2025. In the fall 2025 semester, Dr. Venkatesan will conduct weekly training with a graduate student at UHS Ideal while delivering expert care in speech therapy.
An additional pathologist, Natalie Braman, CCC-SLP, is training with Dr. Venkatesan and will be spending dedicated time at UHS Ideal going forward, providing services and supervising further student trainings beginning in the spring 2026 semester. The program is expected to continue to grow over time, providing more opportunities for both faculty and students.
“UHS Ideal has a growth mindset. We want to work with organizations that have that mindset, that are always looking to do better,” Dr. Gabel said. Mr. Shadduck agreed, stating that the alignment of values is at the core of this collaboration: “This partnership is about more than just an employment contract; it’s an affirmation of our UHS Values that drive the best in quality care. This alignment emphasizes that Binghamton University shares those same values. We are proud to be their partner.”