Some of our UCC employees: Edward Somuah, UCC Radiology Technologist; Gloria Dejesus, UCC Medical Office Specialist; Iris Latorre, UCC Administrator.
Many employees have asked me: When are we building the new hospital? I think that some are worried it will never be built. Let me assure you: it’s being built! The demolition scaffolding is up on the existing structure that needs to be removed in order to build the new facility. If you go by the site you will see people busily taking that structure down piece by piece. Creating something brand new takes a long time. We have an entire team devoted to making our downtown network and new hospital exactly what it needs to be for our community.
Iris Latorre, UCC administrator, and Erick Eiting, UCC Medical Director, in front of the “My Mount Sinai” campaign backdrop.
In addition to the new hospital construction, we’re already expanding our ambulatory programs. On October 4th, we cut the ribbon at the official opening of the Urgent Care Center (UCC) at Union Square. Our wonderful employees there are already busy serving our community.
Also, pictured is the rendering of our new Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village practice that will open later this fall. This practice will offer primary care and specialty services seven days a week to the Stuy Town community and beyond.
We also kicked off a brand new “My Mount Sinai” marketing campaign focusing entirely on services South of 34th Street. We are highlighting many of our exceptional inpatient and ambulatory programs. One component of this marketing campaign is a complete takeover of all advertising space at the Union Square subway station – one of the busiest in the entire city. The campaign also includes many other components including social media and print.
On Tuesday, Mount Sinai took over the 14th Street-Union Square subway station with “My Mount Sinai” ads, focusing on services offered south of 34th Street.
My favorite part of the marketing campaign was having the opportunity to hear from you. We collected stories from hundreds of employees at our downtown inpatient and ambulatory locations. Many of you wrote that Mount Sinai is a home-away-from-home for you and your colleagues. I couldn’t agree more. Thank you for sharing your stories and for consistently creating such a warm and welcoming atmosphere for our patients.
MSBI dietary employees Guerline Duplessy and Davia Eastman with their “My Mount Sinai” swag.
Rosaura Torres and Nakia Mitchell of 7 Dazian in front of the “My Mount Sinai” employee table at MSBI. Look at all of those stories!
This is only the beginning. There is much more in store for all of our downtown locations, and I can’t wait to share it all with you.
Transporters from left to right: Nicholas Athanasopoulos, Derek Mohammed, Eunice Moronta, Heriberto Diaz, Amanda Rabelo and Louis Townsend.
We see our transporters every day throughout the hospital, moving patients to and from their many points of care. The transporters know the hospital like that back of their hand, walk miles every day, and have a keen sense of timing and detail.
More important, in a very short period of time, they develop relationships with our patients and offer solace and companionship during what can be a lonely process.
Transporters focus on four points of contact with each patient: greeting, transport, handoff, and goodbye. It seems simple, but recognizing our patients as people by greeting them can make all of the difference in the world, especially on a busy day full of uncertainty.
We have many patients who do not speak English, and luckily many of our transporters speak several languages. Even when they don’t share a language with the patient, our compassionate transporters provide comfort with smiles, eye contact, and warmth.
Derek Mohammed with Lucia Bonnier, senior director of the lab and Louis Townsend.
Recently, transporter Derek Mohammed came across a lab test specimen sitting in one of our hallways and took the extra time to research the test and get it where it needed to go. Many would have passed by and continued with their day. It is this attention to every detail from Derek and our other wonderful employees that contributes to our excellent quality and safety scores. For his passion, Derek received a “CCAPE” award.
Do you work with a superhero like Derek? If so, please recognize them by nominating them for a CCAPE award. Mount Sinai’s core values are Creative, Collaborative, Agile, Passionate and Empathic. Find out more about how to nominate your colleagues here.
As always, you can keep up with all things MSBI and Downtown on our blog.
Night transporters from left to right: Cory Black, Robert Love, Omohegbele Eromosele, Kendra Smith, Cheyanne Ferguson.
Louis Armstrong Center for Music and Medicine employees: Marie Grippo, administrative assistant; Dan Schteingardt, former LACMM intern and now music therapist at St. Luke’s, and International Fellow, Rieko Eguchi.
This week I had the pleasure of attending The Wonderful World of Music, a fundraiser benefitting the Louis Armstrong Center for Music and Medicine (LACMM) at Mount Sinai Beth Israel. It was a world-class event for our world-class music therapy program and I was happy to see so many from our MSBI family there.
Each year the event honors musicians, physicians, and patients who are advocates of music and music therapy. I was privileged to help introduce Dr. Charles P. Melone, MSBI professor of Orthopedics. He has changed many patients’ lives. But, I enjoyed hearing about one of Dr. Melone’s patients in particular with long-term arthritis. He was able to continue playing music thanks to the help of Dr. Melone.
I was also excited to see the honoree Jackson Browne, a favorite singer/songwriter of mine.
Our music therapy department is constantly breaking new ground on integrating music and medicine. This event raises funds for their incredible research, patient care, and educational programs. We are lucky to have them at MSBI.
What a wonderful world and what a wonderful night for our wonderful staff!
Two of the ten music therapy interns, Yi Xia and Thomas Schneider, who will spend the next nine months training with LACMM, helped out at the silent auction.
Medical Director of the LACMM Stephan Quentzel, MD and Director and Associate Professor at Icahn School of Medicine Joanne Loewy, MT-BC, LCAT introducing the honorees.
Dean of Graduate Medical Studies, Michael Leitman, MD; Charles P. Melone, MD and MSBI orthopedic surgeon; MSBI President Jeremy Boal, MD.
What an amazing, exhausting, and exhilarating week!
I’m pleased to report that, after four days of intense scrutiny, you’ve earned high marks from The Joint Commission. We’ve had a very successful survey!
All of you worked very hard to get ready for this week, and it showed. The surveyors stressed over and over again that they were amazed by your technical expertise and compassionate care. The surveyors were also impressed by your eagerness to tell them about your work and your efforts to improve care. Many of your programs were identified as “best practices” that should be shared with other hospitals.
The surveyors also identified many ways that we can make patients safer–and we’re committed to making all of the necessary changes. In the weeks and months ahead, I’ll talk in more detail about the survey findings. I look forward to partnering with you as we search for ways to improve our care based on the survey recommendations.
For now, I’d like to share some pictures of your friends knocking themselves out to get through the survey.
From upper left, then clockwise: Chelsea housekeeping and administrative staff did amazing work; Union Square dermatology team; 9 Silver huddling in preparation for The Joint Commission; Mount Sinai Doctors Senior Health Staff hosted surveyors early this morning!
From left, the clockwise: Chelsea PET/CT tech; Chelsea’s ambulatory surgery unit is always on call; Union Square housekeeper, Isabel Rodriguez; MSBI clinical leaders celebrate after the results in Petrie.
From upper left, then clockwise: All high fives and thumbs ups from Union Square pediatrics; Alexis Kowalski, Senior Director of OB/GYN in Union Square, has earned a nap and so have you; full house in Podell auditorium for the results.
From upper left, then clockwise: Union Square Department of Medicine; Union Square administration, finance counseling, and facilities staff celebrate a great week of teamwork; Cardiology at Union Square; all smiles and ice cream after the survey at Petrie.
I’ve never been prouder to be a part of MSBI. I am humbled by your compassion and dedication to each other, and to our patients.
It’s an exciting time to be at Mount Sinai Beth Israel. The new urgent care center at Union Square will open next week, and we continue the construction for our interdisciplinary programs there. Chelsea will soon finish construction, and we will have a brand new Stuyvesant Town practice in the fall. In the meantime, external demolition and clinical planning have begun for our new hospital. And, we are working on creating a more supportive model for our behavioral health programs, which will grow in the future. It’s a lot to keep up with, but you can always visit this page to get the pulse on what’s going on in our community.
Did you know MSBI has a YouTube channel? We’ll be creating videos that explain to our community who we are—a family with the mission to deliver expert care that meets the needs of our neighborhoods and beyond. Click on the videos below to see more.
There will be more videos coming your way soon!
Thank you all for your focus during this busy time and in preparation for our Joint Commission survey, which could be very soon. The survey is an important learning time for us. I want you to work hard, stay honest, and ask questions when our survey is in progress. We will be here to support you during the survey and after it, when we will have the opportunity to improve our patient care and grow from what we learn.
In May, I had the pleasure of introducing one of our MICU nurses, Althea Elliot, RN, when she spoke at a recognition ceremony hosted by the 1199-SEIU Training and Education Fund. Althea was chosen to tell her story and how 1199-SEIU has supported her through her many career accomplishments, including very recently becoming an American citizen. It was such an honor to be there and to connect with her.
Althea has become one of my own role models, and when you meet her through this video I think you will understand why. Check out the first in our series where I will be interviewing employees and learning what being part of the BI community means to them.
If you know someone in need, Althea would like you to know about the food pantry she is leading at Bethel Temple of Praise, 191 North Broadway, Yonkers, N.Y., 10701 on the third Tuesday of every month.
I can’t wait for you to meet more of our outstanding employees.
We also kicked off a brand new “My Mount Sinai” marketing campaign focusing entirely on services South of 34th Street. We are highlighting many of our exceptional inpatient and ambulatory programs. One component of this marketing campaign is a complete takeover of all advertising space at the Union Square subway station – one of the busiest in the entire city. The campaign also includes many other components including social media and print.
On Tuesday, Mount Sinai took over the 14th Street-Union Square subway station with “My Mount Sinai” ads, focusing on services offered south of 34th Street.
