In 1996, Beth Israel opened the first ALS Certified Treatment Center of Excellence in all of New York City. We still have this program today, and the multidisciplinary care team there makes me incredibly proud.

Most cases of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, known as ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease, do not have a known cause, and every patient with the disease has a different journey. As the disease progresses, nerve cells stop sending messages to the body’s voluntary muscles. When this happens, patients begin to lose essential functions like walking, breathing, and swallowing.

Since the disease affects so many areas of the body, coordinating care can be extremely time consuming and difficult. That is where our team supports these patients. Patients who visit the center are seen by many specialists in one day, including neurologists, nurses, social workers, speech therapists, respiratory therapists, nutritionists, and other medical professionals. All of these providers then meet as a team to discuss each patient and their specific follow up needs.

Members of our ALS Clinic team from left to right: Kat Safavi, LCSW; Caroline Snell, MPA ; Emily Ripps, RN; Caroline Crooms, MD; Stephen Scelsa, MD; Kayvan Freeman, RN (ALS Association of NYC); Karen Ball, MPA, MS, CCC-SLP; Yajaira Pocchia, OT; Nommel Raymundo DPT; Daniel MacGowan, MD; Dave Lasko, RT.

Care Coordinator Caroline Snell elaborates on these challenges by saying, “We have to work with the system and around the system to get them everything they need to be as comfortable as possible for as long as possible.”

Social Worker Kat Safavi, LCSW, agrees and adds that another important part of the job is to “provide a safe space for patients, caregivers, and family to process the diagnosis, adjust to changes in functional status, consider goals for care and quality of life, and cope with disease progression.”

Two of the team members, Co-Director Stephen Scelsa, MD, and Speech Therapist Karen Ball, have been with the program since its inception. In August, the team welcomed Caroline Crooms, MD, a Neurologist who is also trained in Palliative Care. The current ALS Team at Mount Sinai Union Square has over 70 years of accumulated experience treating patients with ALS.

The ALS team works closely with the ALS Association-New York Chapter to provide access to support groups and additional resources for patients.

For Emily Ripps, Nurse Manager for Neurology and Neurosurgery, her connection to ALS began during childhood when her next-door neighbor, a single mother of two young children, was diagnosed with ALS and passed away within the year.

“It’s a devastating diagnosis because you have little time to take it in and process it. It requires rapid acceptance on the part of the patient and family members, and we have a dedicated, amazing team who treats them with dignity and gives them hope.”

Thanks to this amazing team for everything they do.

This week I want to highlight our patient admitting and throughput team. They are the air traffic controllers for the hospital, tirelessly working behind the scenes on 2 Dazian to ensure our patients end up in the right place with the right care team. This is more challenging than it sounds. Each patient has unique needs, and our transformation has complicated the process.

In addition to our throughput team upstairs, our registrars on 1 Linsky manage all of our scheduled surgical patients and direct admission. These are patients who come with a recommendation from their doctor to be admitted to the hospital, but who do not need to go through the emergency room. This team must intimately know our services and units to make sure the patient gets where they need to go.

Click below to scroll through photos of this team:

Both of these groups remain calm and flexible in rapidly changing situations. Their resilience and problem-solving skills help ensure that our hospital runs smoothly and our patients remain safe.  Almost all of these team members have been here for more than 20 years. Their dedication to MSBI throughout our journey is inspiring.

Maria Latrace, RN, winner of the Beth Israel Heart Award in 2006, has been here for more than 30 years. Maria is currently the Senior Director of Patient Care Services and has been the driving force and clinical leader for Patient Access Services for more than ten years. Maria is an exemplary role model for us all.

Here is another interesting and inspiring fact. One member of this team, Georgiana Philip (also a BI Heart Award recipient), left MSBI and came back—twice! After more than 13 years at BI, Georgiana moved to the U.S. Virgin Islands but stayed in touch with the BI family the whole time. Georgi returned in 2012 and left again briefly in 2017 before returning in 2018 to become our Director of Patient Access Services.

Check out Georgi’s original ID photo and Maria’s Heart Award photo from 2006 below:

“I had to get back to helping people directly. Here I can help those who are having a traumatic experience. I’ve known some of the staff here for half of my life. BI is home, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything,” says Georgiana.

Thanks to this team for all they do.

Some might call these the “dog days” of summer. Enjoy it while it lasts! And if summer isn’t fun enough already, I had to share with you a few recent photos from events involving our therapy dogs.

Earlier in August, with the help from the MSBI Housestaff Council, our Director of our Volunteer Services, and our amazing volunteers, dedicated time was created for our residents and interns to connect with some of our therapy dogs, including poodle Cherry and bearded-collie Emma (with their volunteers Mindy Berkower and Eric Rayman). The Instagram-famous NYC “hugging” golden retriever Louboutina was also there with her owner Cesar Fernandez-Chavez, who manages our interpreter program. It was wonderful to see our residents relax and connect with these canine healers and with each other.

In June, Zoe and her handler Alistair brought joy to our patients and staff in the Pediatric Observation Unit.

We have many other therapy dogs who come to visit our inpatient and ambulatory sites weekly. I’m incredibly grateful to these volunteers for their commitment of time and caring and that both our patients and staff can relax and receive the healing love from these adorable creatures.

I’m grateful when members of our MSBI family share their passion and ideas. I want to share with you one idea that grew into a successful collaboration on one of our behavioral health units.

For a short time, we had a number of patients undergoing substance use detoxification on a medical inpatient unit instead of the usual location of 5 Bernstein. Laurie Prebish, RN, noticed how the new environment eased her patients’ anxiety by allowing for more privacy and a way to get medications and meals without waiting in line, as patients would have done in 5 Bernstein.

She shared these insights at a MSHS Experience session. As a result, our dietary team immediately began working with the team on 5 Bernstein to transform the way the patients receive their meals. Instead of waiting in line while the food service team member fills the trays, the patients receive a pre-made tray that they have selected and then take it to the community room to eat.

“There have been fewer fights and less agitation since we started the new meal service. We are treating our patients with more compassion and respect this way,” says Laurie. In addition, this new process has now been implemented on 3 Bernstein as well.

There are other ideas Laurie shared that we are looking into. They are taking a bit more time to get right but definitely worth the effort.

I’m so proud of the teamwork between dietary and nursing and how they followed through with this improvement so quickly and creatively.

One thing is clear: you have great ideas. We want to keep hearing from you about how we can support you in improving care and in creating a healthy and rewarding work environment. I hope you will reach out to me or my team at any time.

This week, our Downtown quality team along with our leaders at Union Square hosted an interactive Quality Town Hall that included lively discussions and process improvement games. There was a fantastic turnout and we learned so much from everyone there.

We are on a journey together to improve our outcomes and to ultimately reach zero harm for our patients. The only way we can get there is if everyone makes small improvements every day, and if everyone continues to use their voice to raise concerns and bring ideas forward. You are our partner in this, and that is why I admire everyone who helped create this new forum for us to hear from you. And it is why I admire everyone who spoke up.

Here’s what you said:

• We have a lot of work to do in providing the best and safest care possible.
• You appreciate the importance of our quality initiatives like hand hygiene and time out processes.
• You let us know that safety and quality are everyone’s responsibilities.
• We still have a lot of work to do in removing the barriers that hold you back and in creating systems that support you so that you can do your best work.
• You want to have more conversations about quality and improving our care.

I can’t thank you enough for this feedback. Only through honest dialogue will we be able to get this right. IWe will do everything we can to create an environment where you feel safe to speak up.