I’d like to welcome the newest member of our surgical team at Petrie: our new Da Vinci robot, “BIRT,” which stands for Beth Israel Robotic Technology.

We have a history of leading the way in robotic technology. In 2000, Hani Shennib, MD performed the first robotic/ closed coronary bypass in New York and in 2011, Caner Dinlenc, MD and Joseph Wagner, MD used the Da Vinci Surgical System to perform the first robotic prostatectomy.

This new Da Vinci robot will replace the one we’ve had for 8 years. Using a robot for surgery allows for minimally-invasive techniques that help the patient heal faster and with less pain medicine. This new robot offers even more precision than before and 3D high-definition screening. We will use it for colorectal, bariatric, general, urology, thyroid and other kinds of surgeries.

Michael Palese, MD, and chair of Professor and Chairman of the Sol & Margaret Berger Department of Urology at Mount Sinai Beth Israel shared his excitement about the robot:

“This robotic platform enhances our ability to perform variable and complex cases. It also opens the door to creating a true multi-disciplinary minimally-invasive robotics center for all specialties. Most importantly, it allows Mount Sinai Beth Israel & Downtown to offer world class robotic surgery to our community and patients.”

We celebrated the robot this week with a naming contest and a meet-and-greet where employees got to try their hand at manipulating the robot. Thank you for the quirky and creative name submissions. We had 200 ideas submitted and “BIRT” came out on top!

The Service Awards celebration is one of my favorite days each year. Today, we celebrated employees who had a 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, or 45 year anniversary in 2018. This includes more than 200 employees who have a combined 5695 years of service.

What makes this day so special is that so many people reconnect after moving to different locations or departments. Two of our administrative assistants, Katherine Yee Wo (30 years of service) and Bernice Rosado (20 years of service), met in person for the first time today, after talking on the phone for more than a decade (see that exchange on Instagram). We had employees from Petrie, Union Square, The Blavatnik Center, our Doctors practices, and our many OTPs.

Click below to see more photos:

These connections weave the powerful fabric that makes MSBI unlike any other hospital in which I’ve worked. I’m incredibly humbled to be a part of an organization with such a legacy and so many committed people.

Today we celebrate the many employees who recently completed their 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, and 45 year anniversaries with Mount Sinai Beth Israel. 

Click below to see photos from our photo booth.

At the hospital, we’ve had an exciting few weeks. Every building on our Petrie campus is aging and this frequently presents us with many challenges. I saw incredible teamwork during and after the recent flood in our Silver building.

The care of our building, our patients, and each other is up to all of us, and I saw so many people helping each other. We had to open two new units within 24 hours to offset the temporary loss of beds due to the flooding—this is a monumental undertaking. Our engineering, environmental services, transformation, and infection control teams worked together to prepare the physical space. In addition, our nursing and medicine teams reorganized themselves to be able to serve both new units. Behind the scenes, the workflow of many others shifted to accommodate sending patients to the temporary units including our admitting team, patient reps and liaisons, registrars, USAs, food and nutrition, physical therapy, IT teams and many, many others.

Click below to scroll through photos of just a few of the people who helped over the past few weeks: 

There are many others who jumped into action to keep our patients and colleagues safe during this incident. Thank you all!

I also want to recognize our music therapy team for their patience and resilience, as their space has been flooded twice in the past few years. We have found a new space for them and look forward to helping them settle in.

I recently heard about two of our many stellar food service employees going above and beyond.

Fernando Morales has been working in food services at MSBI and serving our behavioral health units in Bernstein for more than 30 years. He takes the time to develop relationships with these patients who are often in a challenging time in their lives.

Last year, he saw room for improvement and suggested we begin a paperless ordering/iPad system in Bernstein. Ordering on iPads gives our patients flexibility and allows for clearer, more visual communication. It also makes the food service process more efficient so that employees can spend more time connecting with our patients.

Because Fernando had so much experience and ease with these patients, he piloted the initiative in his areas and tailored the process to suit the needs of our behavioral health patients. I am so grateful for his creativity and dedication.

I’ve also recently heard about how Staci Muslu goes above and beyond her call of duty every day in our kitchen. Specifically, she has helped our patient liaisons and others care for patients and their family members in our ED who have been waiting a long time. She is agile and always has a smile. One of her colleagues said, “Staci jumps at the opportunity to provide joy and happiness to our patients.” This is a great example of how all of our work can positively impact patients, even if we don’t interact with them daily.