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.

What can you do today to make MSBI a better place to work and to receive care?

By now, more than 1000 employees in the MSBI/Downtown network have attended a four-hour session called the Mount Sinai Health System Experience where we discuss this very topic. I have attended it three times, and each time I learned more about our organization and about you.

Here are some thoughts from your colleagues who have already attended:

“We brainstormed the little steps we can take every day to make sure every patient and staff member leaves Mount Sinai happier than when they walked in—whether or not we regularly touch the patients.”

 

“The training helps pull down the barriers to our working silos and supports that we are in this journey together.”

 

“It’s every behavior you do at work. I get busy and walk by a piece of trash and get mad for EVS not seeing it and picking it up. But you know what? I also get upset when someone leaves something for us because ‘it’s not their job.’ Next time I am going to pick-up that piece of trash and put it where it belongs. We all have to do our part to show our patients that we care, but also to show we’re team players.”

 

“What made this particular training stand out was that it was so focused on Mount Sinai as a whole, and brought different types of people together.”

Click below to see photos of the sessions so far.

I want to thank our team who has been managing the sessions (there will be more than 80 sessions in total!). And I’m grateful for many of you who volunteered your time to help facilitate these important conversations as Zone Facilitators. This experience is richer because of your presence.

The photos below feature a few of our zone facilitators and coordinators. 

I want to thank our team who has been managing the sessions (there will be more than 80 sessions in total!). And I’m grateful for many of you who volunteered your time to help facilitate these important conversations as Zone Facilitators. This experience is richer because of your presence.

To sign up, speak with your supervisor. I am thankful that you will take the time to be with your colleagues and reflect on what makes us Better Together.

In April, MSBI made NYC stroke history with our colleagues at FDNY. Earlier this year, the Regional Emergency Medical Services Council partnered with New York City Fire Department (FDNY) and the American Heart Association to create a new system of care for stroke patients in NYC.  FDNY EMS and other EMS teams began a new protocol of pre-notifying thrombectomy-capable hospitals of potential severe stroke patients before their arrival to the Emergency Department. EMTs look at clinical signs of stroke like facial droop, arm weakness, hand grip, and speech, and call ahead to the Emergency Department so that the ED and stroke teams can organize in advance. On April 4, FDNY enacted this process for the very first time, alerting the MSBI ED team that we had a stroke patient on the way. Our teams took action immediately – clearing an ED bed, alerting neurology and stroke teams, and getting the catheterization lab ready.  By inserting a small catheter into the patient’s brain and removing the clot in only 11 minutes, normal blood flow was fully restored. Timing is critical in strokes; the more time it takes to restore blood flow, the more the more brain tissue damage there is. This patient was back to normal function within minutes of the procedure. Our stroke team has always done an incredible job of caring for our patients, and this new collaboration with FDNY and other partners in NYC will allow us to save even more lives and to preserve more fuction. Since 2009, we have been performing thrombectomies to restore blood flow to the brain and improve patients’ recovery.  We are now applying to become a Joint Commission Certified Thrombectomy Center. You can click below to see a few members of this team. I am incredibly proud of them.