Our Engineering team has been hard at work with the repairs to our electrical system in the Dazian building. When we had to move patients from Dazian this weekend because of an unrelated issue, they saw the opening to do these critical repairs, working around the clock to make it happen. Many others teams had a heavy lift in relocating patients, relocating staff, and ensuring our safety during this time. Thank you all!

Watching them work this week, I want to highlight our Engineering and IT teams. Their work often goes unseen, but is vital to everything we do every day.

We usually only think about our IT and facility needs when something goes wrong, but so much has to happen in the background to keep us up and running and ultimately, connected, to our community and to each other. During COVID-19, both of these teams had many additional challenges as we expanded to new units and opened our tent.

IT Teamwork

For IT, this meant getting mobile carts, printers, and access to applications up and running and connecting all of these pieces via cable or network, across our building, and in the case of our tent, outside, too.

The desktop team credits constant communication and collaboration across many departments for MSBI’s success during this time.

Elmer Romero on our desktop support team acknowledged that while they worked long hours for many days in a row, it was rewarding. “It feels good knowing that nurses can do their jobs saving lives because of our work.”

Our network, cabling, and telecomm teams also play an important role that often goes unseen during times of rapid change. Many of these teams had to suit up and head into areas near patients that required full PPE. They showed courage in addition to their partnership and dedication.

Shane Yeh and the network team reiterated that getting these new areas up and running was a true team effort. “There was a live coordination between all of us,” he said. I want to give a shout out to Reinetta Williams who helps keep these teams connected and informed about our complex needs.

Satish Itwaru, manager of the desktop team, agrees that it’s team effort. He also recalls that, like so many of us, they all had personal responsibilities and challenges that came up during the pandemic. They could lean on each other during those times.

“The support we give each other is there all the time, not just during a crisis. We can lean on each other always,” Satish said.

Master Engineers

Our engineers are some of the most adaptable, insightful, and humble people on our campus. They continually work miracles on our aging facility, keeping us safe and making sure we have what we need to do our work. As we saw this week, their work is often urgent and in this case, life-saving. We couldn’t do what we do without their willingness to go wherever they are needed.

Photos below of the sub-sub-basement, 60 feet below ground level where we made critical repairs this week.

They, too, had an incredible amount of work to do to prepare our facility for the surge during the last few months, getting formerly empty areas up and running. They responded to so many requests like creating additional negative pressure rooms and adding windows to units so patients could be more easily observed.

Here are just a few of our Engineering team members:

I don’t know what we would do without these colleagues. Thank you.

Three nurses from The Blavatnik Family-Chelsea Medical Center at Mount Sinai came to MSBI during the height of the crisis to help our Infection Prevention Team monitor central lines and Foley catheters for our most critical patients. When a patient has a central venous catheter or port, the likelihood of infection can be high if these indwelling devices are not monitored closely.

Eileen Devries, RN, BSN, and Rina Fetman, RN, BSN, regularly work in the infusion suite and Caitlin Koepsell, MSN, RN, regularly works in breast oncology preparing patients for surgery. This work in infection prevention was brand new to them. Although they were scared at first, they approached the job with curiosity and learned quickly from the Infection Prevention Team.

One major difference in their regular work and their work at MSBI is that monitoring lines is less hands- on with patients. Instead, they identified priorities and created a plan to educate and support fellow nurses, ensuring the safety of our most critical patients. At times, not being able to directly care for patients was challenging, but the team stayed focused and leaned on each other.

Marie Moss, RN, Director of Infection Prevention said, “This team jumped right into a brand new kind of work for them that was critical at the time of our COVID-19 surge. All of our clinical teams were overloaded with new responsibilities and changing guidelines for COVID-19 care. Caitlin, Eileen, and Rina provided dedicated attention to patient central lines and Foley catheters that otherwise may have been overlooked. I am so thankful for their agility, professionalism, and dedication.”

There are many more people than we can properly thank who went above and beyond during the height of COVID-19 crisis. Though we are trying to do exactly that. We are sharing these stories in these messages and on Instagram.

Our pharmacy team always exemplifies everything MSBI stands for, but watching them adapt to our changing state during the pandemic was awe-inspiring. Many of you know how complicated setting up a new inpatient unit is. Our pharmacists executed with speed and precision, ensuring that every new unit had the needed medications, increasing their preparation and output of IV medications, anticipating shortages, and dealing with many other monumental asks. They also took great care to adapt their processes for all the challenges the crisis brought. Those included minimizing risks of contamination and keeping up with the changing care guidelines for COVID-19 and highly acute patients.

This would not have been possible without their incredible teamwork. The team includes staff pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, pharmacy residents, and clinical pharmacy managers. During the height of the pandemic, many pharmacists from other locations stepped in to help, in addition to medical and nursing students and volunteers. They quickly became family by identifying their strengths, adjusting to roles outside of their norm, and selflessly volunteering to help wherever the help was needed.

I continue to be in awe of our MSBI family.

During this time of unprecedented uncertainty, New Yorkers continue to come together to support one another; just open your window at 7pm to hear the cheers of gratitude and appreciation. Mount Sinai Beth Israel has received tremendous support from others in our community. We have been sent messages of encouragement and support from near and far, from those young and those who are older, those who have been affected by COVID-19 and those who have simply taken time to stop and thank all of the healthcare workers.

This page shows just a small portion of the work being done by our dedicated employees and the thanks they have received from the community. The video was put together to highlight some of these kind words and the work of a singer supporting his family and friends. Along with the video, please enjoy additional community messages.

We are all in this together, doing our part to help stop the spread of COVID-19 while supporting those who have been on the front lines daily.

Thank you to all of the healthcare heroes at Mount Sinai Beth Israel!

COVID-19 patients have respiratory complications that require special care. “Proning” is the act of turning a patient on their stomach to help with respiratory distress. During the height of our surge, we had a dedicated team for the sole purpose of turning patients on their back (supine) each morning and then onto their stomach each afternoon. The CRNA, orthopedic PA, physical therapist, and orthopedist choreographed a careful routine that allowed them to quickly reposition the patient with minimal exposure. Dr. Steven Arsht describes the process like “poetry-in-motion.” Having a dedicated team perform this action freed up the nurses to tackle more critical tasks. Professionals came from all over the country to help with this effort and most have since returned to their homes. Thank you to everyone on this “NASCAR pit crew” for their team work: Physician Assistants Juan Fernandez, Larry Friedman, Mike Jones, and Bruce Davison; Physical Therapist Frank Erkes; Anesthesia CRNAs Stephanie Davis, April Klein, CB Ingram, Katy Dean, Robin Naden-Semba, Jeremy Carlisle and Dr. Steven Arsht

Our Respiratory Therapy team is made up of many colleagues who have been at MSBI for a long time. They have weathered many storms including 9/11 and hurricane Sandy. Even so, like all of us, they were shocked at the intensity and duration of the COVID-19 pandemic in our region and found themselves right in the center of it.

“If you have COVID-19, you see us,” said Leo Go, respiratory therapist.

This COVID-19 wave hit so fast and so hard that our small team of 15 respiratory therapists had to care for a growing number of patients with no extra help for the first several weeks. There was a steep learning curve in adapting to the rate at which patients needed respiratory care and exhaustion that came with working extra shifts.

Respiratory Therapist Peter Chesney has been here for almost 25 years and shared just how trying this time has been.  

“We knew it was going to be a dangerous time for us. We’ve been patient and we’ve leaned on each other for support. When you are trained in respiratory therapy, you learn how to accept death as a part of the life cycle. Even so, this crisis has been an emotional see-saw for those of us trained to be strong,” he said.

When others came to help us, our Respiratory Therapists stepped up to train them while still carrying full patient loads. They have noted how kind and skilled the traveler Respiratory Therapists are, and credit our long history of a culture of teamwork for the success of the larger team.

“They basically saved us after a very challenging month,” said Leo.

“I’ve been here 25 years because of the culture of caring and family. I know of patients who could go anywhere who choose us because of the teamwork and selfless care we offer here,” said Peter.

It is the strong spirit of family that has helped to keep our MSBI family resilient and adaptable during these challenging times. Our Respiratory Therapists exemplify that spirit. I am in awe of all they have done during COVID-19 and always.

We have a more stories about your extraordinary work on Instagram and the MSBI blog.