After the nearly overwhelming pandemic came to our region in the first half of this year, I am thankful that we are in a better place now and can continue serving all the needs of our community members.

We have taken so many steps to ensure that our patients and colleagues are safe. I’m so thankful for everyone who is taking part in this.

The most observable change is that all of our entrances now require us, our patients, and our visitors to be temperature-checked and screened for other COVID-19 symptoms before or upon entering our facilities. Those who screen positive for symptoms then return home with education on how to contact Employee Health for further directions. I can’t stress how important this is. We have to guarantee everyone who steps foot inside our facilities to take care of patients is 100% healthy.

Implementing this new process is a complex endeavor that requires ongoing teamwork among our clinical, security, support, transformation and other teams. Thanks to many people across numerous departments for taking on screening shifts and welcoming our patients and employees to a safe environment. With your feedback, we will continue to fine tune and improve the process.

We are also taking many precautions prior to a patient’s ambulatory appointment to ensure safety for patients and staff. We test all pre-surgical patients for COVID-19 before their procedure and pre-screen ambulatory patients on the phone before they arrive. These are just a few examples of the many proactive actions we are taking.

Our Union Square concierge team has been particularly accommodating by pressing the elevator buttons for our patients. We greatly appreciate this. At Chelsea, the security team has been explaining the screening process to patients with kindness and empathy. In addition, you may have seen the social distancing signage all over our many locations to remind everyone to maintain maximal distancing.

There are many more actions we are taking to ensure safety in our facility. You can read about them on the Mount Sinai Safety Hub, which is updated regularly. You will also find material to help you communicate with patients and colleagues about these topics. I hope you will visit.

This week I was so happy to hear about some of our physicians gathering at a networking event for Mount Sinai Doctors Downtown. We have so many doctors who provide care at 14 locations throughout our Downtown network. Because they are spread out at different locations, they don’t always get to connect in person. I’m grateful to our Mount Sinai Doctors Downtown leaders for creating this opportunity. Likewise, we have an absolute army of exceptional voluntary physicians who are equally part of our family and community. I am grateful for each and every one.

We welcomed twenty brand new physicians to these practices this past year. You can see a list of them and their specialties here.

This connection among our physicians is vital in our transformation as we build a network of services that can fully support our community where they are, keeping patients healthy and out of the hospital. They provide compassionate, comprehensive care while staying at the top of their expertise and education. I’m so proud of all the work they do to engage their patients, often trying new ways to connect our patients and make their Mount Sinai journey seamless.

We also took time to honor physicians in these practices who have been with us for more than 20 years:

• Samuel Altstein, DO: Family Medicine, West 23rd Street
• Kristine Chu, MD: Gynecology, East 34th Street
• Maki Kano, MD: Internal Medicine and Pediatrics, Japanese Medical Practice
• Yuichiro Kuwama, MD: Internal Medicine, Japanese Medical Practice
• Rowena Rosales, MD: Internal Medicine, Japanese Medical Practice

This week I would like to feature our Emergency Department registrars. They have such an important role in helping us gather patient information while helping patients move through emergency care. They help bring order to a sometimes chaotic and always fast-paced environment.

Even during the rush of the day, they do a great job of connecting with our patients. This isn’t an easy task since patients frequently come to us during the most stressful time in their lives. Many of the registrars agree that the relationships with the patients are the highlight of their work.

A registrar must gather a lot of detailed information for a new or returning patient. This task can be more complicated than you think for many reasons. One time one of our registrars was helping a patient who was already in the electronic registration system using the two patient identifiers: name and date of birth. Luckily, the registrar connected with the mother who noticed that the phone number was wrong on the chart. It turns out that two twins with the same name and date of birth had both been to our ED. In this case, we needed three identifiers, and our registrars did not miss a beat!

Click below to see photos of many of our registrars.

A registrar must gather a lot of detailed information for a new or returning patient. This task can be more complicated than you think for many reasons. One time one of our registrars was helping a patient who was already in the electronic registration system using the two patient identifiers: name and date of birth. Luckily, the registrar connected with the mother who noticed that the phone number was wrong on the chart. It turns out that two twins with the same name and date of birth had both been to our ED. In this case, we needed three identifiers, and our registrars did not miss a beat!

Our registrars are the very best at what they do, and we are incredibly grateful to them.