From left: Nathaniel Fernando, RN; Yvonne Allwood, PCA; Sophia Kellier, PCA; Paula Flyangolts, RN; Miriam Lebowitz, RN; Magdalene Walcott, PCA; and Dmitry Yanovsky , MSN, RN.
After returning home from her stay at Mount Sinai Brooklyn, first in the Emergency Department and then at One North, a 35-bed medicine and telemetry unit at Mount Sinai Brooklyn, patient Enita N. Johnson mailed a letter of thanks to the staff, citing the “excellent professional nursing care,” she had received during her bout with influenza B.
Ms. Johnson wrote, “This letter is perhaps a bit lengthy. But having spent 42 years as an RN in the clinical as well as the educational field of nursing, it is rewarding to see the profession continue in the hands of such caring and competent persons.” She wrote that the staff “demonstrated a high level of concern and willingness to see that I received the care I needed and that I was as comfortable as possible.”
Dmitry Yanovsky, MSN, RN, Clinical Nurse Manager at One North, says he has other thank-you letters from patients that he shares with his staff of 50. The team makes a concerted effort to maintain a safe and caring environment for all of their patients, many of whom are elderly.
Daily nursing huddles are held at 8 am, enabling staff to understand the day’s workflow and communicate clearly with one another.
“When communication improves, clinical outcomes improve, as does the patient experience,” Dmitry says. “Our first priority is improving the patient experience of care. We discuss this day and night.”
Dmitry also makes patient rounds himself, checking in on patients to obtain feedback on their care and to make sure they are comfortable.
He attributes his unit’s recent success to the implementation—about six months ago—of TeamSTEPPS®, a program for improving collaboration and communication within an organization that originated in the U.S. Department of Defense and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and to Mount Sinai’s commitment to improving the patient experience.
Patient Accounts Supervisor Jessica Deleon moved quickly. She wanted to help a Mount Sinai Health System patient get all of her paperwork in order so she could proceed with a cardiovascular procedure the next day. There were a couple of challenges, however. The patient had just switched insurance carriers and now needed a physician referral all over again. Then there was another hitch: the patient had forgotten the name of her Mount Sinai primary care physician.
“I did not want her to have to postpone her procedure,” says Jessica, who works at Mount Sinai’s Water Street building in downtown Manhattan, where the Health System’s patient financial services office is based.
So Jessica and her team performed their own rapid response by obtaining all of the required approvals within 24 hours.
The next morning, Jessica came into the office early so she could confirm that the insurance carrier had registered the referral and the patient was cleared. Once she had the green light to proceed, Jessica called the patient and told her the good news—she could leave for the procedure. The patient was so grateful she told Jessica that she was in her prayers.
Erwin Ramirez and Jessica Deleon
“I always get a warm feeling knowing that patients can come in for their appointments, and of course, that the hospital is getting proper reimbursement,” Jessica says.
Her supervisor, Erwin Ramirez, Senior Director, Financial Services, The Mount Sinai Hospital and Mount Sinai Queens, has worked with Jessica for nine years and considers her an outstanding employee who oversees a “talented and proactive” team at Water Street.
“Billing is a difficult conversation to have most of the time. Our job is to make it as easy as possible,” he says. Jessica’s team, he adds, has “outstanding communications skills and shows exceptional compassion” to patients.
James McIntosh attends to Mount Sinai’s youngest patients and their families as a Patient Ambassador in the Department of Pediatrics at Mount Sinai Union Square. Serving them was uppermost in his mind when he noticed that the pediatric waiting area had only a fish tank and television to distract young patients and their siblings.
James remembered that as a child he enjoyed quiet activity games—crossword puzzles and connect-the-dot worksheets—and he thought, perhaps, today’s youngsters would enjoy them, too.
Patient Meia Joseph enjoys a game with James McIntosh.
In his spare time, James found free activity games online that would appeal to children of different ages. He printed them and created individual packets that patients could fill out while waiting for their appointments and also bring home, if they wanted. Individualized packets would also keep the children from spreading unwanted germs.
To appeal to older children and parents, James created a find-the-word puzzle with the names of the Pediatric Department’s physicians and their various subspecialties.
The response to the activity games has been gratifying, he says. Children in the waiting room are occupied with educational games and their parents are happy, too.
“Every day, I strive to bring value not only to the Pediatric practice but the Mount Sinai Health System,” James says. “Providing patients with a positive experience and top-notch care is very important to me. I enjoyed producing these activities, and it is rewarding to see the kids smiling and entertained, as a result.”
From left: Viletha Small Clarke, NP; Michelle Abraham, LCSW; Vishal Gupta, MD; Catherine Cadore, RN; and Nancy Bourque, LCSW
The snow was beginning to come down heavily one afternoon last winter, as the clinical care team at Mount Sinai Chelsea was preparing to discharge an elderly patient who, that morning, had undergone treatment requiring anesthesia. The woman called her family members and friends to come and bring her home, but the weather was getting worse and no one was able to help. Mount Sinai team members Vishal Gupta, MD, and Viletha Small Clarke, NP, stepped in to help her make phone calls—to no avail.
Social workers Nancy Bourque, LCSW, and Michelle Abraham, LCSW, called transportation companies and agencies that sometimes provide personnel who escort patients home, but they, too, were unable to help.
“The patient insisted that she could go home by herself,” says Catherine Cadore, RN, Clinical Nurse Manager. But that was not possible. “We thought, ‘what happens when she gets out of the car at the other end with the snow coming down? What if the walkway isn’t shoveled or she falls without anyone to assist her?’ We had to make a judgement call.”
Their decision was simple. Michelle and Nancy hailed a taxi and Catherine escorted the patient home to Harlem, after receiving approval from her supervisor and the care team. “Our team at Mount Sinai did what was best for the patient,” Catherine says. “Everyone understood that making sure the patient got home safely was our top priority.”
Caroline Brown, a Certified Procedural Coder, at 42nd Street, has helped many patients solve their billing problems during her almost 30-year career at the Mount Sinai Health System. But one situation, in particular, will always stand out for her.
In 2016, patient Ilene Bauer telephoned Caroline’s Customer Service Unit to ask for help in resolving charges she had received from the Department of
Radiology. Caroline sensed that Ilene had already attempted to straighten out the bill and had not been able to, so she took the lead in helping her even though the bill was not from Caroline’s unit.
She initiated a three-way telephone call between herself, Ilene, and a representative from the Department of Radiology, and helped Ilene explain the problem while remaining on the line to ensure that Ilene received the assistance she needed.
Ilene was so pleased with the outcome that she asked Caroline for her supervisor’s name so she could report the good service she had received. Her “report” turned out to be a seven-stanza poem of thanks to Caroline, titled “One in a Million.” Caroline says she was so touched by the unexpected poem that she reached out to Ilene to thank her. But other than sharing the poem with her supervisor, Ruben Rodriguez, and a handful of friends and family, Caroline kept it to herself.
In May 2018, the poem resurfaced during a Commitment to Caring Leadership Retreat that was conducted by Talent Development and Learning, part of the Mount Sinai Health System’s Human Resources Department. Ruben recommended using the poem to highlight how putting the patient first can lead to tremendous patient gratitude. This time, Caroline received widespread recognition for her willingness to go beyond her job to help a patient. At the Commitment to Caring Retreat, more than 100 managers surprised her with a standing ovation.
MRI technologist Pramod Sinha’s formula for enabling patients to feel calm while undergoing an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) at The Mount Sinai Hospital, includes speaking in a soothing tone of voice, listening to patients’ needs, and “moving at the patient’s pace so he or she does not feel fear.”
His formula—honed over his 15-year tenure at Mount Sinai—has worked for many patients, who regularly provide him with positive feedback, and it worked for Linda C. Smith, MSN, RN, CPHRM, a nurse and Senior Clinical Risk Manager at The Mount Sinai Hospital. Linda, who is more accustomed to providing care to patients than receiving it herself, was understandably apprehensive before having an MRI of her brain. The procedure requires the patient to remain very still while being placed inside a large magnet, allowing clinicians to capture very precise images.
“Pramod did not make me feel rushed. He took his time and that made it so much easier for me,” says Linda. “He put me at ease by explaining what to expect beforehand, and he played a great Beatles song that I loved, and it made the experience more pleasurable.”
MRI technologist Pramod Sinha’s formula for enabling patients to feel calm while undergoing an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) at The Mount Sinai Hospital, includes speaking in a soothing tone of voice, listening to patients’ needs, and “moving at the patient’s pace so he or she does not feel fear.”