The new rooms feature large, digital communication boards that enhance communication among patients and families and their care teams.
Mount Sinai West has opened a new unit specifically designed to enhance the overall experience for parents and their newborns. The new unit features 21 spacious rooms with sleeping accommodations for a partner, renovated bathrooms, modern fixtures, and digital communication boards.
“We focused on providing a soothing environment for parents and babies that is conducive to bonding as well as patient healing, and optimizing the way we care for our patients,” says Holly Loudon, MD, Site Chair for Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Health at Mount Sinai West. “The new unit was specifically designed to enhance communication between patients and their care teams and provide the best possible experience.”
For example, new digital communication boards are used to improve patient and provider collaboration. The boards automatically pull key information from the patient’s medical record like names and photos of the care team.
They also display goals that the patient has identified, such as breastfeeding; goals for the baby, such as status of screenings and blood tests; and care team goals, such as progress on walking. A special touch screen section of the board allows patients, family members or others to write questions or updates. The screen serves as a reminder to both the family and the care team to address important items.
The new unit is just the latest in a number of improvements at Mount Sinai West, which has a culture that prioritizes low-intervention births and shared decision-making between providers and their pregnant patients and has a longstanding tradition of using midwives.
“We expect to have more than 4,000 births this year, so having an environment that reflects the high quality of care and service we have always provided is important,” says Evan Flatow, MD, President at Mount Sinai West, who led a recent ribbon-cutting ceremony at the new unit, known as 11A. “The new unit is among several projects to improve the full range of care for new parents and babies, including a new neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) that opened in 2019 and improvements to the labor and delivery unit.”
Mount Sinai West was included on the inaugural list of high-performing Maternity Care hospitals released recently by U.S. News & World Report. Mount Sinai West, along with Mount Sinai Morningside, which are ranked together, are among 237 of 2,700 hospitals in the United States to this achieve this rating.
The official opening of 11A was celebrated by Mount Sinai West and Maternal Child Health leadership, physicians, and staff, from left to right: Erin Figueroa, MSN, RN NE-BC, Senior Director Nursing, Obstetrics and Gynecology; Evan Flatow, MD, President, Mount Sinai West; Holly Loudon, MD, MPH, Site Chair, Obstetrics and Gynecology; Linda Valentino, MSN, RN, NEA-BC, Chief Nursing Officer, Tim Day, Chief Operating Officer, and Cheryl Seredy, Marketing and Communications.