Across the Mount Sinai Health System, there are daily demonstrations of our values: teamwork, agility, empathy, safety, and creativity. And during this crisis, unwavering courage as well.
Here are notes of gratitude and appreciation—colleague to colleague—for those who have gone above and beyond to help each other and our patients in this health crisis of a lifetime.
Leidy Molina
One of our patients, who is 83 years old and has multiple myeloma, came to our ambulatory oncology infusion center for treatment. She was by herself and was feeling anxious about getting her treatment without her son at her side.
Our medical office assistant, Leidy Molina, calmed the patient down, speaking to her in Spanish and moved her Computer on Wheels to sit by the patient’s infusion chair so that she would not feel alone.
These small acts of kindness should not go unnoticed during these trying times.
Kelly O’Neill, RN
Mount Sinai Morningside
My colleague and friend, Scarlett McKinsey, MD, demonstrated remarkable courage when she announced at our division meeting that she was “willing to be deployed to any place, at any time, to take care of any COVID patient.” Despite being primarily pediatric trained and having a young family of her own, she is willing to devote her time and expertise in the face of this unprecedented threat. I was truly inspired by her selflessness and have found the courage to volunteer myself .
Sushma Krishna, MD
Attending Neonatologist, Pediatrics
Mount Sinai West
I worked with Vivek Modi, PGY3, in the Mount Sinai medical ICU when we were starting to get COVID-19 patients, and now the unit is very busy. He has stepped up in recent days to do many central lines and other procedures and has spent hours in rooms with COVID-19 patients.
In particular, we had one patient with many comorbidities who developed COVID-19. This patient had already been in the hospital for a few weeks, and his wife was not allowed to visit him in recent days. He became hypoxic, tested positive for COVID-19, and was transferred to the ICU with a plan for intubation. Knowing that this may be the last time the patient’s wife would ever be able to speak to him, Vivek gowned up in PPE, brought his own personal phone into the room in a sealed bag (the patient had no other way to call out of the hospital in that moment), and made sure that the patient’s wife could speak with him one more time before he was intubated and sedated. It is this focus on the patient’s humanity, besides solely the clinical medicine, that makes me deeply respect Vivek and admire him for his actions during this pandemic.
Julia Goldberg, PGY-1
Mount Sinai West
Please pass my sincere appreciation to material management: Astrid Lopez, Edwin Mercado, and their new leader, Victor Richetti. It has been challenging, but at no point during our thousand phone calls to their cell phones, every day have they displayed only professional behavior and a compassionate tone of voice. I especially appreciate their realistic assessments of the situation, which allow my staff and I to plan our day.
They showed the excellence of Mount Sinai staff in action.
Ketty Floyd, RN, Nurse Manager
Mount Sinai West
Michele Cohen, MD, Administrative Director of the Department of Medicine’s Clinical Trials Office (CTO), has worked tirelessly over the past weeks, creating policy and process for how to manage clinical trials and the many patients during a global crisis. Michele has also led the CTO in opening four COVID-19 clinical trials throughout the Mount Sinai Health System in the astonishingly fast, efficient way that ONLY Michele can. She moves mountains at Mount Sinai!
Sari Feldman
IBD Clinical Trials Manager
The Mount Sinai Hospital
I just want to take this time to recognize all of us working during this crisis. I hope and pray we all continue to stay safe and healthy as well tackle this madness! God bless you all and may we prosper to a better day.
Alice Perez, Medical Assistant II
Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Science
Carol Levy, MD, Professor of Medicine (Endocrinology, Diabetes and Bone Diseases), has arranged for a company that produces continuous glucose monitors that are normally used only in the outpatient setting to donate 100 of them for inpatient use. This way nurses don’t need to
don/doff their personal protective equipment or expose themselves to patients that have diabetes. Instead, the devices and the glucose levels of our diabetic patients with COVID-19 can be managed through a computer outside of the room. Thanks also to the legal team, who worked with Dr. Levy to ensure that we cleared any regulatory hurdles.
Jennifer Stewart, Chief of Staff
Department of Medicine
My good friend Emma Mamone is a physician assistant in the Department of Anesthesiology. In the last few weeks, she has been asked to do many jobs she has never done. She’s transported ventilators, deployed teams to different areas of the hospital, and worked 13-hour days doing whatever is asked of her. She is currently working in the ICU and spent her days off studying her new potential role. Like many folks at Mount Sinai, she has risen to this extraordinary challenge. She is a hero.
Peter Zweig, MPA, Project Manager
Department of Medical Education
Jeena Kokura, Chief Physician Assistant in Orthopedics at Mount Sinai South Nassau, has spent countless hours trying to figure out hospital coverage to support our doctors and nurses for the APPs in our hospital. She is an amazing leader who not only cares for our patients, but really is compassionate towards her colleagues. She is an amazing chief PA, who demonstrates what good leadership is and does her job well. She has checked on me numerous times with texts and calls during the time since I have been redeployed from outpatient to inpatient care. She has given me the confidence that I did not have. Our hospital and our colleagues are lucky to have such a compassionate, caring, and effective leader!
Amber Vitale, NP
Family Medicine, Mount Sinai South Nassau
Linda Rogers, MD, medical director of the Department of Medicine’s Clinical Trials Office (CTO), has been working tirelessly to get clinical trials open for COVID patients.
Jessica Harris, NP
The Mount Sinai Hospital
Ron Tamler, MD, Professor of Medicine and Director of Digital Health, Mount Sinai Health System, put together training modules for telehealth and trained nearly every medicine (and other department) doctor on this new platform in the first week of our response to this crisis. Without his efforts, the entire system would not have been able to shift as quickly away from our regular ambulatory platform to a virtual one. Because of his work, we were able to keep patients away from the hospital and outpatient areas, hopefully keeping them from becoming infected or if they were themselves infected, keeping them from spreading the disease to others, particularly our health care workers
Jennifer Stewart, Chief of Staff
Department of Medicine
(On behalf of Jonathan Ripp, MD, and many other physicians in the Department of Medicine)
I am an outpatient geriatrician who is on call this weekend. Today, March 28, was my first time having to round on COVID patients in the hospital. Our department has been great in helping prepare us and support us, but it is still anxiety producing! My fellow and I began our rounds on 9E. the whole unit is COVID. We had received training and notes on how to don our personal protective equipment (PPE), but we were still nervous and fumbling. Along came Ed McDonough—a patient care associate there—and just helped! We didn’t even ask, but he saw us, stopped what he was doing and helped and taught us. He eased our minds immediately. A big THANK YOU to Ed!
Eileen Callahan, MD
Brookdale Department of Geriatric and Palliative Medicine
The Mount Sinai Hospital
I would like to recognize one nurse who continues to stand out on a daily basis: Kaycee Crist, RN, has been an nurse for less than a year. She is eager to learn as much as possible and takes amazing care of her patients. In the very beginning of the COVID crisis, Kaycee was assigned a patient under investigation (PUI) for COVID-19, and she immediately took ownership. She had a positive attitude the entire time and recognized that every patient needs care and she was here to provide that care. Her concerns and questions were focused on her safety and the safety of the patient. With each new hospital update, Kaycee has taken the information in stride and has shown endless flexibility and adaptability. She focuses her attention on her patients and her co-workers and is always willing to lend a helping hand to anyone that needs it. Her positive attitude and teamwork are appreciated everyday but especially during this time.
Leah Borno, RN, Assistant Nurse Manager
The Mount Sinai Hospital