The word from Mt. Sinai

There’s some good stuff happening at Mt. Sinai Hospital in downtown Toronto, and I thought I’d take a moment to share examples with you. I was there because the folks at the hospital had invited me to give grand rounds and also to participate in some sessions with senior leadership and with their quality improvement champions. As is often the case, I learned more than I imparted, and I walked away impressed with the organization’s commitment to quality and safety improvement, transparency, and staff engagement.Here’s one example. While I had heard about the concept of a patient navigator before today, including at my own former hospital, the navigator service was usually designed to help people of different cultural backgrounds maneuver through the complicated labyrinth of the tertiary care system. At Mt. Sinai, they have taken the concept to its logical conclusion, providing patient navigators for all general internal medicine, surgical oncology, and inflammatory bowel disease patients.Here, for example, is Heather Siekierko, a navigator assigned to the “D” group of doctors and nurses serving patients in the general internal medicine area. When a patient arrives on the floor from the emergency department, Heather is already on the case, handling a multitude of tasks that previously would have taken time away from nurses or other clinical staff. Heather’s academic training? Fine arts!With one navigator assigned to each of the four clinical teams, there used to b...
Source: Running a hospital - Category: Health Managers Source Type: blogs