News from the University Hospital of Brooklyn | December 2020

A Message from David H. Berger, MD, MHCM, FACS
CEO of University Hospital of Brooklyn   

My apologies upfront to those of you who aren’t sports fans!  My first team as a kid growing up in Brooklyn was the New York Mets.  My dad, who also grew up in Brooklyn, was a Brooklyn Dodgers fan.  There was no way he was going to let his firstborn son root for the “hated” Yankees!

The recent passing of my favorite Met of all time, Tom Seaver, was a low point in my fandom; however, the sale of the Mets recently by the Wilpons, and the purchase by hedge fund CEO, Steve Cohen, fills me with optimism for the future of my favorite franchise. 

The first part of my daily routine consists of a review of the New York sports pages.   During my routine, there was an article about Cohen’s initial press conference as Mets owner.  Reading it made me see the parallels between his approach to ownership and my approach to my role as CEO of UHB.  Cohen said he hopes to shape the Mets similarly to Point72 (his hedge fund).

Cohen is willing to splurge when necessary, but the backbone of both companies has to be the development of talent from within. He promised to ask hard questions of his baseball people, hold them to high standards, and create a pathway to sustained excellence; “I am not in this to be mediocre,” Cohen said. He says, “I want something great.” 

Similarly, I want something great for Downstate, and the path to greatness at UHB is the same as the path laid out for the Mets.  We are going to hold all leaders to high standards; however, most importantly, we are going to invest in the development of talent from within our organization. 

In the next few weeks you will hear about our plan to grow a highly reliable organization.  This means we will strive to do the right thing, every time, for every patient.  We will accomplish this by partnering with some of the preeminent organizations in healthcare to train our faculty and staff in leadership, communication, and continuous quality improvement. 

We will invest in our amazing, talented people to ensure that UHB/Downstate becomes the “best place to get care and the best place to give care.”  I hope you are as excited as I am to begin this journey!

Celebrating Nurses Week at Downstate

Earlier in November, we celebrated National Nurses Week to provide special recognition to the vast contributions and positive impact of our nurses and acknowledge their service to our community. Nurses are essential to the patient experience at Downstate, serving as the bridge to compassionate care for our patients.

We held many events throughout the week, with each day providing opportunities to celebrate our dedicated Nursing staff. Nurses Week offered celebrations, discussions, and introductions to new initiatives, to help enhance the nursing experience at Downstate. Take a look at the pictures below of our wonderful team during Nurses Week in The Year of the Nurse and Midwife!

Convalescent Plasma Testing and Acquisition during the COVID-19 Crisis

Back in March, during the earlier period in the pandemic, one of the many challenges was to identify key treatment strategies to improve survival among critically ill COVID-19 patients at the hospital. Information that informed management of care was mostly based on initial reports from China and Europe. However, we observed higher mortality rates among our patients. We recognized that our patient population was unique and that we needed to establish our own treatment guidelines through our Convalescent Plasma Treatment Program at Downstate. 

Accordingly, Downstate started the convalescent plasma donation program that implemented antibody screening at the outset, which was performed by the staff in the Transplant Immunology & Immunogenetics Laboratory. During this period, no other institution in the country had utilized a rapid (15-minute) test, as a convalescent plasma screening tool. Through this, we determined that these tests could be used as a fast and convenient method to select convalescent plasma donors with potent anti-virus antibodies.

Downstate is one of the first institutions that investigated antibody laboratory tests in convalescent plasma using validated quantification. To date, no study has identified a defined quantifier for convalescent plasma as appropriate for treatment of critically ill COVID-19 patients. We recognized that our patient population was unique and that we needed to establish our own treatment guidelines through our Convalescent Plasma Treatment Program at Downstate in partnership with the FDA-Approved MAYO Clinic Extended Access Program. 

UHB Spotlight: Desiree Steele, RN 

Desiree Steele, RN, is one of our dedicated nurses at Nursing Unit 81. She grew up in Central Brooklyn and is a CUNY graduate. Desiree has been working at UHB for the past 17 years. She continues to reside in our community, and her family goes to Downstate for care regularly. Even her family has ties to our organization, since her mother was a dietary aide at Downstate for many years. Desiree says, “I was always impressed by the nurses, doctors, and support staff all working together at the hospital. They always made me feel welcome and the environment always inspires me.” 

Ms. Steele became a nurse and came to work for the same hospital that has always inspired her in so many ways. She is currently a charge nurse, and a Wound Treatment Associate (WTA), where she serves as a member of the multidisciplinary Wound Care team. This is in conjunction with her commitment to lifelong, evidence-based education. She recently earned her Master’s Degree in Nursing at our very own College of Nursing.

Desiree continues her pursuit of higher education, and is currently enrolled in the Doctorate in Nursing Program at Downstate. Ms. Steele says, “It is my intention to continue to be true to my service and continue to aid a community that needs medical professionals who are community-based in mind, practice, and spirit. Downstate has and will always be like family to me.” Desiree Steele, RN, is one of many at Downstate who have countless encouraging stories of this institution and we are very proud of her numerous accomplishments and thankful that she is a part of our team.