News from the University Hospital at Downstate
December 2024

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

Update on Our Joint Commission Stroke Recertification Survey

As the year draws to a close, I would like to wish everyone a wonderful holiday season and a Happy New Year. I look forward to Downstate having even more great accomplishments in 2025.

On a separate note, we would like to highlight the wonderful results of our Joint Commission Stroke Recertification Survey.

A testament to our WE CARE Values of Collaboration and Excellence, the Downstate team performed exceptionally well during our Joint Commission Stroke Recertification Survey on November 26, 2024, with three low-level limited findings. The Joint Commission Surveyor commended the UHD team and noted our strengths including:

• Cultural transformation with a focus on safety
• Camaraderie, and more importantly, knowing what we do for stroke patients
• ED volume and how we manage our underserved population
• Tremendous Community Outreach with 36 community events and reaching 1,350 community members
• Pharmacy Involvement in transitioning to TNK
• Daily stroke huddles
• Acknowledged Stroke Unit nurses for referencing the strong collaboration between neurology and nursing staff in terms of education
• Applauded educators, robust staff education, and mock drills

Kudos to the Neurology, ED, Nursing, ICL, ICU, Hospitalists, Radiology, Pharmacy, FMD and Hospital Facilities, Environmental Services, Rehabilitation Medicine, Human Resources, Information Technology, Patient Transport, Care Management, Dietetic Services, Laboratory Services, Medical Board Office, Data Management, Quality, Patient Safety, and the Regulatory Affairs teams for a job well done. This was truly a team effort!

Downstate Health Partners with JoyRX

We are pleased to announce our partnership with JoyRX and their music program. JoyRx, the mission delivery of Children’s Cancer Association, has provided JoyRx Music, and their other programs to seriously ill children, teens, and their families when they need more than medicine to heal. They believe that joy makes sick children feel better.

JoyRx Music draws on the universal power of music to buoy spirits and energize, enabling kids and teens to feel joy during stressful and painful experiences in treatment.

JoyRx’s trained staff musicians engage hospitalized kids of all ages and diagnoses, allowing them to choose the “music medicine” bedside experience that best fits their current emotional place and desired mood.

The program also offers digital services to reach pediatric patients wherever they are. These trained specialists can be there virtually at bedside, through a concert in a clinical setting, or through pre-recorded videos direct to patients.

JoyRxMusic.org also offer on-demand services available 24/7, offering exclusive artist performances, music lessons, games, and more.

Our trained music specialist that comes to the hospital twice a month, has experience working with pediatric patients within a hospital environment. We are thrilled for our pediatric patients to share in the joy of the JoyRX Music program to help brighten their day, while our team works diligently to help these children get healthier.

Celebrating Radiologic Technologic Week with the Team

The Department of Radiology is proud to have celebrated National Radiologic Technology Week, which was held November 3-9, 2024. We take this opportunity to thank all of our staff for their continued support and dedication to delivering an exemplary standard of care for our patients.

Holding true to our #WeCare values, join us as we recap some of the department’s accomplishments over the last year. These milestones were only accomplished because of our amazing team.

We recognize and appreciate each team member and your contributions and say “Thank You” as you are “Always on the Front Line of Healthcare.”

Spotlight on Pediatric Gastroenterology

We would like to highlight some amazing accomplishments for Pediatric Gastroenterology (GI). To begin, they offer a novel project that has been implemented in pediatrics through the creation of an inpatient feeding unit for children with developmental disorders. To find out more about the program, click here.    

The Division of Pediatric GI has had some excellent news to share this month. Here are a few of those updates:   

• They presented 18 abstracts at the North American Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition in November, including two podium presentations, and the endoscopy research prize.    

• They will also be presenting 8 abstracts at the World Congress of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition in Buenos Aires, Argentina in December, three of which were selected for podium presentations.  

• Pediatric GI will be receiving an RO1 subaward from Dr. Sana Syed of Duke, to join her project building of a comprehensive biobank of pediatric IBD patients for machine learning and single cell transcriptomic analysis.

• Medical Education Proposal - In the last few decades, medical school curricula have increasingly incorporated documentary series and films as anchors for lessons and discussions centered around systems. Key areas of focus have included improving education on the impact of racial disparities on health in the US, utilizing docuseries such as “Unnatural Causes” and other work to provide resonance and anchoring experience to the facts, and centering education around the impact of societal and healthcare structures on our patient’s health. Pediatric GI has proposed the creation of a novel module built around the documentary film “No Ordinary Campaign,” a Chan Zuckerberg Initiative funded effort. This program will link up actual patients/caregivers, clinical trialists, and students, to learn about our regulatory environment and discuss potential changes needed to accommodate our rapidly shifting treatment landscape.  It will also cover key factors related to how physicians can drive advocacy and change and provide educational context to support future advocacy work in a myriad of areas. The “No Ordinary Campaign” project is also linked with the new Health Equity effort, and will be part of a series in coordination with W. Marcus Lambert, Ph.D., Associate Vice President for Research.   

These are but a few accomplishments that touches upon every aspect of Downstate and can help our patients, students, and research initiatives. We look forward to hearing more about Pediatric GI’s initiatives in the future.  

Employee of the Month for November 2024 – Ms. Eileen Jesse

Ms. Eileen Jesse began her career at Downstate in 2014 as a Volunteer Greeter at the 445 Lenox Road entrance. Shortly thereafter, she was hired through Winston Medical Staffing to work in Patient Access, taking on a variety of roles, including Receptionist, Admitting Clerk, Medicaid Billing Specialist, and assisting with any other tasks required. After a brief period away from Downstate, Eileen returned as an Admin III in the Department of Volunteer Services, under the supervision of Reverend Walker. In this role, she was responsible for signing up volunteers and coordinating Summer Youth Employment Program participants, while also serving as a weekly receptionist for the Department of Social Work. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the Department of Volunteer Services was temporarily shut down, but Ms. Jesse was deemed an essential worker and reassigned to the Department of Patient/Guest Relations as the assistant to the Chief Experience Officer. 

In this capacity, Eileen, affectionately known as “Ms. Jesse,” has remained actively involved in a wide range of critical functions at Downstate. She plays a key role in supporting Tyshawn Toney, Director of Systems Engineering, in initiatives such as the High Reliability Organization Journey, Uniform Reporting and Review System, We Care Champion, Greenbelt, PI Lean, Train the Trainer programs, Rapid Improvement Events, and Leadership Development Training, among others. Ms. Jesse is also instrumental in organizing and coordinating various Patient Experience and Employee Engagement events, including the Employee of the Month selection, the Annual Patient Safety and Quality Fair, Doctors' Day celebrations, the Patient and Family Advisory Council, the Patient Fruit Festival, Labor and Delivery Concierge Cart, Tea Time on the Med Surg floor, and the highly anticipated Hospital Week activities. 

Additionally, she handles patient complaints on a daily basis and helps to ensure the smooth flow of office operations. Recently, while doing her rounds, Ms. Jesse went to the MICU to find the staff overwhelmed with patients and unable to take their lunch or a break, Eileen took it upon herself to go purchase items and distributed them to the staff. Eileen is a dedicated and reliable team member who is always willing to lend a hand whenever and wherever needed. Kudos to Ms. Jesse on being our Employee of the Month for November!