Weekly Update

June 8, 2020

General Announcements

From Dr. Joan Bregstein:

We as a group are committed to supporting our Washington Heights community and feel the loss of the community connection that comes with the annual SZM Health Fair.

This community has suffered tremendously during the pandemic and their needs for material goods and financial support are huge.

Nido de Esperanza, https://nidodeesperanzanyc.org, a community based organization on 175th and Broadway, serves a predominantly Latino community in WH with young children. They are totally dependent on grants and donations and they have a BEAUTIFUL ‘shop’ on the first floor of Christ Church where they allow local mothers to choose clothes and toys and books for their children on a weekly basis. They also have reading and parenting groups.

NED has identified a great need for the following items:

  • Diapers. (particularly size 4-6)
  • Formula. (particularly Enfamil Yellow and Purple)
  • Toilet paper.
  • Tampons/pads.
  • Clothing (gently used or new) in sizes 2T-5T.
  • Amazon gift cards. These will allow parents, who for any number of reasons cannot leave their apartments, to purchase emergency supplies and have them delivered to their doors. These cards will be issued to Nido de Esperanza, which will assess need and distribute. Through Amazon Smile, 0.5% of our donation will go directly to Nido de Esperanza.
  • Volunteers. To help at the organization on Tuesdays from 10:30- 12 or 1 to unload and sort donations.
  • Drivers. To deliver donations on Tuesdays from ~ 11-1. (Must have car).

The Plan:

  • Please bring all material donations to the PEM administrative office at CHN-116, beginning next week. Mayra will be there 9-3 Mon-Fri.
  • Donations for the purchase of supplies from COSTCO should be sent to Nazreen’s VENMO @Nazreen-Jamal
  • Donations for the purchase of Amazon Gift Cards should be sent to my VENMO @Joan-Bregstein
  • Sign up to volunteer to sort donations, as above. Nido de Esperanza sign-up
  • Sign up to volunteer to deliver donations (must have car), click on link above.

This is a great opportunity for us to join together and show this community we are there for them and want to help. 

From Dr. Devjani Das: NYACEP Epic Newsletter

I currently curate articles for the Education Column in the quarterly NYACEP Epic newsletter. As things are unfolding in all of our lives, I think we all recognize the unique impact that these experiences are having for residents. With that in mind, and knowing that we have several strong writers among our residents, I wanted to reach out to the residency group to see if any of them would be interested in writing an article for the upcoming NYACEP newsletter? I was thinking an article directed towards the impact of racism within the medical community and how it specifically impacts residency learning would be a timely topic to tackle.

The deadline is July 15. Please email dd2985@cumc.columbia.edu

From Dr. Kaushal Shah: Writing for emDOCS.net

For those interested in FOAM writing, consider submitting to emDOCS.net! For more information, check out the following document and email Kaush  (kas3002@med.cornell.edu) to get in contact with Alex Koyfman.  

From Dr. Manish Garg: Wellness Committee

Dear Residents,

We’ve been asked by the Columbia physician wellness committee for a resident representative.  I think it’s a wonderful way to help advocate for your colleagues and champion wellness in our program.  We meet the 3rd Wednesdays 3-4pm.

Please let me know if you are interested and I will forward a name to Jenny.

Thanks,

Manish

Campus Announcements

From Dr. Marissa Nadeau: COVID Memorial 
 
The Department of Emergency Medicine is planning to hold a memorial service on June 26th from 7-9 PM. We would like to honor and memorialize all staff members’ and loved ones who we have lost to the corona-virus pandemic . Our intention is to be as inclusive as possible. If you would like to have your loved one memorialized by name and/or photo please upload to the attached link. Please forward with the following information:
 
Name of loved one and/or
Photo to be used on the slide to honor them
Your relation to the person (or if you rather not be included on the slide)
Any specific faith based preference your loved one may have had
 
Qualtrics makes sophisticated research simple and empowers users to capture customer, product, brand & employee experience insights in one place.
cumc.co1.qualtrics.com
Please respond by June 5th.
 
Also, if anyone knows of any musicians who may be willing to participate in the memorial service, please let us know as well. If you have any other thoughts about what you what like to see, let us know.
 
Thank you!
Marissa and Ellen

From Dr. Angela Mills: After Action Report

Dear Colleagues,

In the past several months we have experienced an ongoing surge related to the COVID-19 pandemic that none of us has experienced before.

The Department of Emergency Medicine and the NYP Strategy team will be creating After Action Reports that will chronicle what occurred, what went well, and opportunities to do something different next time.  With that goal, we will be holding multidisciplinary Virtual Debriefing Sessions with frontline staff which will take place over the next few weeks. 

The purpose of the groups is to gain additional insight and obtain a multidisciplinary perspective directly from the front line. Please consider joining one of these sessions.  Your input is critical and we would like to hear from all who worked in the ED during the COVID-19 surge.  Sessions will last 30-60 minutes with a group of 8-10 participants by site. Questions for discussion may include:

  • What happened during the surge of patients, from your perspective?
  • What went well? What new initiatives would you like to see stick?
  • What could have been done better?
  • What was concerning to staff or patient safety?
  • What resources were helpful for your well-being and how could your needs have been better addressed? 

The NYP Strategy team will be facilitating these multidisciplinary sessions and departmental leadership will not be part of the sessions. 

If interested in participating, please sign up here and you will be contacted with a variety of possible times and additional details. 

Thank you in advance for your participation and for all that you do for our patients. 

Follow this link to the Survey: 
Take the Survey

Or copy and paste the URL below into your internet browser:
https://cumc.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_9MFJ2MiM3X93pf7

 

From Dr. Lynn Jiang: Research Opportunities
 
There is a new joint research project collaborating with NYP Queens examining proning ER patients with moderate risk COVID. This would be a prospective study involving enrolling patients and data collection as well as future data analysis / manuscript write-up. 
 
The project is still in the early stages at Cornell so details to come but this would be the perfect time to get involved if you’re at all interested in developing any research or operations skills.
 
If you’d like to know more, please contact Dr. Lynn Jiang — lgj7001@med.cornell.edu
 

From Rosa Borenzstein:  COVID documentation

If a COVID 19 test was ordered, please document if you informed patient of their COVID 19 test result. 

If you did not inform patient of result because the test was not yet back, document this information on ED record and place a follow up order. 

We receive many COVID test results daily.

It would be very helpful if we did not have to call every patient with results, if this information was already provided to patient during their ED stay.

Thank you,

Rosa

From Dr. Kaushal Shah: Visual Dx

For those that have the VisualDx app, the company just informed me that they have turned on the DermDx feature for everyone at Cornell.  This means you can use their artificial intelligence software to get a differential diagnosis after you take a picture of the skin lesion.  Try it!
 

MCB Message of the Month

Conference This Week

Interns are Coming

Let’s make it a great year for them and us!

Upcoming Residency Events

 
  • June 8 – The new academic year starts!
  • June 15 – Interns arrive!

To Dos

ALL

PGY4s

  • The first year of attending starts now!  Please touch base with leadership and your CCC member as you start the process of the job search and career development.

PGY3s

PGY2s

  • Time to start dominating the board.  
  • If you have money to save after NYC costs and student loan repayment, consider putting it into NYP’s 403(b) or an IRA.  The “Roth” option is likely better when you’re a resident.  

PGY1s

  • See you soon!   

Chief on Call

Ahmed Shaikh, M.D. 
EM Chiefs’ Cell:  917-410-1056
  • Please call and do not text/ email so we can address issues promptly.
  • If you do not hear back within 10 minutes, then call any of the other chiefs.