Mount Sinai Health System prioritizes physician wellness in COVID-19 pandemic
As the stress and burden on providers increases constantly in hard-hit areas, many organizations are struggling to find ways to support their practitioners as they respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. Mount Sinai Health System in New York is enhancing its existing programs and adding new resources to meet the needs of its workforce as its members battle COVID-19 on the front lines.
“Through informal queries of our faculty and the observed stressors, we realized that our well-being focus needed a new approach to address the enormous strain to our workforce,” said Jonathan Ripp, MD, professor of medicine, medical education, and geriatrics and palliative medicine at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City as well as the chief wellness officer at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. “We developed a new model based on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. From people on the ground, we learned that their primary concerns were meeting basic daily needs, personal and family safety, and anxiety about redeployment to new settings where they might not have the skills.”
Mount Sinai makes it a priority to ensure that the basic needs of all providers are regularly met. The health system achieves this by offering low or no cost meals, childcare, and transportation accommodations, as many employees have been taking taxis to work instead of public transportation and incurring an increased expense.
Mount Sinai has also increased its psychosocial support by recognizing the uncertainty of the current situation and working to communicate as effectively as possible with staff. The health system provides access to supportive counseling, support groups and self-care activities to help employees throughout this crisis.
Lastly, Mount Sinai has partnered with psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, and nurse practitioners to provide its health professionals and employees support and/or psychiatric evaluation as well as treatment, as needed.
Source: American Medical Association