Gain insights about health, science, and wellness with this groundbreaking video podcast from the acclaimed Mount Sinai Health System. Showcasing Mount Sinai's most renowned doctors, researchers, medical experts, and patients, The Vitals explores what happens when the most respected minds in medicine meet at the same table.
5 Years Since COVID: Lessons from the Frontlines, Pt. 1
•Episode 1
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On our first episode, host Leslie Schlachter, PA, Chief Physician Assistant in the Department of Neurosurgery, interviews two Mount Sinai physicians who worked on the front lines in the early days of the pandemic.
Zevy Joshua Hamburger, MD, Associate Professor, Anesthesiology, Perioperative & Pain Medicine and Erik Blutinger, MD, MSc, Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine and Public Health Specialist talk about what it was like as the pandemic spread across the world and the response in New York City.
Together, they discuss the challenge of treating patients despite a of lack of knowledge about the virus and the need to improvise treatments. They describe how they struggled to maintain their morale amid the long hours, lack of resources, and catastrophic losses. They also share perspectives on what health care institutions might have done differently.
Introductions: Zevy Joshua Hamburger, MD, Associate Professor, Anesthesiology, Perioperative & Pain Medicine; Erik Blutinger, MD, MSc, Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine and Public Health Specialist
Description of roles during the pandemic
Description of first days of the pandemic
Watching the spread of COVID-19 overseas before it appeared in the USA
Early preparations
Dr. Hamburger describes getting COVID-19 in the early days of the pandemic
Learning from the experiences of international colleagues
The challenge of having enough resources to treat patients
The lack of knowledge as to how to treat patients effectively
Describing the pain of loved ones not being able to communicate with patients
Describing departments transitioning into caring for COVID patients
Caring for the “normal” patients giving birth and having procedures during COVID
Describing how the Rapid Response Team treated patients who were severely sick from COVID
Describing the challenges of working at an accelerated pace with no end in sight
The emotional challenges of keeping going when certain outside currents were minimizing the pandemic
The challenges of “self-isolating” when in many New York cultures multiple generations live under one roof
Exploring whether the medical community might have built more trust by acknowledging more that we were in uncharted waters
Describing the close-knit team approach of the Rapid Response Team built effectiveness and morale
Describing the long-lasting effects of fatigue from the pandemic
Utilizing the tool of journaling to keep grounded and retain a sense of purpose
Describing the personal cost of loved ones getting severely sick from COVID
Managing crisis is always going to be part of the health care profession; it’s necessary to find ways to cope with it
How COVID changed the way we practice medicine
The pros and cons of masking
The unwillingness of some of the public to abide by public health guidelines and how we could have managed it better
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