Every day, our people at Sinai Health demonstrate and celebrate our Values of Service, Humanity, Inclusivity and Discovery. These Values build on our Purpose of caring, creating possibilities and offering hope to patients, their families and the community.
Sami-Beth Kuchar, Mount Sinai Hospital’s Senior Director, Mental Health and Addiction Services serves with heart. Every day Sami lives Sinai Health’s Values of Service and Inclusivity, values that have been so essential for our patients and our care teams.
The onset of the pandemic nearly three years ago created a sense of urgency across the health-care system, and especially those requiring acute psychiatric resources. When all hospital resources were stretched, Sami volunteered to lead efforts matching psychiatry patients to available beds in the region. Through the Incident Management System (IMS) GTA hospitals collaborated to ensure patients could access the care they needed as quickly as possible.
Sami led calls with her counterparts at other hospitals seven days a week, gathering information about available resources at each hospital, making decisions about patient transfers and managing the flow of patients. Sami led this work with genuine respect and empathy for patients and other hospitals, and with an understanding of the challenges health care workers were experiencing.
Sami’s efforts within the IMS structure led to her being nominated for, and winning, the Jane Chamberlin Award for outstanding contribution to Hospital Psychiatry/ Mental Health Programs from the Association of General Hospital Psychiatric Services.
Working together hospitals across the GTA ensured psychiatric patients were admitted and received care as soon as possible during a time when many psychiatric units saw reduced beds to accommodate other patients during the height of the pandemic. This collaboration of hospitals developed an ongoing community of practice among Directors of Psychiatry. The group has stayed connected to continue to resource match beyond the pandemic.
“The urgent need from the pandemic created the GTA Mental Health bed call and the relationships and partnerships built over the last two years have established a solid foundation for mental health system access for patients,” said Sami. “Our daily 10 a.m. bed call continues today ensuring that children, youth, adults and seniors maintain timely access to acute inpatient care.”
Her inclusive leadership style creates an environment of collaboration, encouraging her team to work together to provide the best care and service for their patients. Sami has worked hard to remove barriers to make her team’s jobs easier.