We are all in it together.
As we teeter on the verge of the fourth wave of this pandemic we have, rightfully, maintained focus on our primary responsibility, the care of cardiac patients in Manitoba. Along with those with cancer, patients with cardiac disease- our patients, have remained the major priority for non-COVID care for healthcare systems. However, we must never forget that cardiac care delivery is inextricably linked to the overall status of healthcare delivery at our primary site at St Boniface Hospital. We had a recent reminder of that over the past week and what we can do as members of the SBH community.
As you know, the ED at SBH has been under extraordinary stress over the past several weeks related to relentlessly increasing (mostly non-COVID) patient volumes. In that context, it has been to the credit of members of the Cardiac Sciences team for their efforts to help relieve the access blocks in the ED. The work of our cardiac nurses to provide support in the ED to expedite patient transfers was especially cited by the ED staff as being an important stress-reducer during a difficult time and a clear demonstration of our understanding that we are all in it together.
Sal’s Stars of the Week: Eileen Scharfenberg (introduced by Dan Quinn)
This week’s Sal’s Star goes to Eileen Scharfenberg. Eileen has held many clinical and leadership roles throughout the program, including in intensive care and on 5A Cardiology, and she has most recently taken on the role of Clinical Resource Nurse for the Cardiac Clinics. In all of her various roles, Eileen has always been known for her proactive and compassionate approach to patient care, and for her positive and supportive leadership of her colleagues. Eileen supports staff through onboarding, training, and using her organizational skills to make sure staffing and assignments meet the needs for the day, and does so with a positive and forward-thinking attitude with those the clinics serve at the heart of her practice.
I would like to highlight in particular Eileen’s efforts to support her colleagues and patients over the past couple of weeks. Like many areas in the program, the Cardiac Clinics are facing challenges and shortages of staff. These have been particularly acute recently. Eileen has been instrumental in helping to meet and overcome these challenges, going above and beyond to advocate for staff and patients to ensure the clinics have the resources required to meet their demands. This often includes taking on various other roles in the clinic herself, assisting both nursing and support staff.
We are all very appreciative for Eileen’s efforts to ensure everything runs well for our patients and that our staff have the resources they need while we work through these challenges.
Thank you Eileen and congratulations on being named this week’s Sal’s Star!
This Week’s Faculty Publications
E B Wu, E S Brilakis, K Mashayekhi, E Tsuchikane, K Alaswad, M Araya, A Avran, L Azzalini, A M Babunashvili, B Bayani, M Behnes, R Bhindi, N Boudou, M Boukhris, N Z Bozinovic, L Bryniarski, A Bufe, C E Buller, M N Burke, A Buttner, P Cardoso, M Carlino, J-Y Chen, E H Christiansen, A Colombo, K Croce, F Damas de Los Santos, T de Martini, J Dens, C di Mario, K Dou, M Egred, B Elbarouni, A M ElGuindy, J Escaned, S Furkalo, A Gagnor, A R Galassi, R Garbo, G Gasparini, J Ge, L Ge, P Kumar Goel, O Goktekin, N Gonzalo, L Grancini, A Hall, F Leonardo Hanna Quesada, C Hanratty, S Harb, S A Harding, R Hatem, J P S Henriques, D Hildick-Smith, J M Hill, A Hoye, W Jaber, F A Jaffer, Y Jang, R Jussila, A Kalnins, A Kalyanasundaram, D E Kandzari, Hsien-Li Kao, D Karmpaliotis, H Heshmat Kassem, J Khatri, P Knaapen, R Kornowski, O Krestyaninov, A V Ganesh Kumar, P Manuel Lamelas, Seung-Whan Lee, T Lefevre, R Leung, Y Li, Soo-Teik Lim, S Lo, W Lombardi, A Maran, M McEntegart, J Moses, M Munawar, A Navarro, H M Ngo, W Nicholson, A Oksnes, G K Olivecrona, L Padilla, M Patel, A Pershad, M Postu, J Qian, A Quadros, N Abi Rafeh, T Råmunddal, V Surya Prakasa Rao, N Reifart, R F Riley, S Rinfret, M Saghatelyan, G Sianos, E Smith, A Spaedy, J Spratt, G Stone, J W Strange, K O Tammam, C A Thompson, A Toma, J A Tremmel, R Santiago Trinidad, I Ungi, M Vo, V Hoang Vu, S Walsh, G Werner, J Wojcik, J Wollmuth, B Xu, M Yamane, L F Ybarra, R W Yeh, Q Zhang Global Chronic Total Occlusion Crossing Algorithm: JACC State-of-the-Art Review J Am Coll Cardiol. 2021 Aug 24;78(8):840-853. doi: 10.1016/j.jacc.2021.05.055.
J Chung, L-M Stevens, M W A Chu, F Dagenais, M D Peterson, M Boodhwani, J Bozinovski, I El-Hamamsy , M H Yamashita, R Atoui, B Bittira, D Payne, M Ouzounian, Canadian Thoracic Aortic Collaborative (CTAC) The impact of age on patients undergoing aortic arch surgery: Evidence from a multicenter national registry J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg . 2021 Sep;162(3):759-766.e1. doi: 10.1016/j.jtcvs.2020.02.032. Epub 2020 Feb 19.
I hope you are staying safe and healthy.
