Q&A
Council Member Diana Ayala questions nominees on hospital experience and board representation
0:40:44
·
4 min
Council Member Diana Ayala questions Dr. Michael Espiritu about his experience in public hospitals and the potential impact of board advocacy. She then emphasizes the importance of board members being champions for public hospitals and highlights concerns about resource allocation and infrastructure in her district's hospitals.
- Dr. Espiritu shares an example of technological disparities between Bellevue and NYU Langone hospitals.
- Ayala stresses the need for board members to be familiar with individual hospital conditions and to advocate for improvements.
- The council member expresses concern about the lack of engagement from current board members with local hospitals.
Diana Ayala
0:40:44
I think so Doctor Swedicle, my question is regarding, you know, you've worked at Bellevue.
0:40:50
You obviously have experience working in a hospital setting.
0:40:55
I don't know if that's me or that oh, that's sorry.
0:40:59
No.
0:40:59
It's mine provided.
0:41:03
I'm sorry.
0:41:03
You know, something wrong with that one.
0:41:07
Could you point to an incident or a circumstance in in your capacity as a physician in a in a public hospital setting where, you know, the advocacy of the board would have been helpful to you.
Michael Espiritu
0:41:24
Yeah.
0:41:25
I could think of one distinct example is during my time practicing medicine at Bellevue.
0:41:31
I was not an employee, major c, but employee of NYU School of Medicine because that's where the physicians from NYU provide care.
0:41:42
There at Bellevue.
0:41:43
So I split my time between Bellevue and practicing at NYU Langone.
0:41:47
And I think one of the starkest difference was and now it's it's different since they since Epic was implemented.
0:41:53
But the stark difference in in technical technological infrastructure that there was a very rudimentary electronic medical record system.
0:42:05
I can't remember the name now that was in use for a long time there.
0:42:09
And so from a day to day basis going back and forth to one facility where you had all the information you need readily accessible with a click of a button to a very sort of rudimentary kind of documentation and and lab result system.
0:42:28
Really provided a stark contrast at that point.
0:42:31
So and really provided a example of where a lot of, you know, some investment at that point really could have enhanced the the the quality of or at least the ease of of giving care and and as as resolved quality.
Diana Ayala
0:42:51
Absolutely.
0:42:52
I I appreciate that.
0:42:54
I mean, because for for me, it's really important that whoever is representing the health and hospitals that are in my district.
0:43:05
Is gonna be a champion, right, for those hospitals.
0:43:08
As council member, Salamanca reference, you know, we've put in a lot of money into our public hospitals, and that's money that could have gone, you know, into the community as well that could have gone for, you know, our libraries, our public playgrounds.
0:43:23
But that's not the reality, you know, fiscally that we're in at health and hospitals.
0:43:28
I get that, and I believe in, you know, the the idea of invest scene.
0:43:35
Right?
0:43:35
Because I know that it's it's it's ultimately gonna be helpful to to my community.
0:43:39
But I, you know, it's very important to me.
0:43:43
I've never heard from anyone on the board.
0:43:46
I have no knowledge of anyone on the board ever visiting any of the public hospitals that I represent.
0:43:52
And that's important.
0:43:54
I I don't you know, I think that life experience is important, but also being able to make the comparisons right between hospitals and how one functions as opposed to the other.
0:44:04
How, you know, more resources are sent to 1 as opposed to the other, that that is that's important because you're gonna be our representative voice.
0:44:14
Right?
0:44:14
The representative voice of those clinicians, those nurses that are, you know, overworked and understaffed the, you know, equipment condition.
0:44:24
I mean, I had in at Metropolitan Hospital, the MRI machine was, like and it still is.
0:44:31
We we've gotten them a modular system, but it's in a mobile station parked in the parking lot.
0:44:38
It's freezing in the in the winter.
0:44:40
People you know, if it's raining, you have to kinda stand on, you know, to the side so that you don't get wet while you're waiting.
0:44:45
That that I don't consider that an ideal scenario, and I, you know, I hope that that's not the accept that that's the exception and not the rule, but that's not my it hasn't been my experience.
0:44:59
So I will definitely take a closer look at both applications and, you know, I wish you luck, but obviously that is something that's really important to myself and to the people that I represent.
Keith Powers
0:45:16
Thank you.
0:45:17
We've also been joining my account from Barely as well.
0:45:21
Seeing no other questions from colleagues.
0:45:23
I want to thank you guys and congratulate you again, and you're both excused.
