Dr. Paul Sasso
As Westchester County continues to grow, with an increase of 6,578 new residents just last year, the area’s medical needs have also increased. Dr. Paul Sasso, Director of the Emergency Department and AVP of Clinical Operations at St. John’s Riverside Hospital, says the hospital has responded by expanding its emergency department’s capabilities.
“A major difference that we will see immediately is space,” says Dr. Sasso. “The emergency department we’re currently working in was built to take care of about 25,000 patients annually. Right now we have 27 beds that we use for close to 40,000 patients a year. So that’s a big difference! Our new emergency department will add 28 beds. We’re going to go from a 27-bed capacity to over a 55-bed capacity. That is just incredibly exciting.”
He adds that the changes are focused on improving efficiency and patient care.
“When we’re efficient on the inpatient side, we don’t board in the emergency department,” he says. “We have a bed ready for that next person who’s coming in. When we can get them into a bed quickly, we can see them quickly. When we can see them quickly, we can figure out what’s going on with them more efficiently, and we can get them to where they need to be, whether that’s to testing, whether that’s inpatient in the hospital, whether that’s connecting them with all the amazing St. John’s outpatient resources we have. It’s really freed us up to practice the care that we want to practice, which is fast, safe, and compassionate.”
Dr. Sasso says the hospital is also committed to providing a swift and private experience for patients. “When people come here, they want to be seen quickly, in a space that they feel is safe, and they want to be treated with compassion. By expanding our emergency department, by making every room a private room, it really gives patients a flow where we can get in quickly.”
Patients come into the ED for all sorts of urgent medical situations, from sudden injuries to worsening chronic conditions. Often, these visits may leave a patient worried about what to do next. The ED’s improvements will also help ensure patients receive appropriate follow-up care after a visit.
“Sometimes you get to go back home, sometimes you need to stay in the hospital, but sometimes you have to navigate the health care system,” Dr. Sasso explains. “And that can be overwhelming as well. One of the things that our new emergency department is going to have is patient navigators to help bridge those gaps. We can make sure that you’re not having an emergency, but there might still be more to do in the outpatient setting. We really want to connect you to our amazing practices and physicians that we have in this community.”
That connection to all the other departments has led to positive changes in other areas of the hospital as well. Dr. Sasso says that the hospital now has an AI-capable CAT scan machine and two new MRI machines, including a Wide-Bore MRI. In addition, they plan to renovate the operating rooms and labor and delivery suites.
He goes on to say that while the new technology is a great improvement, one of the most important parts of the ED is its highly trained staff.
“We’re a really diverse staff as far as where our training backgrounds come from,” Dr. Sasso explains. “When a patient comes to St. John’s Hospital, you’re not only getting the expertise that we have here at St. John’s, but you’re getting all of our combined expertise from all the places we’ve trained in.”
St. John’s also has medical experts in a wide variety of fields. “Even in a community hospital our size, we have board-specialized toxicologists, fellowship-trained ultrasound physicians, pediatric-trained doctors, EMS fellowships, simulation education, trained physicians, and research people. For a community hospital to have that degree and that variation of expertise, not only to treat the patients that are coming in, but also to educate the residents that come through our system, it really is a special place to not only work, but also to provide care.”
Dr. Sasso is board-certified in emergency medicine. He went to medical school at SUNY Downstate and completed his residency at New York Presbyterian-Columbia University Medical Center.
Residency is a critical part of a doctor’s education, and Dr. Sasso says that St. John’s prioritizes both education and patient care.
“Any physician that you’re meeting was a resident at one point. It’s a part of their training after medical school where they begin to specialize,” he says. “What’s special about working, training, and teaching at an academic hospital like St. John’s is that you must stay up to date with the most evidence-based practice and new technologies and new teaching. The patients may notice it in that they see a variety of people on their care team. They might meet a medical student and then a resident, and then the attending. But what’s happening behind the scenes is that each patient is part of their education process as well. And we must hold ourselves and our residents to a very high level of educational standards to make sure that we’re preparing them to go out into the world.”
Nurses are also an integral part of the ED care team.
“The nurses here are amazing, and the changes that are going on in the Department of Nursing are absolutely incredible,” he says. “Just recently, the nursing department received a Mother Cabrini grant, and we’re working on an amazing project to elevate nursing excellence across the hospital.”
The hospital’s fast-track system also helps nurses provide efficient patient care. “Our amazing nurses do a fantastic job of triaging patients based on the symptoms they’re presenting with and, based on that, we have different areas of the ED that really focus on being efficient for those types of complaints.”
He explains a little more about the fast-track system. “Our fast-track area is really geared for our lower acuity complaints, such as a cut or a laceration or a sprained ankle, such that we can get you in and out of the system with those lower acuity issues as quickly as possible. And we really try to create different treatment areas. This way, we can focus on being efficient with those and then equally efficient for our higher acuity patients.”
To celebrate the expansion, ED workers got to help break the wall before construction began. Dr. Sasso says all the ED staff are very happy about the new renovations. “The ED staff is ecstatic, from the physicians to the residents to the nurses; we are all ecstatic. Not just for ourselves to be able to work in a new space, but really for our community—to be able to care for this community in a modern, state-of-the-art emergency department.”