H eadlines
Doctor Takes on Vital Role During COVID Crisis
L OCA L
JARRAD SAFFREN | JE STAFF
BEFORE COVID, Dr. Steven
Sivak was a veteran physician
who had risen to the admin-
istrative level, overseeing the
Einstein Healthcare Network’s
practice locations and hospital
patients in the Philadelphia
medical center.

After COVID broke out, he
became the medical equivalent
of a wartime general, respon-
sible for building pandemic
processes on the fly and then,
once the vaccine became avail-
able in December, organizing
a community inoculation
program on the fly, too.

The Jewish doctor rose to
the unprecedented challenge,
according to Einstein colleagues.

“The staff pulled together,”
said Dr. Eric Sachinwalla,
Einstein’s medical director for
infection prevention and control.

“He said, ‘It’s not just about
the people within our walls,’”
recalled Juanita Way, who is
running the network’s Tabor
Road vaccine site. “‘It’s about
the people in our community.’”
In the spring of 2020, Sivak’s
goal was to prevent people
from dying.

Einstein Medical Center
Philadelphia was caring for 65
ventilator patients at a time, up
from pre-pandemic norms of
about 20. It also had a packed
emergency room of about 200
patients. Sivak, then 68, was meeting
daily with his team and working
100-hour weeks. Despite their
best efforts, like most hospital
workers then, they saw a lot of
deaths. But, according to Sivak,
Einstein’s death rate was lower
than other area hospitals. And
no Einstein employees got
COVID infections from caring
for sick patients.

Sivak attributed the success
to processes that his team devel-
oped over those early months.

Einstein employees started
screening people at the doors
and enforcing pandemic rules,
like mask-wearing and social
distancing, inside facilities.

They quarantined all positive
patients into COVID-specific
units. They also started using all
types of doctors, including
cardiologists and other special-
ists, as critical care doctors.

Sivak’s team even called up
medical residents to the
emergency room.

“We had to accommodate
a sudden influx of critically ill
patients that far exceeded our
capacity to manage patients,”
From left: Drs. Steven Sivak and Eric Sachinwalla discuss the COVID
vaccination rollout at Einstein Medical Center Philadelphia.

Courtesy of Einstein Healthcare
Sivak said.

By the winter, though,
Sivak’s team was able to use
vaccines to help people live
again. For the first month of the
vaccination process, like most
hospital systems, Einstein
jabbed its essential workers.

Using the Philadelphia hospi-
tal’s largest auditorium, Sivak’s
team set up six vaccination
stations, did 500 shots a day
and inoculated 75% of the staff.

“It was exhilarating,” Sivak
said. “You could feel a sense
of relief come over the whole
organization.” After that first month,
Einstein extended the shots to
See COVID, Page 13
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6 AUGUST 12, 2021
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