Whether she’s calming a confused patient, averting disaster, or counseling family members, patient liaison Sima Bachrach eases the stress of hospitalization.
I t’s a rainy Wednesday afternoon and I’m scheduled to meet Sima Bachrach at the Chesed 24/7 Bikur Cholim room in the Guggenheim Pavilion a 625-bed facility of Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. I’ve been told Sima can work miracles and I’m looking forward to meeting this energetic and caring woman who serves as Chesed 24/7’s patient liaison for the Jewish community.
But first I have to find her.
The building is massive. I enter the lobby with its gleaming tile and soaring atrium and suddenly feel very small. A heimish fellow directs me toward the Chesed 24/7 room down the hall on the second floor. As I wait for the elevator a parade of assorted hospital personnel hurry past dressed in scrubs or uniforms. This place is a world unto itself.
I enter the Chesed 24/7 room and start making a coffee while I wait for Sima. I’m surrounded by a cross section of New York Jews. A young woman is on her cell phone a middle-aged man absentmindedly stirs his tea a few ladies are deep in conversation others are searching for sandwiches in the fridge. Everybody here has a story.
Sima appears and leads me from the room through the labyrinth of corridors navigating the hospital halls like a pro stopping occasionally to greet a nurse (“Hi Desiree! Are we moving the patient to five? Wonderful!”) or an orderly (“Francine how are you?”). We arrive at Eleven West a secluded area on the eleventh floor lined with private patient suites and upgraded services. It’s where celebrities and the well-heeled come to heal.
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