Page 29 - White Plains Hospital Annual Report 2020-2021

explains, involved “10 of our doctors who worked on their time off to help test these experimental treatments, driven by the hope that trying these new therapies would be able to help our patients.”
The trial helped to pave the way for the successful mAb clinic and treatment program that is currently underway at White Plains Hospital. “It really took a village to get everyone as efficient as we could, since time is of the essence for this treatment,” notes Dr. Rashmi Dubey, a WPH Hospitalist for five years, and the physician lead for the clinic, located on the main level of the Hospital. Dr. Dubey’s main role is screening and accepting patients into the program, and coordinating and communicating with physicians in the ED and the patient’s primary care provider. She also follows up with patients and all associated caregivers after the infusions.
Dr. Dubey says that through the initial phases of study and treatment, it has been determined that the ideal candidates are high risk, older adults with underlying conditions who were
recently diagnosed with COVID-19 and are within 10 days of experiencing symptoms, but are still well enough to be out of the hospital and don’t require oxygen supplementation.
In just four months time, the program is seeing great success: between December 2 and March 31, the Hospital has treated 614 COVID-19-positive patients and nearly 93% of patients avoided hospitalization. In addition, less than 1% of patients receiving the treatments experienced any side effects and of those who did proceed to be hospitalized, no deaths or intubations occurred. The mAb cocktails, Dr. Mani says, “are one of the best things we have out there” for fighting coronavirus.
Proud that White Plains Hospital was one of the earliest adopters of mAb treatments, Dr. Mani believes it shows how a community hospital can “step up, take on research, and bring new therapeutics and new technologies of care for patients with COVID.” He adds, “Our doctors pushed to make positive change happen. I think that’s very significant.”
Dr. Rashmi Dubey (far right) along with her team at the mAb clinic (from left to right) Nancy Passaro, Nurse Manager; Celia Caceres, Nursing Technician; Lindsey Johnson, Travel RN; Janis Rodriguez-Santiago, RN.
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