Located at an elevation of over 13000 feet above sea level, Hospital del Norte is a public facility serving the community of El Alto, one of the fastest growing urban centers in Bolivia and the highest major city in the world. The adult ICU is an eight-bed unit caring for diverse medical and surgical patients, including trauma and neurocritical care. Hospital del Norte is a cornerstone for healthcare in El Alto, caring for a largely indigenous and low-income patient population with its team of caring, warm, and hardworking intensivists, critical care residents and nurses.  

 Mount Sinai's Institute for Critical Care Medicine (ICCM) and Hospital del Norte launched a collaboration aimed at enhancing the delivery of critical care and fostering mutual understanding of the challenges each institution faces. Our partnership focuses on the exchange of expertise in clinical practice, quality improvement, and education.

Current opportunities  

• Online Lecture Series: Faculty and trainees from Hospital del Norte and Mount Sinai participate in a monthly series where both institutions alternate in presenting case studies and lectures, ensuring cross-institutional learning. The presentations are conducted in both English and Spanish, fostering an inclusive environment for all participants. These presentations typically occur on the third or fourth Wednesday of the month from 2:00pm to 3:00pm Eastern standard time. Critical Care or emergency medicine faculty or trainees who are interested in being a presenter at this conference should email: cappi.lay@mountsinai.org.

Anyone interested in attending these presentations online can receive a zoom-link to the upcoming conferences by sending an email to: elba.colman@mountsinai.org.

Elective Global Health rotation at Hospital del Norte: Open for fellows, residents and critical care attendings. Currently, this rotation is only open to Mount Sinai emergency medicine residents and critical care fellows. Rotations typically last between three and four weeks during which the trainee will spend time in the emergency department and adult ICU. Pediatric ICU fellows will rotate in the 5-bed PICU with the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit attending at HdN. Mount Sinai trainees participate in daily rounds and critical care procedures under the supervision of the attending physician at Hospital del Norte. Rotators are expected to prepare teaching materials and provide education for students and trainees while in El Alto. Teaching may take the form of preparing formal lectures, hands-on workshops in ultrasound or other procedural skills, and leading in-situ simulation trainings for nurses and physicians at HdN. Trainees rotating at HdN will aim to learn from our Bolivian colleagues about endemic pathology and high-altitude medicine while also sharing with them our own expertise.

Examples of Teaching performed by rotating physicians at Hospital del Norte:

• Lectures: Covering a range of topics such as neurocritical care, vasopressor management,
• Workshops: point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS), percutaneous tracheostomy, transcranial Doppler.
• Simulations: Hands-on training in airway management, advanced cardiovascular life support (ACLS), and other critical procedures, with an emphasis on real-world applications.

Quality Initiatives and future projects
Spontaneous Awakening and Spontaneous Breathing Trials: Focused on optimizing ventilator management, improving weaning processes, and promoting faster recovery for critically ill patients.

Rapid Response Team
For more information on the Rapid Response team, email Dr. Ilse Espina-Martinez or Dr. Gabriela Keeton.