Changes in Burn Surgery Operative Volume and Metrics due to COVID-19.

Due to COVID-19, hospitals underwent drastic changes to operating room policy to mitigate the spread of the disease. Given these unprecedented measures, we aimed to look at the changes in operative volume and metrics of the burn surgery service at our institution. A retrospective review was conducted for operative cases and metrics for the months of March to May for 2019, 2020, and 2021, which correspond with pre-COVID, early COVID (period without elective cases), and late COVID (period with resumed elective cases).

The Effect of Chaplain Patient Navigators and Multidisciplinary Family Meetings on Patient Outcomes in the ICU: The Critical Care Collaboration and Communication Project.

Objectives: To assess the effectiveness of a chaplain patient navigator in improving outcomes and reducing costs in the ICU setting.

Design: A randomized controlled trial at a large, urban, academic community hospital in Baltimore, Maryland.

Setting/patients: All patients admitted to the Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center Cardiac and Medical ICUs between March 2015 and December 2015.

Patient Trajectories Among Persons Hospitalized for COVID-19 : A Cohort Study.

Background: Risk factors for progression of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) to severe disease or death are underexplored in U.S. cohorts.

Does Use of Electronic Alerts for Systemic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (SIRS) to Identify Patients With Sepsis Improve Mortality?

Purpose: The objective of this study was to assess whether earlier antibiotic administration in patients with systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) and evidence of organ dysfunction identified through electronic alerts improves patient mortality.

Methods: This is a retrospective observational cohort study of adult patients admitted across 5 acute-care hospitals. Mortality, Premier CareScience Analytics Expected Mortality Score, and clinical and demographic variables were obtained through the electronic medical record and Premier (Premier Healthcare Solutions, Inc, Charlotte NC) reports.

A polymicrobial fungal outbreak in a regional burn center after Hurricane Sandy.

Objective: To describe a polymicrobial fungal outbreak after Hurricane Sandy.

Design: An observational concurrent outbreak investigation and retrospective descriptive review.

Setting: A regional burn intensive care unit that serves the greater Baltimore area, admitting 350-450 burn patients annually.

Sustaining Teamwork Behaviors Through Reinforcement of TeamSTEPPS Principles.

Background: Teamwork training improves short-term teamwork behaviors. However, improvements are often not sustained.

Question/purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore the extent to which teamwork reinforcement activities for orthopedic surgery teams lead to sustained teamwork behaviors.

Use of Implementation Science for a Sustained Reduction of Central-Line-Associated Bloodstream Infections in a High-Volume, Regional Burn Unit.

OBJECTIVE We describe the use of implementation science at the unit level and organizational level to guide an intervention to reduce central-line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSIs) in a high-volume, regional, burn intensive care unit (BICU). DESIGN A single center observational quasi-experimental study. SETTING A regional BICU in Maryland serving 300-400 burn patients annually.

Door Opening Affects Operating Room Pressure During Joint Arthroplasty.

Many resources are expended to ensure a sterile operating room environment. Efforts are made to prevent exposure of patients to personnel and to achieve positive room pressure to keep out airborne contaminants. Foot traffic into and out of the operating room during surgery can undermine these efforts.

Clinical Communities at Johns Hopkins Medicine: An Emerging Approach to Quality Improvement.

Background: Clinical communities are an emerging approach to quality improvement (QI) to which several large-scale projects have attributed some success. In 2011 the Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality established clinical communities as a core strategy to connect frontline providers from six different hospitals to improve quality of care, patient safety, and value across the health system. CLINICAL COMMUNITIES: Fourteen clinical communities that presented great opportunity for improvement were established.