As the Comprehensive Transplant Center (CTC) transitions to its service line model, we'd like to applaud the work of Dan Brennan, professor in Nephrology and the innovative medical director of the CTC, who has helped propel the center into the future since his arrival in July. For more information, review the below message from the SOM.
Below is a message about the CTC from the SOM's Paul Rothman and Ron Peterson:
Organ transplants have been an integral part of health care services at Johns Hopkins for decades. Many of the surgeries performed at our facilities, such as Maryland’s first kidney transplant, a double-arm transplant for a military veteran and the first-ever liver transplant from an HIV-positive donor, have not only been lifesaving but historic in nature.
We owe the program’s success in large part to the exceptionally talented and dedicated surgeons, nurses and other clinicians and staff of the Comprehensive Transplant Center (CTC), who have provided expert treatment and collaborative, compassionate care.
In an effort to further support the center, we are pleased to announce that it will transition to a “service line” model. This model will provide a well-defined organizational structure, increased resources and protocols that are better aligned with Johns Hopkins Medicine’s strategic priorities and mission imperatives
Effective immediately, the CTC will operate under the leadership of a medical co-director, Dr. Daniel Brennan, and surgical co-director, Dr. Benjamin Philosophe.
More than 100 transplant professionals will work in highly orchestrated teams organized by organ types to address the needs of some of our most complex patients, from preventing end-stage organ failure to enhancing their long-term survival after transplants.
With the formalized structure of a service line, we look forward to the progress the staff will make in implementing value-based care, innovative research and enhanced budget management.
The CTC team is committed to an aggressive set of goals, which includes:
- Reducing a patient’s length of stay in the hospital
- Transitioning hospitalized patients seamlessly to outpatient care
- Reducing patients’ readmission to the hospital
- Assessing the flow of financial funds and costs of transplant services
- Improving patient outcomes with excellent regulatory compliance
- Continuously reviewing safety and quality improvement measures
Cross-disciplinary communication, integration and collaboration improve the clinical outlook for so many patients who would otherwise lose their lives to end-stage organ failure or experience a significantly diminished quality of life.
Also importantly, organ transplants as a service line will help us recruit and retain the most highly skilled transplant physicians, advanced practitioners and nurses, along with transplant experts in pharmacy, nutrition, psychiatry and social work.
We would like to thank Dr. Robert Higgins, our surgeon-in-chief and director of the Department of Surgery, and Dr. Mark Anderson, physician-in-chief and director of the Department of Medicine, for their vision and the tremendous hours they put in to develop the structure of the Comprehensive Transplant Center service line.
Please join us in congratulating the team for their dedication to continuous improvement in patient access and outcomes.
-Paul B. Rothman and Ronald R. Peterson
