No one is untouched by the COVID-19 pandemic. Although all departments in the School of Medicine and Johns Hopkins Health System have come together in remarkable ways to meet this challenge, no group has given more than the Department of Medicine. COVID-19 is fundamentally a medical illness, and our department is at the forefront in every aspect. Our nurses, residents, fellows, faculty and administrators are all involved and have substantially changed their work flow and, in many cases, their job descriptions to meet the demands of COVID-19. Each of our divisions has contributed in unique ways, addressing the clinical care, research and educational missions that are so critical to this response. With profound gratitude for these efforts, we are dedicating a series of brief reports to inform, thank and celebrate the contributions of these key divisions to our COVID-19 response.
Division of General Internal Medicine at JHBMC:
- Bayview GIM providers have gone above and beyond to provide follow-up access for patients leaving JHBMC to facilitate discharges and support their convalescence, even for those who are not their patients.
- Providers and staff readily accepted geriatrics patients and clinicians into the GIM practice once it was decided to convert the Division of Geriatrics to the Bayview COVID-19 Clinic.
- The Palliative Care team has worked to provide tailored COVID-related palliative education for doctors, nurses, pharmacists, social workers and housestaff. The team has also facilitated Zoom visits for families with hospitalized patients who cannot use tablet on own.
- During a time when it is easy to feel isolated, Bayview GIM has fought to maintain a sense of community with weekly Zoom meetings for all staff, faculty and trainees with guest appearances by babies, children and pets.
Division of Pulmonary & Critical Care Medicine:
- Pulmonary faculty and fellows have been frontline providers on most of the newly-opened COVID-19 ICUs, while continuing to provide care to non-COVID critically ill patients. Fellows have tolerated interruptions in their training to provide overnight coverage to the ICUs to ensure we provide the best possible care.
- Emily Brigham, Ann Parker and Sarath Raju have spearheaded the Pulmonary Ambulatory COVID Team (PACT), a virtual telemedicine clinic that serves patients with persistent respiratory complications after COVID-19, and facilitates multidisciplinary care to address the unique needs of ICU survivors.
- Brian Garibaldi is leading the COVID-19 Precision Medicine Center of Excellence registry, which helps to provide a secure way of storing patient data from many sources to support inHealth and precision medicine efforts.
- Lonny Yarmus and other pulmonary faculty have organized one of the first COVID-19 CME course: A COVID-19 Pandemic Update for Hospitals and Clinicians: A Virtual and Interactive Learning Experience.
- The MICU has operated all 24 beds throughout the pandemic. MICU Nurses have delivered the highest quality care with compassion, high spirits and collegiality, despite the challenges. Many MICU nurses were deployed to other units that were morphed into COVID ICUs, to help non-ICU nurses quickly gain skills in critical care.
Man Hospitalized With Coronavirus Released One Day After Wedding Anniversary
Click to view a video from WJZ about a long-stay MICU patient who was sent home after 46 days in the hospital and weeks on a ventilator. Thank you to the Division of Pulmonary and staff of the MICU for bringing about this happy ending.
For more COVID-19 photos, visit our Facebook page.
