Sharing successes, challenges and daily happenings in the Department of Medicine
How the state, payors and patients view the quality of care provided by the DOM depends on it. Moreover, this assessment increasingly determines reimbursement. Consider Maryland Hospital Acquired Conditions (MHACs): 46 potentially preventable conditions monitored by the state. At current pace, The Johns Hopkins Hospital, including the DOM, may face a $7-10 million penalty for(...)
There is a global cyberattack in progress. Early indications are that it’s a variant of Petya malware, described by the Internet Storm Center here. The current attack has already affected computers throughout the Heritage Valley Health System in Pennsylvania, as well as disrupting Merck’s computer network. This attack is similar in some ways to last(...)
Today's news is dominated by the extensive worldwide cybersecurity attack. The root causes are a matter for speculation and investigation at this point, but a couple of things seem clear: Health systems have been affected, with impacts on patient care <https://www.wired.com/2017/05/ransomware-meltdown-experts-warned>, <https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/05/nhs-ransomware-cyber-attack> At least some of the affected health systems had been warned for months about out-of-date computer(...)
We are excited to announce the first event of the DOM Civic Engagement Community Outreach Committee. Many of us take for granted that we have the proper clothing and business attire to wear to work. Imagine, however, if you were recently homeless or unemployed—it is highly likely that you no longer have those resources, making(...)
Now in the cold days of January, winter storms are always a possibility. This is the time to review the Inclement Weather guidelines. Below is the updated version sent by Ambulatory Services. These policies apply to ambulatory clinics. Decisions regarding closures are made by the Incident Command Team with leadership representation present for JHH, Bayview and(...)
Look around Hopkins and you see a culture that has been shaped by the giants in medicine and science. Portraits decorate our walls, and clinical teams, buildings and events are named after famous physicians and scientists. Perhaps less visible is the impact of the teams and processes that enable discoveries to become implementable improvements- drugs,(...)
On Dec 1, 2016, a new Computing Device Acquisition policy (document access limited to JH personnel) went into effect across all of Johns Hopkins Medicine and the Johns Hopkins Health System. This policy affects the way that computing devices are purchased, how they are configured for network access and how they are managed by IT(...)
The DOM is excited to announce the opening of Meyer 8 and 9 on Wednesday, December 14 after extensive renovations. Outlined below are the plans for these two units: Meyer 8, with its 24 private rooms, will replace H2O2. These beds will house the hospitalist patients as well as MEG patients. Meyer 9 will have 21(...)
In the present funding environment, many productive investigators may episodically struggle to maintain continuous grant support. At these critical time-points, shifting effort from research to clinical activities or losing key members of your research team is counter-productive to successfully competing for grant funding. To date, institutional support to cover gaps in funding, thereby bridging faculty,(...)
There are several exciting initiatives taking place in the Johns Hopkins ambulatory setting to enhance care delivery. First, the Johns Hopkins Patient Access Process Improvement group has been promoting the use of Appointment Issue Tracker (AIT) to record issues related to the quality of scheduled appointments made by central scheduling. Benefits of AIT are: Centralized(...)