Sharing successes, challenges and daily happenings in the Department of Medicine
On June 27-28, over a dozen members of the BCU team travelled to Emory University to participate in the second annual National Ebola Training and Education Center summit. As the HHS Region 3 Ebola and Special Pathogens Treatment Center, the BCU team shared our experiences over the last year with a particular focus on the strides we(...)
Several members of the BCU leadership team received invitations to be a part of the National Ebola Training and Education Center’s (NETEC) site visits this spring. Lauren Sauer, director of research for the BCU, visited Nebraska in March. Mallory flew down to Atlanta to take part in Emory’s site visit. Brian Garibaldi had the opportunity to(...)
The BCU team hosted the National Ebola Training and Education Center (NETEC) for their second annual Hopkins site visit on May 17-18. NETEC faculty were on hand from the University of Nebraska Medical Center, Emory University and Bellevue Hospital to meet with the BCU team and to share best practices in high containment care. The(...)
The BCU participated in an international preparedness drill organized by the State Department and the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) in early April. Eleven mock patients were flown from West Africa in a new biocontainment transport system. On arrival to Dulles, the patients were transported to one of five Regional Ebola and Special(...)
Spring is finally here and the BCU has been in full swing gearing up for a season of preparedness activities. In addition to our regularly scheduled training activities, we have participated in several exciting events since our last post. The BCU welcomed Eric Toner from the Center for Health Security as our guest speaker at(...)
On February 9, the BCU team co-hosted a symposium on transportation for patients with highly infectious diseases at the American Society of Microbiology Biothreats Conference in Washington, DC. During the symposium, David Drewry from the Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) presented exciting new data from research that was conducted on the BCU. APL has developed a(...)
The new year is off to a good start for the Biocontainment Unit. The nurses participated in their quarterly training session this month. Using a mannequin and other equipment from the Simulation Center, the nurses were able to practice physical assessment with a digital stethoscope, specimen collection from a central line, central line dressing changes and other routine patient care activities.(...)
On December 15, staff members and providers from 11 departments at The Johns Hopkins Hospital and Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center participated in our final quarterly preparedness drill of 2016. Visitors from the National Ebola Treatment and Education Center (NETEC), the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Preparedness and Response (ASPR), the Maryland State Department(...)
In keeping with our educational mission, the BCU recently hosted the CDC to film a set of infection prevention training videos in conjunction with HEIC. It was a great opportunity to show off the unit, meet leaders from the CDC and share our unit and expertise with a national audience. Additionally, the BCU hosted its(...)
The BCU has been busy training staff onsite, but also learning and training with other infectious disease experts from across the country. The BCU staff educator, a BCU staff member and members from Hospital Epidemiology and Infection Control attended the National Ebola Training and Education Center’s (NETEC) Emerging Infectious Disease Preparedness Training in Atlanta on(...)