On Wednesday, August 29, the BCU team held a short exercise called Operation Limelight for congressional staffers and media outlets. Operation Limelight was a demonstration of several aspects of an activated unit including patient admission via an Isopod, personal protective equipment (PPE) donning and doffing procedures, autoclave operations, laboratory specimen processing and adaptive communication via(...)
Biocontainment Unit
Rounding Out the Summer
Posted by | Patient CareThe BCU is rounding out its quarterly validations for the month of August. Twenty-six nurses, eight laboratory technicians, six respiratory therapists, three radiology technicians, 17 providers and 13 infection control personnel completed over 200 total hours of training. One of the more fun training objectives included the annual fire extinguisher training with personnel from the(...)
BCU Super User Retreat
Posted by | Patient CareJade Flinn, BCU nurse educator, is developing and training eight dedicated nurse clinicians to lead and facilitate training sessions and activate the unit in Jade’s absence. This will add a greater degree of preparedness and sustainability to our unit’s unique needs through the sharing of knowledge and responsibility. Shelby Cahill, Dauryne Shaffer, Grace Carter, Sam(...)
June News
Posted by | Patient CareOn June 4-5, the BCU team travelled to Minneapolis for the third annual summit of the National Ebola Training and Education Center (NETEC). This two-day conference brought together representatives from the ten Regional Ebola and Special Pathogens Treatment Centers (RESPTCs) as well as officials from the CDC, WHO, ASPR and NIOSH. The summit focused on(...)
We’re Published!
Posted by | Patient CareOn March 14, the BCU published its first manuscript describing a new methodology to study how infectious pathogens travel through our clinical space. In partnership with the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab, we used a cough machine named “Barney” to recreate a human cough composed of fluorescent microbeads. We then used sensors placed throughout the(...)
The Ocho Drill
Posted by | Patient CareOn Tuesday, February, the Biocontainment Unit hosted the National Ebola Training Center (NETEC) for its annual site assessment. Representatives from Nebraska Medical, Emory and New York Bellevue hospitals came together to discuss the progress the Johns Hopkins BCU has made in the last year and observed BCU staff in a full scale exercise, the Ocho(...)
The BCU Receives Discovery Grant
Posted by | Patient CareThe BCU is excited to be a 2018 recipient of the Fisher Center Discovery Program grant. Brian Garibaldi and Lauren Sauer were awarded the grant for their project entitled, “Environmental transmission and traceability of aerosolized bio-simulants in a clinical biocontainment unit." The grant will allow the BCU to continue its partnership with the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab(...)
Garibaldi and Sauer Receive Fisher Center Discovery Program Grant
Posted by | CongratulationsBrian Garibaldi, assistant professor in the Division of Pulmonary and medical director of the Biocontainment Unit (BCU), and Lauren Sauer, assistant professor in Emergency Medicine and director of research for the BCU, received a 2018 Fisher Center Discovery Program (FCDP) grant for their project "Environmental transmission and traceability of aerosolized bio-simulants in a clinical biocontainment(...)
Happy New Year!
Posted by | Patient CareOn November 30, the BCU conducted its latest quarterly drill. The drill involved a pregnant patient who went into labor in the Johns Hopkins Outpatient Clinic, but was quickly identified as suspect for an unknown, novel and highly pathogenic respiratory illness. As such, the patient was transported via LifeLine in an IsoPod to the BCU.(...)
Introducing the BCU Spotlight
Posted by | Patient CareThe BCU would like to introduce a new feature of the blog this month, the BCU Spotlight. We will use the spotlight to highlight the contributions of members of the BCU team. This month’s spotlight features BCU nurse superuser Sam Gutner. We are excited for our hospital-wide drill on November 30. We will simulate the(...)