Stepping it up to Reduce the Tragedy of the Opioid Epidemic

Baltimore City Mayor Catherine Pugh and Baltimore City Health Commissioner Dr. Leana Wen, along with representatives of all 11 Baltimore City hospitals, announced a new initiative this week to respond to the opioid epidemic.

The program will be built on levels of care that come from evidence-based techniques to identify and treat addiction when patients arrive in the emergency department or are admitted to the hospital. The plan is based on a similar initiative in Rhode Island, where overdose deaths decreased after its implementation. You may learn about the levels of care and what is required at each level here: https://health.baltimorecity.gov/levels-care

GBMC is not formally participating in this program since our hospital is in Baltimore County, not in the city, but we are already doing much of what is required to be in the highest level of care and we will continue to build to this capability. In our ED, we have peer counselors available and we begin addiction treatment for those who are willing. GBMC has also started working to prevent addiction or treat it in its earliest stages by having behavioral health consultants, substance use consultants, and psychiatrists in our patient-centered medical homes. Our goal is to identify depression and other mental illness early in the disease progression, so we can treat the disease early and hopefully prevent substance use.

I am delighted to see the work that is being done to stop this horrible epidemic. We will continue to partner with the community to bring this scourge to an end.

Hand Hygiene
It’s no secret that cleaning your hands can prevent the spread of germs, including those that are resistant to antibiotics and are more difficult to treat. Practicing hand hygiene is a simple, yet effective way to prevent infections

This Saturday, May 5 is “World Hand Hygiene Day.”  The day has been designated to remind healthcare workers and to encourage patients and their families to practice good hand hygiene. Many patients in the U.S. are affected by healthcare-associated infections and many of these situations could have been prevented by caregivers properly cleaning their hands at key moments in patient care.

Thank you very much to all of you for washing your hands!

GBMC Represented Again In The Daily Record’s Top 100 Women
I am once again proud to announce that two of our esteemed colleagues in the GBMC family were honored by The Daily Record as Top 100 Women. Barbara P. Messing, MA, CCC-SLP, BCS-S, Administrative-Clinical Director of the Milton J. Dance, Jr. Head and Neck Center, Johns Hopkins Head & Neck Surgery and Johns Hopkins Voice Center at GBMC, and Cathy Hamel, President of Gilchrist and our system’s Vice President for Continuing Care, (pictured left to right) were both honored for being exemplary citizens, for exhibiting a commitment to their community, and for actively participating in future leader mentoring. Congrats to you both!