Staying Safe During Your Summer Vacation

This coming weekend is the unofficial start of the summer travel season. 

This year we have fewer pandemic restrictions than last year, but there are steps we should still consider to keep ourselves healthy so we can enjoy our break. 

1. Stay up to date with your vaccinations: If you are 50 years of age or older, or if you are immunocompromised, get a second booster. 
2. Consider wearing a mask when in a public place, especially indoors: Masks reduce the spread of respiratory viruses, even the common cold. 
3. Wash your hands, especially before eating: This is particularly helpful to reduce the spread of bacteria and viruses that cause gastrointestinal illness.
4. If you do test positive for Covid-19: Contact your primary health care provider. You may be a candidate for the oral medication, Paxlovid, to further reduce your chance of serious illness.

Again, the science shows that the most protection against COVID comes from being fully vaccinated before you embark on your vacation. So, as we are heading to see family, to the beaches or to the pool, please get vaccinated or boosted, mask up indoors, stay well and enjoy your summer trips! 

Let us Honor Our Heroes 

So, while many of us are heading out to have fun, let’s not forget that this weekend we also commemorate Memorial Day — the day we remember those who have sacrificed their lives to keep us free.

GBMC HealthCare is fortunate to have many veterans in all three of our worksystems. Let’s use this holiday as an opportunity to thank them for their service. 

Our Thoughts Are With Uvalde

Earlier this week, we were all struck by the horrific school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. 21 people, including 19 children, were taken by a gunman. This comes on the heels of 14 men and women killed in a shooting at a grocery store in Buffalo, NY. Unfortunately, acts of violence are all too common in the United States. We grieve for the families and loved ones impacted by senseless violence. As we navigate these emotionally challenging times, I want to remind our GBMC HealthCare system employees about their access to Carebridge, which offers resources for support, guidance and counseling if you are struggling to process this event and others like it. Information on accessing Carebridge is available on the Infoweb.

A New Leader Gives Us Her Assessment

GBMC committed to using continuous quality improvement as its business model in 2010. We have made a lot of progress in improving health outcomes and the care experience since then. We have also driven out waste by designing standard work and deploying it, and we have created a more joyful work environment and made our people measurably safer on the job. 

When a new leader joins us from another organization, it’s a great opportunity to see what the new leader thinks about the status of our improvement culture.  

So, this week I asked Barbara Smith Peace, MBA, MPH, BSN, RN, LSSGB, our new Director of Quality and Patient Safety, to give us her take on GBMC in the area of quality and patient safety since she joined us a couple of months ago. 

Before arriving at GBMC, Barbara served as the Director of Quality at Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth, Texas where she led quality, patient safety, accreditation, and improvement and served as the Program Director helping the hospital achieve Magnet designation. She started her career as a clinical research coordinator working in Arusha, Tanzania, which inspired her to pursue a career in healthcare.   

You joined GBMC approximately two months ago. Since then, what have you learned about us when it comes to quality and patient safety? 
When it comes to quality and patient safety at GBMC, I have been consistently impressed by the degree of engagement and ownership I have witnessed in so many areas on so many levels.  To name just a few, I see: physicians actively leading quality efforts to improve both hospital acquired conditions and outcomes for diabetic patients; nurses and techs working collaboratively to reduce falls, pressure injuries and infections; security and support services actively partnering with other departments to provide patient care; and robust processes to promote safety in both the laboratory and pharmacy. At GBMC, the vision is real – quality and patient safety are not foreign concepts. Instead, all staff members are making a concerted effort to treat every patient as their loved one by reducing harm and improving the patient experience, and I find that both commendable and exciting. 

Compared to your previous places of employment, what are a few things you noticed that we’re doing really well and what areas have you identified that need some improvement?  
GBMC does a great job of using and sharing data. This is especially evident in the use of the Lean Management System – dashboards are visible, they are discussed frequently, and leaders can easily speak to the metrics. This has not always been my experience, so I’m proud to work for an organization that is transparent with its data sharing. That said, we can enhance this transparency by ‘pushing’ our outcome and infection prevention data to unit-level leadership; staff and unit-level leaders can better manage what is measured if they have easy access to it. My hope is that we can work closely with our Epic partners to improve our quality dashboards to bring this transparency to the unit level.  

What are some other initiatives that you and your leader, Carolyn L. Candiello, MA, CPHRM, Vice President of Quality and Patient Safety, are currently working on that you would like to share?
Carolyn and I are working on a few initiatives to celebrate the quality and patient safety work being conducted at GBMC. We will be publishing new issues of Quality Time, our department newsletter, with a plan to highlight unit-level work, recognize staff members for high-quality care, spotlight shared learning opportunities from recent safety events, and build on our culture of reporting. We will continue to share Great Save stories, and we are planning on ways to celebrate and recognize units when they significantly improve their quality metrics. Staff members are committed to quality and patient safety at GBMC, so we look forward to both supporting them and celebrating their work!  

What are some of your own professional goals, moving forward? 
As a nurse, I love to learn and grow, which is why I have enjoyed my year-long director fellowship with the American Organization for Nursing Leadership. After I complete the fellowship in June, one of my short-term professional goals is to become a certified professional in healthcare quality. I am excited to be part of the GBMC family, so a more long-term goal, I look forward to working collaboratively and building solid relationships as we continue to improve patient care. This professional goal stems from my career-long commitment to improving healthcare. Early in my career, I served as a clinical research coordinator in Tanzania, Africa, and it was during that time that I realized I wanted to dedicate my professional life to quality and patient safety. As such, when I think about my goals, I reflect on my favorite Tanzanian saying: “if you want to go fast, go alone, but if you want to go far, go together.” So, in the upcoming months and years, I look forward to putting in the work, meeting people, asking questions, learning, and sharing because together, I know we can go far! 

Thank you Barbara for your insight and welcome to GBMC!

A Week of Celebration of Nurses and the Hospital Team

This week we celebrated National Nurses Week, which is a time to honor our nurses who are the backbone of the GBMC HealthCare System. Their importance in caring for our patients has never been so clear as during the pandemic and our cyberattack.

Our nurses serve in many roles throughout our system, from bedside nurse to nursing leader and educator to nurse practitioner. Their work is hard and their commitment to the clinical outcome and the care experience of their patients is profound. I am very thankful for the work they do every day.

On Thursday we recognized their dedication to the profession at our annual Art of Nursing event. This year’s event was somewhat smaller in scope as we celebrated in the atrium of the hospital, with COVID-19 precautions still in place, but the energy and enthusiasm were fantastic. It was a great opportunity to thank our nurses for all they do for GBMC and its patients every day, and to have some fun! I also want to congratulate all the finalists and winners of this year’s inaugural Art of Nursing Nightingale Award and all Art of Nursing Awards. 

Clinical Assistant Support Award – Inpatient:  Jessica Fayall, NST, Medical/Telemetry (Unit 35)

Clinical Assistant Support Award – Outpatient:  Bernadette Romanowski, RMA, GBMC Health Partners Primary Care – Texas Station

Mrs. H. Norman Baetjer Jr. Nursing Graduate of the Year Award:  Lisa Licata, BSN, RN, Medical/Oncology/Telemetry (Unit 46)

Evidence-Based Practice in Nursing Award:  Emily Iseman, BSN, RN, Orthopaedics, Spine, Otolaryngology (Unit 58)

Patient- and Family-Centered Care Award:  Marybeth Hartlove, BSN, RN, CORLN, GBMC Health Partners – Otolaryngology

Diversity in Nursing Award:  Michael Kuiper, MSN, RN, CHPN, AHN-BC, Gilchrist Hospice Care

Nurse Leader Award:  Ryan McCoy, BSN, RN, Medical/Oncology/Telemetry (Unit 45)

Nurse Clinician of the Year Award: Evelyn Kim, BSN, RN, FNE-A/P, SANE-A,  Sexual Assault Forensic Evaluation (SAFE) and Domestic Violence (DV) Program 

Nightingale Award:  Zoe Ogden, BSN, RN, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

I would like to also thank everyone, especially our Marketing and Communications team and our Philanthropy teams, involved in the very successful newly reimagined Art of Nursing awards presentation and day of celebration.  

Happy Hospital Week
Overlapping National Nurses Week is National Hospital Week. 

I would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to everyone who works in the hospital either as a clinician or supporting our patients and caregivers. It takes everyone on the team to get the job done, and I am grateful for the efforts and dedication of our hospital employees.

GBMC has been serving this community since 1965 with our mission of health, healing, and hope. And now, as a true system of care that holds itself accountable to treat every patient, every time, the way that we would want our own loved ones treated we need to reflect from time to time that our hospital is a critical component of this system, and we can’t achieve our vision without our incredible hospital staff. Thank you again.

Discover the GBMC Difference

Earlier this week, we launched a new campaign, Discover the GBMC Difference. This campaign will highlight what sets GBMC apart from other healthcare companies in the Baltimore area. 

So, if you’re looking for a primary or specialty care physician or advanced practitioner for you or your loved one, or if you are looking for a new job as a nurse or as another member of the health care team, I invite you to visit www.gbmc.org/discover to learn more and to share the site with your friends and family members. 

The website is a one-stop-shop that will direct you to a broad range of clinical and surgical services. We are proud to be recognized as award-winning leaders in many areas such as maternity care, pediatrics, women’s health and cancer care, to name just a few.  

Our mission at GBMC HealthCare is to provide health, healing, and hope to all we serve in the community. It is our privilege to serve others, and it is our vision to provide the best health outcomes and care experiences with the least waste of resources and the most joy for those providing the care. 

A huge thanks to the team members who worked to get this new website and campaign off the ground. I hope that many of you will take the time to explore the website.  

Celebrating Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month
Each May, Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month commemorates the vital contributions of Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders (AAPI) and native Hawaiians to our nation’s history and recognizes the challenges many have faced along the way. 

We are fortunate at GBMC in that we have a diverse staff that come from many different cultures. It is this diversity that enriches our work and our patients’ experience. We proudly celebrate Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month, and I want to thank our AAPI staff for their contributions to our community and hard work on the frontlines in serving our patients! 

FORE!!! A Few Causes
The annual GBMC Golf Classic was held this past Monday at Turf Valley Country Club. Mother Nature provided optimal weather conditions for the 110 golfers who played to help raise funds for continuing medical and clinical education in the GBMC HealthCare system and for the John E. Savage Medical Library, which provides our clinicians and members of the community the most up-to-date medical information. 

Countless hours were spent by the golf tournament committee preparing for this great event, which grossed approximately $125,000. I’m very grateful to everyone who helped us raise the money and to those who came out to play. Congratulations to the committee, co-chaired by Laurie R. Beyer, MBA, CPA, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, along with emergency department physicians Dov Frankel, MD, and William Zirkin, MD.

Hats off also to those who helped with the event, and to Jenny Coldiron and the GBMC Philanthropy staff, all of whom worked together to make it a great day of fun in the sun.  

Happy Mother’s Day!
On Mother’s Day we reflect on motherhood and thank our mothers for their love and support. 

To all mothers in the GBMC HealthCare System (especially those with newborns!), we wish you a Happy Mother's Day!