TLC Telethon 2012

TELETHON

2012

ALL CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL

Tender Loving Care


All Children’s Hospital Foundation qualifies under Section 501(c)(3) of the IRS Code. Our federal tax iden-tification number is 59-2481738. Our Florida Solicitation of Contri-butions Act Registration Number is SC-01106. A copy of the official registration and financial infor-mation may be obtained from the Division of Consumer Services by calling toll free 1-800-435-7352, within the state. Registration does not imply endorsement, approval, or recommendation by the state. We retain no professional solici-tors and our Foundation receives 100% of each contribution.

COVER:Evan is the star of our 2012 All Children’s Telethon poster. You might remember his photo from the December 2011 edition of this magazine, which described a new “cooling therapy” for babies who risk brain injury due to reduced oxygen levels at birth. Evan’s therapy is just one example of how All Children’s and Johns Hopkins Medicine are working together to enhance treatment, teaching and research. See article, page 18.

2 Celebrating 29 Years of MiraclesOur Telethon has been celebrating miraculous youngsters for nearly three decades. Learn more about this year’s show.

4 Cody & McKenzieTwo Ft. Myers-area youngsters with rare heart problems discover much in common 120 miles from home at All Children’s Hospital.

8 JuniperWho knows a child’s story better than her parents? In Juniper’s case, no one knows—or tells—her story better than mom and dad.

12 HunterCatch up with All Children’s first heart transplant recipient, now a high school football hero.

14 Simulating for SuccessIt’s as close as possible to real life—with a reset button—an important addition to All Children’s educational experience.

18 Moving ForwardOne year since announcing the integration of All Children’s Hospital within Johns Hopkins Medicine, there’s much progress toward our shared goals.

21 Designing Clinical ResearchPairing ACH clinicians with mentors and research support at Johns Hopkins Medicine helps All Children’s investigators conduct, present and publish more research.

24 Hey, Did You Wash Your Hands?“Scrub A Dub-Dub,” the hip-hop hand-washing video produced by All Children’s Creative Services continues to clean up at awards competitions.

Contents TeleThon 2012

Tender Loving Careis published two times yearly by the Marketing & Public Relations Department for the staff and friends of All Children's Hospital. All rights reserved.Please address all correspondence to: All Children's Hospital FoundationP.O. Box 3142, St. Petersburg, Florida 33731

Editor: Ann Miller

Contributing Writers: ellen Arky, Ann Miller

Photos: Mike Sexton, Andy Merhaut

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It hardly seems possible that the All Children’s Hospital Telethon has been celebrating miraculous youngsters for almost three decades. But the 2012 broadcast on Sunday, June 3rd marks our 29th year of raising funds and friends for the region’s preeminent children’s hospital.

A lot has changed over the years. Early Telethon stars who made their television

debut while still infants are now grown, some with children of their own. And our St. Petersburg campus is now home to state-of-the art facilities that Telethon dollars helped to build.

But some things—like the tender loving care that we’re known for—thankfully will remain the same.

Once again this year, our WFLA News Channel 8 hosts will bring you the stories of some amazing kids live from All Children’s Education and Conference Center. And our TV partner to the south—WXCW/CW-6 in Ft. Myers—will bring stories of All Children’s expert care “closer to home” for our viewers and patient families in southwest Florida.

This year, you’ll also be learn-ing more about our extended family—Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore—and the incredible op-portunities ahead for All Children’s and the patients we serve thanks to this unique integration.

All Children’s Hospital was among the first children’s hospitals to join Children’s Miracle Network Hospi-tals (CMNH). This unique network partners TV stations with their local children’s hospitals, and then provides them with entertainment segments featuring nationally known talent to help create Telethons with a truly inspired difference. The money

raised on each local Telethon stays at that area’s local children’s hospital.

But the best reason to tune in on June 3rd—and one thing that will never change about our Telethon—is the stars of our show, the incredible kids who benefit from All Children’s care. Read about some of them in the fol-lowing pages.

Your donations have made All Children’s what it is today—Florida’s referral center for the best in pedi-atric care, and the first U.S. hospital beyond the Baltimore/Washington, D.C. area to attain membership in Johns Hopkins Medicine.

Most importantly—your Telethon donations stay right here, helping All Children’s Hospital to reach its po-tential in partnership with Hopkins. With your help, we’ll realize the goal of becoming one of the top academic pediatric medical centers in the nation—if not the world.

And we’ll always be YOUR children’s hospital, celebrating the miraculous kids we serve right here in St. Petersburg, FL.

ALL CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL2

Celebrating 29 Years of Miracles

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What are the odds?When it comes to Cody and McKenzie, even Las Vegas odds makers would have a rough time coming up with numbers.• According to the National

Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI)*, one in 100 babies will be born with a structural heart defect, ranging in degrees from easily repaired to devastating.

• One in approximately 4115 babies will be born with the left half of their heart not fully developed, a defect called hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS).

• One in approximately 12,200 babies will be born with a single blood vessel instead of the normal two vessels coming out of the heart’s two pump-ing chambers, a defect called truncus arteriosus.

C ody was born March 27, 2008 with HLHS. McKenzie was born

March 28, 2008 with truncus arteriosis.

They wound up in adjacent rooms in All Children’s Neo-natal Intensive Care Unit.

But it wasn’t until ten days later, as McKenzie went through her first surgery and Cody was taken to the Cardiac Catheterization Lab for diagnosis of a post-surgery issue that their families first met in an All Children’s waiting room.

More than 120 miles away from their shared church and neighboring hometowns, these two families found themselves facing similar unexpected journeys together.

“You enter a different world when you have a kid like this,” says Cody’s mom Courtney. Now four years old, her son has been through a series of three surgeries to reconfigure his heart, months of ICU stays at All Children’s, and

the on-going struggle to maintain enough weight that is common to many kids with congenital heart defects. Cody has always been a non-stop boy. “Believe it or not, he

has more energy now than before—if that’s possible,” Courtney says with a laugh.

Before McKenzie was born, dad Dennis says her family “never even knew All Children’s existed.” Two open-heart surgeries and two cardiac catheterization procedures later, “we’re not even going to have to see a doctor for the next six months,” Dennis says with a smile.

Not that doctors’ visits are a prob-lem. Both Cody and McKenzie now see their favorite cardiologist much closer to home at All Children’s Outpatient Care, Ft. Myers. Gary Stapleton, M.D., Director of All Children’s Invasive Cardiology Program, is one of the cardiologists making monthly visits to the Ft. Myers center.

Cody & MCKenzie


Continued—

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“You enter a different world when you have a kid like this.”

* from NCBI Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 2006 Jan 6; 54 (51)1301

Co DY

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“It’s actually very rewarding,” says Stapleton. “A lot of these kids are kids that we took care of in the hospital when they were quite sick. To be able to go out and see them in their community—close to home, to see them as outpatients, to see them growing and thriving is a really great thing for all of us that take care of them when they are hospitalized.”

Stapleton knows both kids very well. He’s been Cody’s cardiologist from the start, and helped McKen-zie defer her second open-heart sur-gery for more than two years with an interventional procedure in the Cardiac Catheterization Lab that Stapleton refers to as “my office.”

“Whether it be from diagnostic information that we gather in the cath lab to help us treat them

better or whether we’re able to do an interventional procedure that makes them better, being able to follow these kids as they grow and get stronger makes what we do worthwhile.”

McKenzie’s mom Shannon doesn’t know where they’d be if it weren’t for All Children’s, so they want to give back. “We’re attempting to get a Mended Little Hearts support group off the ground here in Ft. Myers. We obviously know that we can’t be the only family that has a child with a congenital heart defect in this area. And we feel it’s very important that, when we were first diagnosed with McKenzie’s heart condition, other people reached out to us and we didn’t feel alone.”

“To be able to go

out and see them in

their community—

close to home,

to see them as

outpatients, to see

them growing and

thriving is a really

great thing for all

of us that take care

of them when they

are hospitalized.”


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McKENZIE

The best people to tell a child’s story are the parents themselves—especially when they both write for a living. That’s the case with Juniper, a spunky one-year-old whose survival was in question from the moment she was born. What follows is excerpted from a letter Juniper’s parents wrote, nominating NICU nurse Tracy Hullett for monthly awards at All Children’s Hospital.

Our sincere thanks to Tom and Kelley French for allowing us to share Juniper’s story in their own words.

D uring our daughter’s six months in All Children’s Hospital Neonatal Intensive

Care Unit (NICU), an army watched over her. From the day she was born and wheeled upstairs to the sixth floor, weighing 570 grams (one pound, four ounces), she and her parents were in the hands of dozens of excellent nurses, respiratory techs, lactation consultants, nurse practitioners, PCAs, neonatologists, surgeons and specialists. To all of you, we owe more than we can say.

But anyone who wandered near her darkened room over the months will understand why we feel a special debt of gratitude to Tracy Hullett. We would like to nominate Tracy for the Daisy Award and for Employee of

the Month, because without her, our daughter would not be alive today.

When we asked Tracy to be our primary nurse, she hesitated at first. We didn’t yet understand how long

JuniperTracy made the smallest bow you can imagine out of gauze and stuck it to our daughter’s head with KY Jelly. It showed that she saw her as not just a patient, but a little girl.


Continued—

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Photo courtesy of Kelley French

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JUnIPeR

Photo courtesy of Cherie Diez

our daughter’s odds were, or how difficult the months ahead would be. Tracy did. After just 23 weeks of pregnancy, we were tossed into a situation we could not comprehend. Tracy joined us for what turned out to be the worst days of our lives, and also the best.

We have a video of our daughter in one of her first days of life. In it, Tracy’s hands are delicately unwrapping tape from her skinny, fragile ankle. Our baby’s skin is still nearly translucent, and she still looks more like a plucked chicken than an infant. You can see her heart beating under her skin. In the video, Tracy is steady and meticulous. She has the same calm approach that we would come to count on every time she started an IV in our girl’s impossibly tiny and squiggly veins, every time she removed a dressing and tried to leave the skin in place. It wasn’t one heroic act that gave us such faith in her. It was a thousand everyday things. How she cut down the smallest diapers so they would fit better. How she arranged the blankets just so and put our daughter snugly to sleep. Tracy made the smallest bow you can imagine out of gauze and stuck it to our daughter’s head with KY Jelly. It showed that she saw her as not just a patient, but a little girl.

Over the months our baby got bigger, but sicker. She had multiple intestinal perforations, four abdominal drains, surgery, chest tubes, blood clots, retinopathy of prematurity, fragile bones, faltering blood pressure and chylothorax, twice. She regularly turned gray and went limp in the bed. She swelled with fluid until she couldn’t move or open her eyes. We came in one day and Tracy had put her in a dress. Not just any dress, but a black and white number

with a hot pink tutu and matching headband. It was a dress made for a Chihuahua, but it was one in a series of Tracy’s small gestures that made the tiny, scary, foreign creature in the incubator recognizable as our daughter.

When things were at their worst, we dreaded Tracy’s days off. Not because the other nurses weren’t wonderful, but because Tracy knew

our baby and knew us, and we depended on her to set our emotional compass. She prepared us for the possibility that our daughter would not come home, that she would come home on oxygen, monitors or a feeding tube, that she would have more surgeries and any number of lifelong disabilities. On the day we most feared our daughter would die, Tracy walked with us to the operating room and told us to give our baby a kiss on her forehead. We had never kissed her before. It was a gift that sustained us through the terrible hours that followed.

When we made it to Mother’s Day, Tracy made a little “Mom” tattoo out of tape and put it on our baby’s shoulder. You have no idea how that feels when your status as a mom is so much in suspense. When our daughter was two months old, Tracy traded days off so her father could hold her on Father’s Day. Later that day she dressed her in a Harry Potter robe—a robe Tracy had made herself, complete with blue sneakers and tiny broomstick. Using tape again, Tracy had made a lightning bolt scar on Juniper’s forehead, just like Harry Potter’s. In the books, the scar


Tracy was a big part of helping us understand that it was not too early for us to put our hands on her, to be her parents, to take the colossal risk of connecting with her. And that we were not doing it alone.

marks a baby who has escaped death through an act of love.

Some of this might sound trivial—Harry Potter and Chihuahua dresses. But it’s hard to describe how shocking it is to meet your child when they are months from being ready for birth. We have heard how some parents can’t bring themselves to engage with their babies until they are older, plumper, more baby-like. Tracy was a big part of helping us understand that it was not too early for us to put our hands on her, to be her parents, to take the colossal risk of connecting with her. And that we were not doing it alone.

On Oct. 25, her 196th day in the unit, Tracy came in on her day off and walked us—the three of us—out into the sun. We joked that the baby wouldn’t know which of us was her mother until we got to the car. We all

cried, and in the weeks since, we’ve cried a number of times thinking about Tracy and what she did for our daughter. We did not understand until recently the risk that Tracy took when she agreed to be our primary, that she was signing on to love wholeheartedly a little girl who would one day leave her, and who might not even live. We only knew we felt safer with her there, and we think our daughter felt safer too.

As we write this, our daughter is sleeping in her bassinet, with no monitors, oxygen, tubes or wires of any kind. She weighs more than nine pounds. She coos and gurgles at us, and grabs at her toys with her newly chubby fingers. The improbability of her is staggering.

She made it six and a half months in the NICU without ever getting an infection, or even a diaper rash. We know that during those long months a great number of people stepped in at one time or another and made a critical difference. But the first one whose photo we framed and put in the nursery is Tracy Hullett. We tell our daughter to grow strong and behave herself, because Tracy is still watching.

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As we write this, our daughter is sleeping in her bassinet, with no monitors, oxygen, tubes or wires of any kind.

Photo courtesy of Kelley French


When Hunter was in the running for Polk County Prep Player of the Week last fall, all the excitement was about his performance as the kicker for the Lake Region Thunder in a game against division opponent Haines City Hornets. He kicked three field goals—including the game winner with less than seven seconds on the clock.

“I got carried off the field,” Hunter beams. “Oh my gosh! It was amazing!”

It’s a feat that’s all the more amazing when one considers how far Hunter has come in his 17 years of life.

H unter was born with a potentially lethal heart defect.

At just one month old, he became the very first patient to receive a heart transplant at All Children’s Hospital. His story made local headlines in June of 1995. Cameras followed him for the first few months of life, culminating with his Winter Haven homecoming in July of that year.

Telethon viewers have watched Hunter grow throughout the years, and heard the pride and gratitude in dad Jeff ’s voice. “To look at him and see the kind of stuff he does everyday—how he plays, aggravates his sisters and fights with his buddy next door—you’d never even think he’d ever been sick.”

Like Hunter, All Children’s Pediatric Heart Transplant Program has grown to demonstrate tremendous success. More than 130 youngsters have followed in Hunter’s footsteps, receiving a second chance at life through a program that currently boasts 100% survival at the one-year post-transplant mark.

Heart Program Director James Quintessenza, M.D., was one of the transplant surgeons holding Hunter’s new life in his hands on that day in June of 1995. But he credits Hunter’s survival—and the program’s growth—to much more than operating room skill.

“It’s not about the surgeon or the medical doctors. It’s really about a very collaborative team effort,” Quintessenza notes. “And to make it all work requires the integration of all those team members working at a very high level.”

The All Children’s team now has a comprehensive Heart Center with its own surgical suites, catheterization labs and cardiovascular intensive care unit to care for children with all manner of heart disorders. Built with a generous donation from Tom and Mary James in whose honor it has been named, the Heart Center continues its lifesaving work in part through Telethon donations.

The Thunder at Lake Region High School can count on Hunter’s participation this fall as he enters his senior year. He’s hoping to find a future in one of the sports he’s come to love—be it football, soccer or tennis.

But regardless of what his future holds, Hunter appreciates how far he’s come.

“I’m blessed to be here,” he says humbly. “And I love All Children’s Hospital!”

HunTerMore than 130 youngsters have followed in Hunter’s footsteps, receiving a second chance at life through a program that currently boasts 100% survival at the one-year post-transplant mark.

hUnTeR

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Simulating for Success

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Six-year-old Sam is stretched out in an intensive care bed, his eyelids barely fluttering open. Leads attached to his chest and finger monitor his heart rate and the oxygen content of his blood. His nurse is accessing the IV line placed in his arm to deliver medication aimed at alleviating the symptoms of pneumonia.

Suddenly, alarms wail and the nurse calls out for help as Sam suffers a reaction to the IV medication. His airway is swelling shut, and it’s critical to stop the swelling or he may not survive. To help him breathe, the care team must insert a tube down his airway…

…except that Sam’s tongue has suddenly doubled in size, and the respiratory therapist can no longer visualize the route past Sam’s vocal cords…

As the alarms silence, a voice from the adjacent room says, “Okay, let’s try that again.”

W elcome to All Children’s Simulation Center, a state-of-the-art training

space built with a half-million dollar donation from Walmart and Sam’s Clubs to the 2011 All Children’s Telethon. While All Children’s has utilized lifelike models and task trainers in settings like our Newborn Practice Bay adjacent to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, the Sim Center is a step forward for education of a wide variety of health care professionals.

Why Simulate?There are many reasons why simula-tion-based education is particularly important in a health care setting. First and foremost, it promotes patient safety and practicing without risk to patients. It allows for stan-dardization of the lessons presented to each learner. Unlike didactic presentations, it concentrates on behavioral and teamwork training. And it provides daily center-based education—an easy way to practice.

It’s as close as possible to real life—with a reset button. And that’s what makes it such an important addition to All Children’s educational experience. Doctors, nurses and other care team members take on a variety of medical scenarios built around “simulators,” five incredibly high-tech mannequins ranging in “age” from babies to young adults. With the stroke of a few computer keys, these eerily responsive machines can cry tears, output urine, exhibit seizure activity, turn a telltale shade of dusky blue around the lips—in short, they can mimic real

physiological responses to medical interventions. Such realism isn’t cheap. Each simulator costs between $40,000 and $65,000. Our baby simulator is named Helen and the six-year-old is named Sam to honor Sam and Helen Walton, founding members of WalMart, whose generous donation made their purchase possible.

These “patients” are one aspect of what makes the Sim Center

With the stroke of a few computer keys, these eerily responsive machines can cry tears, output urine, exhibit seizure activity, turn a telltale shade of dusky blue around the lips—in short, they can mimic real physiological responses to medical interventions.

Continued—

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such a valuable learning laboratory. Equally important are the spaces within the center. Two rooms are configured and equipped to closely mirror real patient room settings in All Children’s—from neonatal and intensive care spaces to patient rooms on the medical/surgical units, even the rooms in our pediatric emergency center.

Simulation Coordinator Lisa McGuire, MSN, RN, CPN, says that optimal realism is vital in the learning environment. “When you take away that realism,” she explains, “it distracts from the experience and important learning opportunities can be missed.”

A Window into Learning

T ucked behind a one-way mirrored window is the

heart of the Simulation Center, its control room. Here, McGuire can watch professionals react to her programmed learning scenario without being seen—or giving any hint of whether or not the learner’s

actions are appropriate. She says each scenario begins with a rough outline on paper that includes learning objectives and goals. The scenario is then entered into a computer that runs the simulator.

But scenarios seldom run exactly as planned. “If a team member does something—good or bad—that we haven’t anticipated, the simulators must respond to that action. If they go down a path I didn’t anticipate, I have to adjust my scenario outline accordingly. You follow where the learners lead and adjust on the fly—which keeps me on my toes.”

Afterward, the team gathers in an adjacent conference room to critique each session. Multiple cameras record team reactions through-out each scenario, which are then reviewed in a non-judgemental fash-ion. “The core concept of simulation is that the educational experience needs to be safe not only for patients but for the learner as well,” says McGuire. “And the de-briefing after a scenario is where the actual learning takes place. Often, learn-ers are so focused on their role that they’re not aware of all the nuances as the scenario unfolds. Watching the video playback shows how each team member responded and interacted. That allows us to critique ourselves and the team as a whole—and then practice what we’ve learned from it.”

Learning and Working as a Team

T eams of learners are made up of a variety of professionals—the

physician residents, nurses, respira-tory therapists and other healthcare professionals that make up care teams in real patient settings. Clini-cal Education and Research Director Tina Spagnola, MSN, RN-BC, says communication and appropriate

delegation are skills that need prac-tice—and the opportunity to practice as a team in a realistic setting builds successful team work and communi-cation in the patient setting.

Simulation instructor Laleh Bahar-Posey, M.D., of All Children’s Pedi-atric Emergency Medicine program agrees. Tasked as the attending


Simulating for Success, continued

The Sim Center gives residents the opportunity to run a code in a safe environment, where mistakes that are made provide a learning experience without risks.

physician overseeing physician resi-dents who round through emergency and ambulatory settings, she says the ability to assign roles within the team is a critical skill for physicians facing crisis situations called codes. “In a code,” Posey explains, “the most cru-cial person is that team leader. If they fail, the whole code will fail. The phy-sician needs to understand the role of team leader in duty assignment and management.” It’s become more challenging as physician residents’ working hours and opportunities for patient interaction in code situations have been reduced. The Sim Center gives residents the opportunity to run a code in a safe environment, where mistakes that are made provide a learning experience without risks.

Posey says it’s been shown that simulation is a much more effective educational experience than typical lecture-hall learning models. “A certain degree of stress and emotion

facilitates the adult learning process. You not only learn it, you keep it. When you participate in a process and take the time to analyze your participation afterward, your reten-tion improves. And when you face that situation in a real patient setting, whatever you learned comes back to you on a conscious and often subcon-scious level.”

Use of simulation in medical educa-tion has been shown to not only improve outcomes for learners but to also have a significant impact on patient safety. To read more on-line about recent research related to simulation, visit http://www.hopkins-medicine.org/simulation_center/.

Phase Two Thanks to Walmart and Sam’s Club

S oon, the Sim Center will be expanding, thanks to the 2012

Telethon fundraising efforts of Walmart and Sam’s Clubs. Phase Two of the Center includes a mock Oper-ating Room, an educational setting that’s rare and especially valuable according to Spagnola. “It’s very dif-ficult to educate OR staff without the equipment and surroundings specific

to operating rooms. There’s much more to learn and practice that’s unique to this setting, like response to malignant hyperthermia. The Phase Two OR Lab will also be able to mimic the trauma bay settings in our emergency room, where similar boom-mounted equipment is used to respond to quickly evolving crisis situations.”

These two Walmart & Sam’s Club gifts will go a long way toward safe-guarding some of All Children’s most valued family members—the young patients entrusted to our care, and the health care professionals whose expertise we count on. “We invest a tremendous amount in orienting and

establishing standards of practice for each nurse or healthcare professional who joins All Children’s,” notes Mc-Guire. ‘When that nurse is confident in the care they provide, they’ll stay. They’ll grow, gain valuable skills and develop professionally right here at All Children’s.”

And that’s something for which we can all be thankful.

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It’s been shown that simulation is a more effective educational experience than typical lecture-hall learning models.

“A certain degree of stress and emotion facilitates the adult learning process. You not only learn it, you keep it.”


Moving ForwardIt has been more than a year since All Children’s Hospital joined the Johns Hopkins Health System as a fully integrated member of Johns Hopkins Medicine, becoming the first U.S. hospital outside the Baltimore/Washington D.C. region to achieve this distinction. Over the past 13 months our integration has steadily moved forward. Apart from the new logo, what has changed? And, what will the future bring?

T he most visible change has been in All Children’s

leadership. Jonathan M. Ellen, M.D., was named Vice Dean for All Chil-dren’s Hospital in April 2011. Having visited the hospital regularly during the several years of discussion between All Children’s and Johns Hopkins Medi-cine boards of trustees that culminated in the integration, Dr. Ellen was ready to begin to build the foundations of stronger research and education programs here in St. Petersburg. Following the February 29, 2012 retirement of former ACH President and CEO Gary Carnes, on March 1, 2012 Dr. Ellen became Interim President for All Chil-dren’s Hospital.

“When All Children’s and Johns Hopkins Medicine began our inte-gration we embarked on a shared journey toward a long-held goal: for All Children’s to be a leader not only in treating kids, but also in researching tomorrow’s cures and training tomorrow’s pediatric experts,” says Dr. Ellen. “The hospi-tal’s Board of Trustees envisioned a future for All Children’s as a leading pediatric academic medical center and selected Hopkins as the best partner for that journey.

“I have great respect for the excellent care that All Children’s provides and the exceptional collaboration and teamwork at the core of that success. Our integration is building on the shared missions of All Children’s and Hopkins—excellence in treatment, research and education—and on our shared values of integrity, profes-sionalism, compassion and respect. They will guide the way forward in enhancing research and education at All Children’s so that excellent clini-cal programs can grow to provide world-class care.”

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Jonathan M. Ellen, M.D.Interim President, All Children’s Hospital

Dr. Ellen has been getting to know All Children’s employees and medi-cal staff through a series of informa-tive and often entertaining Q&A sessions, including several “In the Interim” town hall meetings styled after “Inside the Actors Studio.” He is working to define leadership councils in key ACH areas so that more deci-sions will be based on communica-tion that flows from bottom to top as well from the top down.

As integration proceeds, knowledge will flow both north and south as well. For example, in early May the Hopkins Children Center moved into a new home: The Charlotte R. Bloomberg Children’s Center that is one of two new clinical buildings on the Baltimore campus. Having safely moved 168 patients from our former facility into a new state-of-the-art hospital just two years ago, All Children’s staff shared successful procedures and insights gleaned from that move.

Here is a look at the progress of the integration in key areas of the mission:

EducationResidency Training. Developing plans for a new pediatric resident training program was one of the first “to-do” items on the integration agenda, and a new Office of Medical Education was established late last year, led by Director Chad Brands, M.D., and Associate Director Raquel Hernandez, M.D., M.P.H. They immediately began preparing for a February site visit by the Accredita-tion Council for Graduate Medical Education and they anticipate that the first class of 12 residents will enter the program in 2014.

“We have the opportunity to be a leader in designing a new approach to training pediatricians,” they ex-plain. “Johns Hopkins is considered

the birthplace of residency train-ing and a world leader in medical education. All Children’s is one of the nation’s newest and most tech-nologically advanced freestanding children’s hospitals. We are uniting these strengths to design a new pro-gram that will encourage residents to become future innovators and lead-ers in the field of pediatrics.”

Dr. Hernandez and Dr. Brands are also developing intersession op-portunities to give medical students a taste of the diverse academic and research opportunities available in St. Petersburg.

Continuing Medical Education (CME). All Children’s has long been providing continuing medical educa-tion (CME) for pediatricians and child health specialists, and these programs now provide credit from the Johns Hopkins Medicine Office

“Our integration is building on the shared missions of All Children’s and Hopkins—excellence in treatment, research and education—and on our shared values of integrity, professionalism, compassion and respect.”

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Chad Brands, M.D., (right) and Raquel Hernandez, M.D., M.P.H., Director and Associate Director for Medical Education at All Children’s Hospital

Continued—

of Continuing Medical Education programs. Physicians at ACH can view Pediatric Grand Rounds at the Hopkins Children’s Center each Wednesday via live videoconference and also attend Friday Pediatric Grand Rounds on the ACH campus.

The annual Florida Suncoast Pediat-ric Conference and the International Symposium on Congenital Heart Disease are among All Children’s most popular CME events. This year each included speakers from the Hopkins Children’s Center; and the cardiac conference helped foster greater collaboration among subspe-cialty physicians in Baltimore and St. Petersburg.

ResearchCreating a stronger research culture. A Designing Clinical Research program launched last summer links All Children’s physi-cians and other specialists interested in clinical research—or already engaged in clinical research—with researchers in Baltimore who serve as mentors and who provide assistance with study design, statistical analysis and manuscript review. (See related story.) Some of the ACH investigators have already presented their results at national and international meetings. A second group of investigators will enter the program in summer 2012.

Institutional Review Board. Research involving patients requires approval in advance from an Insti-tutional Review Board (IRB). The All Children’s Hospital IRB, first es-tablished in the early 1980s, is in the process of transitioning to become Johns Hopkins Medicine’s seventh IRB. The process will be completed in 2013 and will make it easier for

faculty in St. Petersburg and Balti-more to collaborate on research stud-ies, explains Sylvia Powell, M.B.A., Assistant Dean of Administration in the Office of the Vice Dean, All Children’s Hospital.

TreatmentCollaborating to enhance care. Already clinicians in some key clinical services have begun to work together on specific projects; others are more generally sharing experi-ences and observations while getting to know each other as the integra-tion moves forward. For instance, neonatalogists in All Children’s and Baltimore are sharing their find-ings on the use of cooling therapy to potentially protect brain tissue from possible damage due to reduced oxygen levels before or during birth. Pediatric cardiologists and cardiac surgeons are among the other spe-cialists who are exploring clinical collaborations.

Sharing patient safety success stories. Both All Children’s and Johns Hopkins place the highest value on patient safety. Located on the Baltimore campus, the Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Qual-ity is a world leader in creating shared knowledge to enhance patient safety within Johns Hopkins Medicine and then share that knowledge with clinicians around the world. This year, seven presentations or posters from ACH staff were selected for presentation at the Armstrong Insti-tute’s Annual Patient Safety Summit, and All Children’s staff will travel to Baltimore to present their data at the June 1 summit.

Progress toward integration can be found in other aspects of All Children’s day-to-day functions as well, though they may be less visible. The fiscal year is now aligned with the academic calendar, there is a new Office of Legal Affairs on campus, and information technology (IT) professionals are comparing pro-cesses and moving toward seamless communication between systems. These transitions are helping to sup-port our shared mission of providing the best possible patient care, to con-duct research that will advance that care, and to train new generations of physicians to provide care that is in-formed and improved by knowledge and discovery.

“Integration of research and education with clinical care has made Johns Hopkins Medicine of the top health care institutions in the world,” notes Dr. Ellen. “Building a culture of inquiry and innovation here in St. Petersburg is essential to All Children’s transformation to a leading pediatric academic medical center.”

Moving Forward, continued


O ne of the most noticeable aspects of our integration so far has been the

Designing Clinical Research (DCR) program that began in summer

2011. The program pairs All Children’s hospital clinicians with mentors and research support at Johns hopkins Medicine in Baltimore.

“DCR was conceived to help All Children’s physicians who are interested in doing more clinical research,” explains Paul Danielson, M.D., Chief of the Division of Pediatric Surgery at All Children’s hospital

and a facilitator of the DCR program. “It is a great opportunity because it marries some of the resources of Johns hopkins with some of the needs at All Children’s, providing

mentors, statisticians, and faculty who are experienced in study design and manuscript review. here at All Children’s we have doctors with great research ideas and plenty of patients who can participate in studies, but what we needed to jump start these projects was the added expertise that hopkins could bring to the show.”

last May, the program received applications for the first cohort of DCR participants, accepting about a dozen applications through a competitive process. Those invited to participate have attended a series of seminars, starting with a daylong seminar led by faculty from Johns hopkins Medicine. The All Children’s researchers presented their ideas, which were then discussed and critiqued by the group as a whole,

with a focus on study design and data collection, management and interpretation. each investigator is paired with a research mentor and/or biostatistician from hopkins.

Periodically the whole group reconvenes for follow-up workshops that focus on preparing abstracts and presentations for scientific meetings and providing feedback once these presentations are

ready. In between these meetings, the All Children’s investigators stay in contact with their mentor in Baltimore by email, phone or videoconference for updates and to discuss any new developments or potential difficulties. The different studies have proceeded at different paces, with some investigators still at the drawing board while others have results that are ready for presentation.

“It has been a fun program that has stimulated wonderful research with impact on patient care,” explains Tina Cheng, M.D., M.P.h., a hopkins faculty member who is one of the program facilitators. “There have been four research abstract presentations and there are more results to come. For instance, Dr. Allison Messina and Dr. David Berman from All Children’s pediatric infectious disease program

Designing Clinical Research“It is a great opportunity because it marries some of the resources of Johns Hopkins with some of the needs at All Children’s, providing mentors, statisticians, and faculty who are experienced in study design and manuscript review.”

Fauzia Shakeel, M.D.All Children’s Hospital Neonatologist

Continued—

21

and hopkins colleagues studied the management and outcome of patients with spinal implant infections; their findings have important implications for practice regarding antibiotic selection and length of treatment.”

“We collected more data for this study than for some previous studies we have published,” notes Dr. Messina. “It was helpful to have hopkins colleagues do some statistical analyses. overall, it has been very helpful to work with people who have such extensive research experience and expertise.”

Dr. Messina and Dr. Berman presented their findings at the national meeting of the Pediatric Academic Societies in Boston in April. At the same conference, ACh neonatologist Fauzia Shakeel, M.D., presented the results of her DCR project on standardizing feeding practices to improve clinical outcomes in very low birth weight babies in the neonatal Intensive Care Unit. For these fragile infants, introducing breast milk or special formula within the first week of life can lead go improved growth and fewer gastrointestinal complications.

“The Designing Clinical Research program was very helpful in providing us with close mentorship by Johns hopkins faculty and refining our project along with strong statistical support,” Dr. Shakeel explains. “This was a team quality improvement project that we began in 2009, beginning by collecting baseline data. however, agreeing upon standardized guidelines supported by all

members of the nICU team and the time commitment involved in rolling out the project took longer than expected. We implemented the new guidelines in 2010 and finished gathering data in 2011. Since it was a quality improvement project we already had targeted goals we needed to achieve, and we achieved those benchmarks. however, our collaboration with Johns hopkins provided data analysis and statistical support that strengthened our results.

“I have previously completed other quality improvement studies to improve outcomes in the nICU, and even though they led to changes in our clinical care I had not published the results. This collaboration provided me with the opportunity to do just that.”

Pediatric cardiologist Ivan Wilmot, M.D., also found the support of hopkins faculty very helpful in his study evaluating differences in 2-dimensional “strain” echocardiography between pediatric heart transplant patients, and

healthy children. In this study a more sensitive type of echocardiogram, strain echocardiogram, is performed in which the heart muscle is divided into 16 different segments. This technology has been used in adult transplant patients to detect early signs of a failing heart, allowing for early intervention and recovery of the heart muscle.

Preliminary study results show that children who have received a heart transplant also have impaired heart muscle strain measurements when compared to their healthy counterparts. This is similar to previously reported findings in adult heart transplant patients. The study is scheduled to conclude in June 2012, when patient enrollment will be complete.

The preliminary results of this study were shared at the 16th Annual Postgraduate Course in Pediatric and Congenital Cardiac Disease in orlando, Florida in February 2012. The results were also presented in poster format at the 32nd Annual Meeting and Scientific Sessions for the International Society for heart and lung Transplantation held in Prague, Czech Republic in April 2012.

Dr. Wilmot and many of the other members of the first cohort will continue with their respective studies. The DCR program is recruiting a second group of applicants who would like to develop or refresh their research skills through collaboration with hopkins investigators.

“Overall, it has been very helpful to work with people who have such extensive research experience and expertise.”

22 ALL CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL

Designing Clinical Research, continued

Ivan Wilmot, M.D.All Children’s Hospital Pediatric Cardiologist

23

20

Add an Emmy Award, a Gold Hermes Creative Award and the APIC Film Festival Grand Prize to the honors bestowed upon “Scrub A Dub-Dub.” The hip-hop hand-washing video conceived and produced by All Children’s Creative Services Department has garnered recognition from professionals in the healthcare, broadcast, video production and public relations fields. More importantly, it has helped All Children’s to increase its hand-washing compliance goals—a key step in reducing risks of infection.

“T he idea was to create something that would appeal to both kids

and adults—and to involve as many All Children’s staff and pa-tients as possible, “ says Creative Services Director Mike Sexton, who wrote and performed the music along with All Children’s scene-stealing patients Jerry and Josie Herman. “It needed to be catchy—something memorable enough to remind people to wash their hands.”

Just how important is that? “Proper hand-washing is our number one defense against the spread of infection,” says JoEllen Harris, RN, of All Children’s Infection Prevention Program. “This video demonstrates correct hand-washing and encourages our patients and families to remind their caregivers how important this simple step is to the healing process.”

Most recent honors for “Scrub” include the Grand Prize in the

2012 APIC Film Festival, to be presented at the Association of Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) national conference this June in San Antonio. In May, a Gold Hermes Creative Award was bestowed by the Association of Marketing and Communication Profes-sionals (AMCP), an international organization of several thousand marketing, advertising, public relations and media production professionals who judge and set standards for excellence. “Scrub” was one of some 4700 entries in the 2012 Hermes Awards, and earned Gold Award honors in the Educational Video category.

“Scrub” also earned an Emmy Award from the Suncoast Chapter of the National Academy of Televi-sion Arts and Sciences (NATAS) in December. The video was one of a record 972 entries from television stations and production compa-nies in Alabama, Florida, Louisiana and Puerto Rico. It was the sole

award winner in the Children/Youth/Teens category. This is the fifth Emmy nomination for our Creative Services staff—Bill Greene, Ann Miller and Mike Sexton—who are all winners of multiple previous Emmy awards.

Earlier in 2011, “Scrub” was honored with four Telly Awards and the

Mark of Excellence President’s Award presented by the Florida Society for Healthcare Marketing and Public Relations. It also garnered a Gold Award in the 2011 Greystone.Net and Krames StayWell “Best In Class” awards for Web-based communications in the category, Best Use of Multimedia.

The music video is now part of the hospital’s Get Well Network TV/internet/gaming system in each patient room. It’s set up to be the first thing a patient and family views when they are admitted. Check it out for yourself by visit-ing All Children’s YouTube Channel through the hospital’s website, www.allkids.org.

We think you’ll agree that the performances of stars like Jerry and Josie and the many All Chil-dren’s employees just might be worth a Grammy, Oscar and Kids’ Choice Award, too!


Hey, Did You Wash Your Hands?“Scrub” Keeps Cleaning Up

24

Ace Hardware CorporationAll Children’s Hospital EmployeesAll Children’s Hospital Foundation Development CouncilAll Children’s Hospital GuildAchieva Credit Union AflacAmerican LegionAmerican Legion Auxiliary Bill Currie FordBob Evans RestaurantsChico’s FAS, Inc.CO-OP Financial ServicesCOSTCO Cure on WheelsDairy QueenDavid Reutimann Charity/Silverado Golf & Country Club Gator Region Florida Club Managers Association of AmericaGolden CorralHolland & Knight LLPHSNIHOPJabil

Joto’s Pizza and Rachel M. Thrower Memorial

Marriott International, Inc.

Marriott Vacation Club International

McLane Company, Inc.

The Mosaic Company

Northeast Exchange Club

Progress Energy

Publix Super Markets, Inc.

RE/MAX

Sagicor Life Insurance Company

Sam’s Club

Suncoast Schools Federal Credit Union Foundation

Tampa Chapter of Credit Unions

The Tampa Tribune

Transamerica

Trenam Kemker

Ultimate Medical Academy

USF Dance Marathon

VF Licensed Sports Group

Walmart

Special Thanks

Angelica Textile Services

Blue Bell Ice Cream

BMC Graphics

Capital Carpets

C&D Printing

ChromaGraphics, Christina Evans

Coca Cola Bottling Company

Ronnie Dee

Frame Station & Gallery

George Harris, B&G Studio

Hilton St. Petersburg Carillon Park

HSN

Jesuit High School Key Club

The Link Event Professionals, Inc.

Maggiano’s Little Italy

Modern Mail and Print Solutions

Pepsi Bottling Group

Dave Reinhardt

Kevin Riley Animation

717 Parking

Sodexo Healthcare Services

Storr Office Environments of Florida

Sysco

TBA Communications

TBO.com

Vanguard Payment Services

Singer songwriter Robin Zander (Cheap Trick/Countryside)

Zeno Office Solutions

2012 Telethon Grand DonorsEach of the businesses, civic groups and individuals listed here has pledged a substantial commitment—$10,000 or more—to the All Children’s Hospital Telethon. Please remember them as you do business in our community!

These generous businesses and individuals have donated goods and/or services to help make our Telethon efforts possible.We thank them for their support!

non-PRoFIT oRG.U.S. PoSTAGe

PAIDPeRMIT no. 5224

ST. PeTeRSBURG, Fl

501 Sixth Avenue South St. Petersburg, Florida 33701

PLEASE NOTE: If you receive more than one TLC in the mail, it’s because your generosity is noted in our files more than once.

Check out our website atwww.allkids.org

Now, Help is as Close as Your SmartPhone or Computer!

P ocket Doc makes parenting a little easier by giving you access to reliable information on children’s health. Symptom Guides help you

make smart decisions about what (if any) level of care your child’s symptoms require and how to provide quick symptom relief at home for minor illnesses or injuries. The information is based on guidelines used since 1997 by thousands of pediatricians and nurses. You can also keep track of your child’s medications and how to use common over-the-counter medicines.

Available on iPhone, Android,and via your web browser.

Find it at allkids.org/PocketDoc or scan here:

Documents

TLC Telethon 2012