Innovations in Clinical Care

This award is presented to the physician, nurse and/or team that demonstrates a visionary approach to problem-solving and performance improvement.

Daryn Norwood, Director of Pharmacy-Inpatient Pharmacy, and the Pharmacy Team

Johns Hopkins Howard County Medical Center

Daryn Norwood, Pharm.D.

Director of Pharmacy-Inpatient Pharmacy, and the Pharmacy Team

By initiating efforts to decrease instances of missing medications, Daryn Norwood’s leadership and critical thinking improved patient care hospitalwide and helped reduce staff burnout. The adjustments he made to the medication distribution systems at Johns Hopkins Howard County Medical Center support and enhance Johns Hopkins Medicine’s strategic priorities to “make Johns Hopkins medicine easy” and “support the well-being of our people and our communities.”

Jason Smithers, M.D., and the EAT Program

Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital

Jason Smithers, M.D., and the EAT Program

Jason Smithers founded the Esophageal Airway Treatment (EAT) Service at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital. This multidisciplinary program involves pediatric surgery, anesthesia, gastroenterology, pulmonology, cardiothoracic surgery, radiology, neonatology and pediatric critical care medicine. Smithers is a world leader in complex esophageal and airway surgery, and has introduced new concepts, procedures and treatment paradigms in the care of this patient population. He also developed a database to closely track short- and long-term clinical outcomes, and helped to develop a national database registry to track and standardize outcomes across the United States.

JHBMC COVID-19 Care Team

Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center

Souvik Chatterjee
Jonathan Hansen
Michelle D’Alessandro
The JHBMC COVID-19 Care Team

Souvik Chatterjee, Director, Medical Intensive Care Unit
Jonathan Hansen, Vice Chair and Clinical Director, Department of Emergency Medicine
Michelle D’Alessandro, Director of Nursing, Department of Medicine

The Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center COVID-19 Care Team is composed of multidisciplinary teams that have cared for thousands of COVID-19-positive patients throughout the hospital in various settings. Their work and contributions have had a major impact on care delivery for these patients. A collective recognition for their contributions augments this honor and speaks to the enormity of collaborative efforts that have occurred across various departments and disciplines to rise to the challenges of care delivery in the setting of a pandemic.

JHCP COVID-19 Village Management Team

Johns Hopkins Community Physicians

Kimberly Zeren, C.R.N.P., and the JHCP COVID-19 Village Management Team

Kimberly Zeren, C.R.N.P., Director of Operations

COVID-19 villages are mobile-care units designed and managed by a team of JHCP leaders to provide symptomatic patients with a safe, convenient way to be tested for COVID-19 to determine if they can be safely seen in-person. Clinical and administrative leaders met regularly with subject experts from multiple JHCP departments to identify and overcome innumerable medical, logistical and regulatory challenges to quickly operationalize the villages. In the first few weeks after go-live, the villages saw numerous patients for point-of-care rapid testing that has ruled out COVID-19 and allowed patients to be quickly seen in person by their primary care provider and treated for underlying infections, such as strep or ear infections. This has prevented referrals to emergency room or urgent care settings.

Brian Garibaldi, M.D.

The Johns Hopkins Hospital

Brian Garibaldi, M.D.

Director, Johns Hopkins Biocontainment Unit

Brian Garibaldi’s work with the biocontainment unit (BCU) was The Johns Hopkins Hospital’s vanguard in the earliest response to the COVID-19 pandemic. With Garibaldi’s leadership, the BCU was well prepared and trained to respond quickly to care for the first identified COVID-19 persons under investigation and the first critically ill COVID-19 patients. Once dedicated units were established to safely care for patients with COVID-19, the BCU continued to contribute to multiple aspects of COVID-19 response in the forms of research and operational support of biomode units. The critical roles of safety officer and transport safety officer, which were developed to ensure all personnel properly donned and doffed COVID-19 PPE, came out of activation of the BCU.

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Sibley Acute Rehab Team

Sibley Memorial Hospital

Lisa Ronayne, Julie Johnson and the Acute Rehab Team

Lisa Ronayne, Rehabilitation Clinical Program Manager
Julie Johnson, Occupational Therapist
The Acute Rehab Team

Spearheaded by rehabilitation managers Lisa Ronayne (physical therapy) and Julie Johnson (occupational therapy), the rehabilitation department was instrumental in providing care to our COVID-19 patients. Early in the pandemic, it became apparent that patients benefited from proning, and Sibley’s intensive care unit had minimal experience with proning mechanically ventilated patients. In addition to their daily ongoing responsibilities, the rehabilitation department proactively reached out and developed a proning protocol for ventilated patients, and then educated staff members. Their initiative eased and enhanced the care of patients with COVID-19 in the early stages of the pandemic.

Andrew Markowski, M.D.

Suburban Hospital

Andrew Markowski, M.D.

Emergency Medicine Physician

In addition to being an outstanding clinician, Andrew Markowski has gone above and beyond to facilitate the transition to COVID-19 operations from an IT standpoint. Throughout the COVID-19 response, Markowski has ensured that Epic functions have reflected the proper screening guidelines (which changed almost daily in the first few months), that staff have up-to-date technology in the palm of their hands (such as Haiku, Dragon, and e-prescribing abilities), and that all the data and research from the pandemic are accurately reflected in our best practices. He does all this while working clinically and taking excellent care of his patients in the emergency department.