News:



Outreach Grand Rounds: Sarasota
Thursday, March 24
at Sarasota Memorial Hospital

12:30-1:30 p.m., Room 4AB

“Child Abuse”

Katherine Keeley, M.D.


Outreach Grand Rounds: Spring Hill
Wednesday, March 23 at Spring Hill Regional Hospital

6:00-8:15 p.m.

Prevention of Medical Errors
This 2-hour presentation is a recorded lecture from our 2010 Pediatric Grand Rounds series and meets CME licensing requirements. Linda M. Blythe of First Professionals Insurance Company was the speaker for this presentation. Registration is required; register online at www.allkids.org/cme.


Asthma Family Day
is Saturday, April 30
The 10th Annual Asthma Family Day will be held Saturday, April 30 in the Education & Conference Center at All Children's. Asthma patients and their families always appreciate this fun and informative program, with educational talks for parents plus a children's program for kids ages 4-12. This year’s topics will include:

• Real Life With Asthma
• Understanding Asthma
• Asthma Case Management
• Nutrition & Asthma
• Allergy & Asthma
• Environmental Triggers
• Smoking & Asthma

Registration for this free event will begin April 1 at www.allkids.org/AsthmaDay.


Aiming High
Aiming High
On March 11, St. Petersburg Fire & Rescue conducted a training exercise with its new aerial ladder truck at each side of All Children's Hospital in downtown St. Petersburg. The ACH Safety Department assisted with the exercise. View photo gallery.


Save the Date!
35th Annual Florida Suncoast Pediatric Conference
Save the Date! 35th Annual Florida Suncoast Pediatric Conference
June 23-26, 2011
The Ritz-Carlton, Sarasota

Doctors' Day Grand Rounds - Friday, March 25
Please join us for a Special Doctors' Day Grand Rounds Presentation on Friday, March 25 at 12:30 p.m. in the Education & Conference Center. Juan A. Dumois, III, M.D. will lead attendees through an interactive review of the "Top Pediatric Guidelines of the Last Year." Physicians will work in teams to answer questions and discuss the implementation of new clinical guidelines, including guidelines for immunizations, treatment of MRSA infections, and management of sexually transmitted diseases. Prizes will be awarded to the top-scoring participant groups.

We wish you a happy Doctors' Day and we thank you for your continued dedication to our patients and to improving children's health and well-being.
A Special Event for Physicians on Saturday, April 2
All physicians are invited to join us for a special physician event on Saturday, April 2, marking a new chapter in All Children's history: Joining Forces with Johns Hopkins Medicine. The program will begin at 8:45 a.m. and will conclude at 11:30 a.m.

Jonathan Ellen, M.D., will discuss "The Integration of All Children's Hospital and Johns Hopkins Medicine" and lead an open forum entitled, "How Does the Johns Hopkins Integration Affect You and Your Practice?"
Dr. Ellen will be Vice Dean of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine at All Children's Hospital and Physician-in-Chief. He currently serves as Chairman of Pediatrics at Johns Hopkins Bayview, Vice Chair of Pediatrics at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (JHUSOM), and Director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Child and Community Research.

David G. Nichols, M.D., Vice Dean of Education for JHUSOM, will discuss "The Future Physician: From Genes to Society." Dr. Nichols oversees undergraduate, graduate, residency, postdoctoral and continuing medical education at JHUSOM.

Peter J. Pronovost, M.D., Ph.D., will discuss "From Rhetoric to Reality: Improving Patient Safety in the Private Practice and Hospital Settings." Dr. Pronovost is Medical Director for the Center for Innovation in Quality Patient Care at Johns Hopkins and is internationally respected for his efforts in advancing the science of patient safety.

Advance registration at www.allkids.org/MDevent is required for this program, to be held in the Outpatient Care Center. We hope you will join us.
ACH welcomes Jamie Decker, MD to Pediatric Cardiology
Jamie Decker, M.D.

Dr. Jamie Decker has joined the All Children's Specialty Physicians Pediatric Cardiology program. Previously Dr. Decker was an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children's Hospital. A graduate of Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in Camden, NJ, he completed his pediatric residency at Children's National Medical Center/George Washington University in Washington, DC. Dr. Decker completed his fellowship in pediatric cardiology at Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children's Hospital in Houston, Texas. During his cardiology training, he completed an advanced fellowship in heart failure/transplantation. He stayed at Texas Children's Hospital and completed an advanced fellowship in pediatric electrophysiology.

Dr. Decker's areas of clinical expertise include interventional pediatric electrophysiology, cardiomyopathies, and heart failure. His clinical interests include arrhythmias and device therapy in cardiomyopathies and heart failure.
Neonatal Research Network Study published in March Pediatrics
Neonatologist Rajan Wadhawan, M.D., was the first author of a paper entitled “Triplets with Extremely Low Birth Weight Face High Risks,” published online in the March issue of Pediatrics. The study was conducted in the 19 newborn intensive care units (including the All Children's NICU) that make up the National Institute of Child Health & Human Development Neonatal Research Network.

The researchers analyzed the medical records of nearly 11,000 extremely low birth weight (ELBW) infants born between 1996 and 2005 and compared their survival rates and health status between 18 and 22 months old with the survival rates and health status of twins and of singletons the same age.

The researchers compiled the results in terms of a combined primary outcome that included two possibilities: whether an infant either died in the first or second year of life or has a neurodevelopmental impairment (including cerebral palsy, blindness, hearing loss or low scores on tests of infant mental and motor development). They found that at age 18-22 months, the ELBW triplets and higher order multiples had 1.7 times the risk for death or neurodevelopmental impairment as ELBW singletons, and 1.27 times the risk of ELBW twins. ELBW triplets and higher order multiples were twice as likely as ELBW singletons and about 1.4 times as likely as ELBW twins to have a neurodevelopmental impairment.

Pediatrics 2011;127:e654–e660
Going Viral to Improve Hand Hygiene? (Click to view video.)
Can a hip-hop song improve health? It might — if the subject is proper hand hygiene in the hospital setting.

The Hand Hygiene Task Force at All Children's Hospital is using this creative approach as part of a comprehensive patient safety initiative. To help with that effort, All Children's Creative Services Department produced a produced "Scrub-A-Dub-Dub," a music video with original music and lyrics. It stars eight-year-old twins Jerry and Josie Herman, former ACH patients. Physicians, nurses and other ACH staff make cameo appearances as well. Created to appeal to both kids and parents, the music video is memorable enough to remind people—caregivers, parents and visitors—to wash their hands or use alcohol-based hand gel.

"Proper hand washing is our number one defense against the spread of infection," says JoEllen Harris, RN, of All Children's Infection Prevention Office. "With this video we demonstrate the steps needed to thoroughly remove the dirt and germs that spread illness. And we're emphasizing how important this simple step is to the healing process—and that it is truly a team effort."

The music video is now part of the hospital's GetWellNetwork education/entertainment system located in each patient room—it will be the first thing the patient and family see on the screen when they are admitted to a clinical unit. ACH staff are watching it in department meetings, on the ACH intranet and on the hospital's YouTube channel. To preview it yourself, visit the All Children's Hospital YouTube channel.