BHB and Johns Hopkins work together to improve local trauma care
Wednesday 11 December 2024: BHB staff and community surgeons were working last week with a trauma specialist from Johns Hopkins, Dr Kent Stevens, to improve the care and outcomes for trauma patients in Bermuda. This work is being undertaken as part of BHB’s clinical affiliation agreement with Johns Hopkins Medicine International.
Dr Stevens was joined by BHB staff from the Emergency Department, Intensive Care Unit, Surgery, Pathology, Pharmacy, Imaging Services and Executive Team and community surgeons to discuss local service improvements and a possible transatlantic clinical collaboration that will give local physicians access to Johns Hopkins specialists when managing the most challenging individual cases.
CEO & President, Scott Pearman, comments: “BHB’s vision is to pursue excellence through improvement, to make Bermuda proud and this week has seen our vision in action as we focused on improving trauma care for patients on island. We have amazing staff and community surgeons who work round the clock – literally – to save the lives of people injured through accidents, crashes, shootings, and stabbings. All of us in Bermuda rely on these individuals if we experience a medical trauma and it’s great to see our clinical affiliation with Johns Hopkins Medicine International provide the support our local providers need as they work to make improvements.”
Acting Chief of Staff, Dr Anna Neilson-Williams, adds: “This has been a fantastic few days of work with all the BHB departments and external surgeons who are part of the trauma response teams working together with Johns Hopkins to improve care for our patients in Bermuda.
“When a patient is hurt due to an accident, crash or violent incident, there are many moving parts in the medical response. The timing of all of these parts coming together is critical in getting a patient diagnosed and treated efficiently and effectively. Following a traumatic incident a fast response is often crucial to save their lives whether they can be fully treated in Bermuda, or require stabilisation before being sent overseas. Our focus has therefore very much been on how we can coordinate our response more effectively and quickly, and discussing solutions to the limitations of living on a small island where we don’t have on-the-ground specialists to cover every single trauma need. I’m looking forward to the next steps of working together to take all the issues, comments and ideas raised this week and turning them into improvements on the frontline that will directly benefit our patients.”
Dr Stevens comments: “It really has been a pleasure to visit Bermuda and meet with local healthcare professionals to improve the trauma pathway. I’ve been impressed with the facility and staff. Bermuda should already be proud, but in healthcare, improvements are always possible. I’ve been able to share knowledge about the quality standards and processes we use at Johns Hopkins and my experience of dealing with very similar issues faced by the teams here. I look forward to exploring additional opportunities to support local service improvements.”
Mr Pearman concludes: “The trauma care pathway is one of the many care pathways we are working to improve at BHB. The heart of this work is about collaborating with other providers and patients in Bermuda to make improvements that really make a difference to patient experience and outcomes. So far, we have developed integrated stroke, breast cancer, and prostate cancer care pathways. Johns Hopkins is currently helping develop improved pathways for trauma and burns at this time, much in same way this partnership has helped BHB establish its primary stroke centre programme.”
