Upgraded Handbook for Patients and Their Families

For most people, even a short hospital stay can feel overwhelming. A patient handbook can help ease that stress by providing the information patients and their families need about services, policies and how to reach departments. But, as Podge Reed discovered as an inpatient, the long-standing Johns Hopkins Hospital handbook wasn’t exactly user-friendly. Reed, who now directs the Johns Hopkins Hospital Patient and Family Advisory Council, took notes and recommended updates to Jane Hill, the hospital’s patient relations director. Those efforts, aided by the Johns Hopkins Medicine Marketing and Communications Department and volunteers on the advisory council, informed the updated, visually engaging Johns Hopkins Hospital Patient and Family Handbook. The 33-page booklet features easy-to-digest lists, diagrams, and a chart explaining the care team’s roles and the color of their scrubs. Other features include a central phone directory, an illustrated guide to a typical hospital room, and instructions on preventing infections and falls.

View the handbook at bit.ly/jhhpatientfamhandbook.

Religious and Cultural Observances Toolkit

Building a culturally competent workforce and ensuring a high-quality patient care environment require educating staff members about the diverse cultural and faith traditions of patients, employees, faculty members and students. To support those efforts, the Office of Diversity and Inclusion and the Department of Spiritual Care and Chaplaincy have created a Religious and Cultural Observances Toolkit. The resource provides general information about cultural and religious observances, and how they may affect interactions with colleagues, students, and patients and their family members.

Learn about upcoming observances at bit.ly/religculttoolkit. You can also download the 2017 Multicultural Calendar at bit.ly/multiculturalcalendar.

New Community E-Newsletter

When The Johns Hopkins Hospital opened 128 years ago, its goals were to serve the community and, to quote its founder, provide care for “the indigent sick of this city and its environs.” That part of the hospital’s mission hasn’t changed—except to expand those efforts in East Baltimore and across affiliate hospitals. Now, a new e-newsletter showcases just how Johns Hopkins Medicine supports the communities it serves. Called Connections, the quarterly online publication, compiled by staff members in the Dean’s Office, the Office of Government and Community Affairs, and the Marketing and Communications Department, provides community engagement updates and opportunities. The debut issue features Howard County General Hospital’s efforts to help those devastated by a flood last summer and Sibley Memorial Hospital’s focus on impoverished areas east of the Anacostia River, among other stories.

View the newsletter at bit.ly/JHMConnections.