The Johns Hopkins Hospital and Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, both in Baltimore, have long been recognized as powerhouses for acute care surgery. Although the two hospitals have traditionally operated in a mostly separate fashion, united mainly under the Hopkins name, changing practices in the field are making them stronger together, says Charles Reuland, executive vice president and chief operating officer for both the hospital and the medical center. Toward this goal of a stronger integrated hospital system, the two centers are integrating their acute care surgery teams to provide consistent, evidence-based care to patients treated at both hospitals.

“Instead of viewing themselves as part of the team only at one location or the other, our surgeons will be part of acute care at Johns Hopkins and share efforts at both hospitals,” he says.

Acute care surgery, which delivers trauma, emergency general surgery and surgical critical care, has traditionally been handled by a combination of surgeons who specialize in this field as well as general surgeons and others who take acute cases on call, explains David Efron, chief of acute care surgery at The Johns Hopkins Hospital. However, he says, the field is shifting toward more specialized care provided by surgeons with specific trauma and acute care expertise. As such, there is value to having 100 percent of this type of coverage provided by surgeons in this specialty. This already occurs at the hospital; now faculty at both institutions will be within the unified Division of Acute Care Surgery.

As part of this integration, Efron adds, Johns Hopkins Bayview recently hired a new trauma medical director. Raymond Fang is a 22-year U.S. Air Force veteran who served seven of those years at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, providing trauma and critical care services to Americans airlifted there from operations including Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom. Immediately before coming to Johns Hopkins Bayview, he spent six years at the R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center at the University of Maryland Medical Center, preparing Air Force Medical Service personnel to support U.S. military operations worldwide.

In August, Fang was joined by Alistair Kent, who trained at both hospitals as a trauma/acute care surgery fellow. Kent’s longstanding collegial relationship with faculty and staff at both institutions during his training, Efron says, makes him a boon to the cross-hospital team.

Fang notes that the expertise and dedication of specialists based at both hospitals will ensure that patients receive the highest level of acute care available. The Johns Hopkins Hospital is designated a Level I Trauma Center and is the regional pediatric trauma center and eye trauma center in Maryland. Johns Hopkins Bayview is a Level II trauma center and the state’s only regional adult burn center.

“When I was in Germany, we all worked our hardest to help our men and women injured in the wars. We did everything we could to bring them back,” Fang says. “I see that same motivation at The Johns Hopkins Hospital and Johns Hopkins Bayview, and I’m honored to work alongside colleagues at both hospitals for our shared patient communities.”