Physicians, advanced practice providers and collaborative teams at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg, Florida, were honored as recipients of the Ninth Annual Johns Hopkins Medicine Clinical Awards on March 27.

“We are proud to join our Hopkins colleagues in this opportunity to celebrate your accomplishments and excellence in patient care,” says Alicia Schulhof, M.H.A, FACHE, hospital president. “Our nominees and award recipients demonstrate the drive to innovate and dedication to quality, safety and the patient and family experience.

“The work we celebrate today is just a snapshot of the transformational care that is happening across Johns Hopkins All Children’s. You are truly an example of our mission in action.” Chief Medical Officer Joseph Perno, M.D., and Chief Patient Safety and Quality Officer Ursula Nawab, M.D., recognized the nominees and award recipients in seven categories.

Advanced Practice Provider of the Year: Jim O’Donnell, P.A.-C

O’Donnell is a critical care physician assistant in the Emergency Center. His colleagues appreciate his outstanding clinical skills and collaborative approach to care, his values and leadership skills, and his uncanny ability to bond with each patient’s family. O’Donnell’s work ethic helps raise the level of care in the Emergency Center and strengthens staff morale and well-being.

A leader in the Emergency Center wrote that O’Donnell communicates effectively, listens to safety concerns, and establishes a strong rapport with the patient and family. He is a valued and highly productive member of the team, with an exceptional ability to go above and beyond when the department is busy.

O’Donnell recently added the role of training all APP students at the hospital. He is admired as a great teacher and preceptor who elicits the best in others. “You can almost see the wheels start to turn for students when Jim is teaching,” a colleague describes. His approach to education empowers learners to think for themselves, and he demonstrates how to build trust with patients.

Armstrong Award for Excellence in Quality and Patient Safety: Arabela Stock, M.D.

Stock is a cardiac critical care specialist in the cardiovascular intensive care unit (CVICU) and co-director of quality and safety for the Heart Institute. The CVICU team respects her clinical decision-making, work ethic and passion for providing exceptional patient care through continuous quality improvement strategies. An excellent example is her leadership in streamlining activation of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) for patients who are critically ill.

Recently she led an interdisciplinary team that reviewed, restructured and standardized the daily rounding process. They introduced a rounding tool to improve communication about care plans and a discharge checklist that led to an increase in individualized discharge planning discussions, improved patient/family involvement, and fewer adverse events and readmissions. As part of this larger initiative, she mentored junior staff members as they designed a project to help infants with congenital heart disease avoid surgical placement of a gastric feeding tube in the abdomen. This work helped shorten hospital stays and supported the infants’ transition to oral feeding at home.

Stock’s dedication to best practices, exemplary clinical outcomes and the CVICU patient experience reflects her commitment to our mission.

Best Consulting Physician: Karen Raimer, M.D.

Raimer is a maternal-fetal medicine specialist. Her colleagues and the physicians who refer patients to her value her three decades of diagnostic expertise and empathetic care. Her knowledge and supportive approach are appreciated by expectant parents whose infants may have a congenital heart defect, congenital diaphragmatic hernia, central nervous system malformation or other conditions that require care by multiple pediatric specialists. She works collaboratively with the fetal care program’s nurse navigator to consult with neonatologists, cardiologists, radiologists and pediatric surgeons and ensure that a well-orchestrated delivery plan is in place.

For the past five years, Raimer has also been an invaluable resource for physicians and families 70 miles away from the hospital. At our North Port Outpatient Care Center, Raimer and her team of nurses, sonographers and clinical staff members manage care of patients with high-risk pregnancies. Her experience with six high-risk pregnancies of her own has helped her serve as a role model and source of hope for patients.

Clinical Collaboration and Teamwork: Patrick Mularoni, M.D., and the Infuenza Immunization Dashboard Team

The Influenza Immunization Dashboard Team was formed in August 2022 to develop best practices for screening patients’ flu vaccination status and encouraging vaccine uptake. Mularoni, medical director of ambulatory services, is the lead physician for this team, which includes physicians, ambulatory leaders, advanced practice providers, clinical nurse leaders, pharmacists, and specialists in patient safety, quality, clinical informatics and predictive analytics.

Before this initiative, measuring flu vaccine compliance was limited to inpatients and the general pediatrics clinic. Many ambulatory patients on main campus and in the regional outpatient centers have complex or chronic health conditions that place them at higher risk for serious complications from influenza, making vaccination discussions especially important. The team developed an ambulatory influenza dashboard to track patient populations by specialty, and then expanded the dashboard to include all patient populations for the 2023–2024 flu season. Metrics focused on improving screening through efficient use of the electronic medical record, monitoring vaccine supplies, clarifying staff roles in discussing flu immunization with patients and parents, and documentation.

A multimedia campaign encouraged flu vaccination, and the message was amplified in conversations with patients’ families. The overall influenza vaccination screening rate improved from 47% to 70% during a three-year period, and the population-specific rate reached 94% for patients receiving active chemotherapy. The dashboard’s real-time processes and metrics allow the team to trend for continuous performance improvement.

Excellence in Service and Professionalism: Michelle Smith, M.D.

Smith is a pediatric critical care physician in the CVICU. She deftly balances her roles in providing direct patient care, teaching residents and fellows, and collaborating with CVICU team members on quality initiatives and other programs. She has chaired several hospital-wide committees during the past two decades, including the Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee, which she led for 10 years. She is a member of the medical emergency team, and she shares her expertise as an educator in the Center for Medical Simulation and Innovative Education, guiding learners as they hone their skills and prepare for critical situations.

Smith served as vice chief of the medical staff and then chief of the medical staff during a four-year period that ended in December 2023. Her tenure as chief marked the first time that women held all three medical staff leadership roles. A colleague described her as being “the definition of service excellence and professionalism.” She is the ultimate role model for any medical staff member.

Innovations in Clinical Care: Jasmine Reese, M.D., M.P.H., and the Outpatient Eating Disorders Clinic Team

Reese is the division chief of adolescent medicine and leads the outpatient eating disorder program. This interdisciplinary clinic brings together specialists in adolescent medicine, psychology, psychiatry, social work, nursing and nutrition. Since the start of the pandemic, inpatient eating disorder admissions at Johns Hopkins All Children’s have increased nearly 200%. The outpatient program helps meet the needs of many of these teens and provides early identification and early intervention, reducing the need for hospitalization.

The clinic draws patients and families from across the state. The team evaluates more than 200 teens per year and has helped many patients achieve positive outcomes of recovery, weight restoration and improvement in mental health. The team has used several innovative approaches to treatment and research, including bioimpedance measurements to help assess disease severity and development of individualized treatment plans. The team also developed a novel way to help gauge patient food resistance by routinely offering food items in real time.

In addition, the team provides outreach to community leaders, medical practitioners, teachers, social workers, athletic trainers through educational sessions. The goal is to raise awareness about eating disorders and the outpatient clinic and to help families access the program.

William A. Baumgartner Physician of the Year: Jamie Decker, M.D.

Decker is a cardiologist who specializes in electrophysiology, cardiac arrhythmias, cardiomyopathies and heart failure. He established and leads the Heart Institute’s electrophysiology and pacing program, which offers innovative treatment and minimally invasive techniques, including zero-fluoroscopy ablations and the use of small leadless pacemakers and implantable monitors. Physicians in cardiology and other pediatric specialties seek out his advice and expertise. He has developed numerous clinical pathways to share this knowledge and enhance the care of patients with cardiac arrhythmias.

A colleague shared, “Dr. Decker is an expert in his field, relied upon by physicians at Johns Hopkins All Children’s and in the communities of St. Petersburg, Tampa and beyond. He has saved many lives, and every day he betters the lives of all the patients he has had a hand in caring for.”

Decker’s interest in arrhythmias includes a focus on preventing sudden cardiac death in children and teens who play sports. He works with organizations and community groups dedicated to including electrocardiograms as part of screening for student athletes. For those with conditions that may cause sudden death, he helps them return to play as much as possible, in a safe manner. Equally important, he works with schools and organizations to ensure that staff are trained in CPR and the use of automated external defibrillator equipment.