Becker's Hospital Review

83 FINANCE CMO / CARE DELIVERY Johns Hopkins All Children's scales back on surgeries, pauses complicated procedures after baby discharged with needle in heart By Megan Knowles S t. Petersburg, Fla.-based Johns Hop- kins All Children's Hospital is signifi- cantly cutting the number of opera- tions performed at the facility and halting certain complicated surgeries aer physi- cians discharged a baby in 2016 with a suture needle in her heart, according to the Tampa Bay Times. Here are five things to know. 1. e patient, Katelynn Whipple, was born with an interrupted aortic arch in July 2016. e needle was found in her heart during a follow-up visit later that month, and Kate- lynn's parents returned to All Children's to have the needle removed. However, the sur- geon who operated on her told her parents the needle did not exist. Ten days later, Katelynn's parents took her to a different hospital for emergency operation unrelated to the needle. Within 30 minutes, that surgeon found the needle lodged in her aorta. 2. Although the needle le in Katelynn's chest did not cause any overall damage, All Children's later settled with her family for about $50,000, the majority of which will be paid to Katelynn when she is an adult. Tom Karl, MD, the lead surgeon who performed the initial operation on Katelynn, is not currently practicing at the hospital, but is on its medical staff "and could be called on upon if there was an emergency," Jonathan Ellen, MD, the hospital's CEO, told the Tam- pa Bay Times. 3. When asked about Katelynn's case and widespread issues with the hospital's Heart Institute, All Children's leaders informed the Tampa Bay Times of numerous issues not previously publicized, including a rising mor- tality rate for heart surgery patients and at least one top surgeon who has ceased operat- ing. All Children's also acknowledged needles were le in two children since 2016. "If I said to you we didn't have challenges, I'd be lying," Dr. Ellen told the Tampa Bay Times. 4. In response to these issues, the institute cut its number of operations and stopped performing some complicated surgeries, ac- cording to Dr. Ellen. He told the Tampa Bay Times the Heart Institute is working to im- prove patient care and prevent pediatric pa- tients from being harmed. "If we found some- thing that went wrong, we would notify our board, we would notify the right regulatory agencies, we would look at our processes," Dr. Ellen said. 5. e hospital is also referring certain com- plex cases to other heart programs. "We don't think we necessarily at this point are the best for some of the highly complex cases," he said. However, Dr. Ellen is still optimistic about the future of the Heart Institute and is searching for a surgeon to lead the department. n 10 medical schools with the lowest acceptance rates By Alyssa Rege T he average acceptance rate for 2017-18 medical school candidates was 7 percent, according to data gathered by U.S. News & World Report. For the publication's annual survey, U.S. News compiled data submitted by 120 ranked medical schools. Among the top 10 schools with the lowest acceptance rates, the aver- age rate of acceptance was 2.8 percent. The Mayo Clinic School of Medicine topped the list with an average acceptance rate of 2.1 percent, up from 1.8 per- cent during the 2016-17 school year. Roughly 8,000 incom- ing medical school students submitted applications to the Rochester, Minn.-based school. Of those, only 168 students were accepted. Here are the top 10 ranked medical schools where the low- est proportion of applicants for fall 2017 were admitted, according to U.S. News. Unranked schools were not con- sidered for the report. 1. Mayo Clinic — 2.1 percent acceptance rate 2. Stanford (Calif.) University School of Medicine — 2.3 percent 3. Florida State University School of Medicine (Tallahassee) — 2.6 percent 4. Wake Forest School of Medicine (Winston-Salem, N.C.) — 2.8 percent 5. George Washington University School of Medicine (Washington, D.C.) — 2.9 percent 6. Georgetown University School of Medicine (Washington, D.C.) — 2.9 percent 7. UC Davis School of Medicine (Sacramento, Calif.) — 2.9 percent 8. David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA (Los Angeles) — 3.2 percent 9. The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University (Providence, R.I.) — 3.2 percent 10. UC San Diego School of Medicine (La Jolla, Calif.) — 3.2 percent n

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