Following an extensive national search, we are pleased to announce that James Quintessenza, M.D., will return to Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital to help us restart the heart surgery program with care and unwavering dedication to patient safety. Dr. Quintessenza is one of the country’s leading cardiothoracic surgeons. For 26 years, he served at All Children’s Hospital, including serving for 19 years as medical director and chief of pediatric cardiac surgery.

Over the course of his career, Dr. Quintessenza has continually set the bar for delivering exceptional care to patients while operating at the forefront of medical research. Since 2016, he has served as chief of pediatric cardiothoracic surgery at Kentucky Children’s Hospital and held a faculty appointment at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.

This is the first step in a phased process of restarting the Johns Hopkins All Children’s heart surgery program. We will spend several months recruiting additional doctors and staff, including for cardiac intensive care and interventional and fetal cardiology. This process was developed with a team of national experts in pediatric heart programs, led by Dr. Bill Greeley, who consulted with our physicians and staff members to assess all elements of the Heart Institute from a clinical perspective. Dr. Greeley will stay with Johns Hopkins All Children’s as the Heart Institute’s Deputy Director through the transition and restart period. Read more.

Our new phone number for physicians seeking a consultation with an All Children’s Specialty Physicians specialist is 727-767-8311. When you call the Provider-to-Provider line, we will put you in contact with our on-call provider for the appropriate specialty. Urgent calls will be returned within 30 minutes. Non-urgent calls will be returned before 4 p.m.

As a reminder, additional phone numbers are available to contact private practice physicians who provide specialty services at Johns Hopkins All Children’s. Those phone numbers are available online here.

In the Center for Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia (CDH) at Johns Hopkins All Children’s, infants experience a survival rate of greater than 90% even in severe cases, which exceeds national benchmarks.

The new center is a dedicated 15-bed inpatient care unit – the first in the nation to provide 24/7 specialized care for infants with CDH. Led by David Kays, M.D., who has treated more than 400 children with CDH, each member of the Center for CDH team brings experience in applying their expertise in their specialty to the care of babies with CDH. The team includes specialists in surgery, critical care, neonatology, cardiology, neuropsychology, pulmonology, GI and other specialties to meet the individual needs of each patient. For more information or to refer a family to the Center for CDH, visit our website.

The Food Allergy Clinic at Johns Hopkins All Children’s provides comprehensive care for children of all ages with suspected or confirmed food allergy. It is the first hospital clinic dedicated to pediatric food allergy in Florida. We work with families and guide them through the process of additional testing and treatment options, whether a patient’s reaction was mild or severe, or due to a single or multiple foods. Procedures we offer include skin testing for food allergy, blood test for evaluation of food specific Immunoglobulin E (IgE) levels and component resolved diagnosis (CRD), and oral food challenge. For more information about the Food Allergy Clinic, call 727-767-8727 or visit our website.

We are pleased to share that Johns Hopkins All Children’s and Golisano Children’s Hospital of Southwest Florida have entered into an agreement to expand care for kids across Florida’s west coast. The agreement gives providers at both locations access to medical privileges to admit and treat patients. Golisano Children’s Hospital will also be able to take part in pediatric research studies and protocols through Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital.

This relationship provides a process for collaboration between the two hospitals, with a focus on increasing access to specialized pediatric care. Through this agreement, Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital and Golisano Children’s Hospital will work together to deliver the highest quality care, leverage resources and create better value for families. Read more.

Medical Library Director Pat Clark was recently named the 2019 Hospital Librarian of the Year for the Southern Chapter of the Medical Library Association, which includes six states, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Clark was recognized for her noteworthy accomplishments and contributions to hospital librarianship in multiple areas, including administration, advocacy, technology, leadership, instruction, presentations, research and/or publications.

She recently marked 30 years of service at Johns Hopkins All Children’s and has guided the library through several physical expansions, deployment of additional online resources and databases, and alignment with the Welch Medical Library on the Johns Hopkins University campus. She also established the Family Resource Center Library in the Outpatient Care Center.

Johns Hopkins All Children’s and University of South Florida residents participated in the annual Career Planning Night last month, featuring presentations about various aspects of working in the medical field from community physicians and other professionals. Mike Jordan, M.D., of East Lake Pediatrics, and Yaritza Colon, M.D., of Community Health Centers of Pinellas, shared career insights such as their day-to-day routines, the benefits and challenges of working in a practice, clinical decision making and work/life balance.

Residents also participated in a financial planning presentation by Marcus Greene and Don Mandeville with BB&T, and a health law presentation on employment agreements and other common legal issues associated with practicing medicine by Mike Igel, Esq., with Johnson Pope Bokor Ruppel & Burns, LLP. Thank you to our presenters and the residents who participated.