Division of Hospital Medicine – 2022 Summer Highlights

We are very proud of our Division of Hospital Medicine faculty and staff. Thank you for all your hard work and many achievements this summer!

John Cras, MD received the 2021 Friend of Nursing Award at Barnes-Jewish West County Hospital. He received not one, but four nominations for the award. Nurses specifically called out his compassion, his teamwork, and his routine of always discussing the plan of care with the bedside nurse after an admission. Congratulations to Dr. Cras!

Dennis Chang, MD was inducted on May 18th to the Gold Humanism Society. The Gold Humanism Society recognizes students, residents, and faculty who are exemplars of patient care and who serve as role models, mentors, and leaders of medicine. Congratulations to Dr. Chang!

Congratulations to Joyce Ji, MD on agreeing to become the Chair for Hospital Medicine Grand Rounds!

Congratulations to Michael Lin, MD on his recent promotion as the inaugural BJC Transfer Center Medical Director (for adult patients)! In this role he will help foster collaboration between administrative and clinical leaders to develop transfer protocols and acceptance processes. 

Congratulations to Eileen Lee, MD on being accepted into the Department of Medicine’s Leadership Training Course!

Congratulations to Caroline Kahle, MD! Our first Hospitalist to attend the SHM Leadership Academy.

Congratulations to Carol Faulk, MD for her selection as the Co-Director of the Advanced Clinical Rotation for 4th year medical students (i.e., Sub-Internship). In the new medical school curriculum, ALL medical students will participate in the M4 Sub-Internship. This represents a terrific opportunity for the Division of Hospital Medicine as these students will see a hospitalist as a lead medical educator and interact with our faculty on the hospital inpatient units; a wonderful chance to show how hospital medicine is a great career.

Madeline Grondalski, MD received an ICARE Award in her first week as Attending Hospitalist! 
In the description, Madeline’s nominator wrote: “TEAM PLAYER! What an amazing new hospitalist! So easy to talk to; kind, caring, and compassionate.  Takes so much time with her patients, even sitting next to their bed. Amazing with RN staff. Even took a patient to South campus for me because they were getting blood transfused.” Congratulations to Dr. Grondalski!

Congratulations to Eileen Lee, MD and Martin Kerrigan, MD for each receiving a LeJIT Teaching Award! This award recognizes their excellence in completing just-in-time assessments, colloquially termed “JITs,” during the 2022 Block 3 Medicine Clerkship (May–June 2022). Their dedication to completing JITs helps students develop their skills and creates a positive learning environment that fosters feedback and growth. 

Congratulations to Corey Shy, MD and Rachel Bardowell, MD for their collaboration on presentations accepted at the Annual SHM Converge Meeting scheduled for March 26-29, 2023 in Austin, Texas. Dr. Shy will be a co-presenter for “Which Barbecue Sauce to Marinate Care Transitions: What Works and Doesn’t in Reducing Readmissions, and Dr. Bardowell will co-present with a group of nationally recognized experts in quality improvement including professors from Penn, UCSF and Northwestern. They will give the presentation “Where’s the Beef? How to Select and Demonstrate Value from Hospitalist QI Initiatives.”

Kudos to Randy Laine, MD! Nurses Monica Lin and Kate Luby on 7900 wanted to let all of us know “how incredible Dr. Laine has been to work with!” Monica personally had multiple positive experiences with him (and so have many of the staff nurses), in which she witnessed him go above and beyond for his patients. “Dr. Laine spent time at the bedside today singing to a very special hospice patient with us and has simultaneously put the brightest smile on our youngest patient’s face, who is spending her 21st birthday at the hospital this weekend. His kindness does not go unnoticed…”

Kudos to Jack El Sawda, MD! A nurse on 11800 voices appreciation for Dr. Sawda – “I just wanted to express how much I appreciate Jack. He is always so kind and helpful. We had a patient last night that should have been admitted from OSH ED to ICU. Instead we kept her for about 6 hours and Jack stayed here on the floor, checking in on her frequently and even drawing labs twice. Not many other docs do that. He eventually did get ICU to accept her when it was obvious this patient was requiring too high of care and her nurse was almost constantly at her bedside. This is not unusual for Jack. I’ve worked with him quite a lot in the past and he is always very kind, helpful and easy to work with. We need more like him.”