Center for Infectious Diseases and Long Term Care

The Division of Infectious Diseases (ID) collaborates with short-term post-acute, rehabilitation, skilled nursing, and long-term care (LTC) facilities to provide guidance and expertise on the effective management of antibiotics (Antibiotic Stewardship). ID team members consist of physicians and nurse practitioners that travel to the long-term care facilities to conduct initial evaluations/chart reviews on geriatric patients and work with respective medical management teams at each facility to make recommendations on usage and prescription changes of antibiotics. Additionally, in-service training sessions are provided to the staff to ensure effective long-term practice changes.

Currently, ID has relationships with regional LTC networks to develop clinical support and antimicrobial management tools. Along with direct evaluation of the residents within the facilities, ID team members also work closely with facility leadership in the development of medication guidelines for commonly prescribed antibiotic medications. Development of such guidelines helps long-term facilities to identify medications needing to be discontinued and is an effective means of reducing overall patient care expense.

Our group is serving as one of eight sites across the United States for the Nursing Home Public Health Response Network, a initiative funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to partner long-term care facilities with academic centers and respond in real-time to future infectious threats in long-term care.

Future LTC collaborations are planned to evaluate and identify technological platforms for tracking and evaluating patient outcomes and expense in long-term care facilities. This is an essential need as quality data (e.g. accuracy of patient information, treatment effectiveness) becomes increasingly important in acute and long-term care facilities. We work closely with Armstrong Institute using Human Factors Engineering Principles to identify gaps in transfers of care across the health care spectrum and facilitate improved care for this shared patient population.

Jonathan Zenilman, MD

Jonathan Zenilman, MD is a Professor of Medicine; Dermatology; and Obstetrics & Gynecology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He also has joint appointments in Population, Family and Reproductive Health; International Health; and Epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. Since 2003, he has served as the Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center.

Dr. Zenilman is known internationally for his work in infectious disease epidemiology, sexually transmitted infections, chronic wounds, and non-tuberculosis mycobacteria (NTM) infections. Zenilman Research Dashboard and Publications

Morgan Katz, MD, MHS

Morgan Katz, MD, MHS is an assistant professor of medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Director of Antimicrobial Stewardship at Johns Hopkins Bayview Hospital.

She has focused her career on designing feasible interventions to reduce antimicrobial resistance and transmission of infectious pathogens in the long-term care setting. She is a member of the infection advisory committee for AMDA–The Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine (AMDA), the antibiotic stewardship committee for the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA), and served as a member of the White House Nursing Home Commission to guide the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid in their response to coronavirus in long-term care facilities. Dr. Katz has research support from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Katz Research Dashboard and Publications

Heather Saunders, MPH, RN, CIC
Research Nurse Program Manager

Heather Saunders is an experienced and motivated registered nurse with a master’s degree in public health and a certification in infection control. Striving for excellence in the prevention and control of infectious disease, Heather believes in using innovative and strategic leadership methods to achieve program goals.

Heather first discovered her love for population health and infection control during a short-term assignment in Nairobi, Kenya, where she worked to improve maternal and child health and the prevention of infectious diseases. After spending the first six years of her nursing career in busy emergency departments, she transitioned away from the bedside to join the Johns Hopkins Hospital as an infection control epidemiologist. Following the completion of her master’s degree in public health, Heather became the infection prevention and control nurse consultant for the State of Maryland, assisting healthcare facilities, especially long-term care facilities, in their efforts to prevent and control infectious diseases.

In returning to Johns Hopkins as a research nurse program manager in the Division of Infectious Diseases, Heather is continuing her work to improve population health and infection control in healthcare settings. She is also the owner and primary consultant for Broad Street Prevention, providing infection prevention and control consultative services for businesses and healthcare facilities.