Emergency Medicine Specialist Hits the Ground Running

UH Clinical Update | February 2024

Janel Paukovits, MD

As a rebellious, active child, young Janel Paukovits spent many hours in the Emergency Department (ED) after various misadventures. But something positive about it stuck with her. As an adult, Janel Paukovits, MD, has now made the ED and its patients her life’s work. She’s Assistant Medical Director of Emergency Medicine at UH Cleveland Medical Center, having completed residency training and an emergency medicine clinical operations and administration fellowship there in 2020.

The variety of the ED and the opportunity to help under-served populations keep her engaged, she says.

“I never know what I'm walking into and who I'm going to encounter, whether it's a newborn baby or a 100-year old woman,” she says. “We are also a safety net for a lot of people, so there's a lot of purpose to my role here.”

Excellence in Managing the “Three S’s”

One key aspect of Dr. Paukovits’ work is her role as Emergency Medicine liaison at main campus for stroke, STEMI and sepsis. In that crucial position, she’s been able to make a measurable difference for patients in a relatively short time.

“Dr. Paukovits has been a great collaborator with UH Harrington Heart & Vascular Institute and with the quality committees on radiology, neurology and sepsis in aligning our clinical efforts across departments,” says Emergency Medicine Chair Vicki Noble, MD, Arthur D. and Kazuko Maine Endowed Chair in Emergency Medicine Leadership. “Our radiology turn-around times, our stroke metrics and our sepsis outcomes have all benefited from her work on those committees.”

UH CEO Cliff A. Megerian, MD, FACS, Jane and Henry Meyer Chief Executive Officer Distinguished Chair., recently recognized Dr. Paukovits for this work with a “Dinner with the Doc” honor.

Creative Thinking

Dr. Paukovits also spearheaded another initiative -- developing innovative solutions for managing the growing number of “boarders” in the ED.  These are patients who need admission to the hospital but are waiting for a hospital bed. While these patients await a bed, she focuses on getting patients started with social work, physical therapy or connecting them to traditional care coordinators for any needed transitions to nursing homes. This all adds up to a more efficient hospital stay for the patient – and improved throughput for the hospital

“We’re trying to get all these back-end tasks started earlier, so when they do go upstairs, they're not sitting another day waiting,” she says.

With all of these projects, measurement is important. But Dr. Paukovits says her priority is bringing improved metrics to life with improved patient care.

“Every problem I attempt to fix, throughput issue I try to tackle or coordinate with a service upstairs can make patient care better for that population that we serve,” she says. “It's not just about checking those boxes and meeting those metrics. It's trying to improve the actual patient care that we can give.”

To nominate a physician for this honor, please click here. The next deadline is May 2.