Page 13 - SOUTH FLORIDA HOSPITAL NEWS MAY 2021

PART 1: Tampa General Hospital:

Delivering World-Class Patient Care Throughout the Southeast

BY DANIEL CASCIATO TGH program that continues to assist amount of time that care providers
Florida businesses in opening safely to can spend with patients.
As one of the state’s leading academ- serve both its employees and its “Additionally, through our new
ic medical centers, Tampa General patrons,” adds Couris. “TGH, through innovation platform, TGH Inno -
Hospital is focused on providing the TPRO, also partnered with the Florida ventures, we are investing and sup-
most complex care (tertiary and qua- Senate to ensure a safe return to in- porting a wide array of research at
ternary care) to patients not only from person legislative sessions in 2020.” Tampa General and USF, as well as
the Tampa Bay region but across Couris’ vision for serving the evolv- through outside and emerging ven-
Florida, the southeast United States ing health needs of the patients of the tures—all of which will hopefully lead
and the southern hemisphere. Tampa region as well as residents liv- to new treatments and new modalities
“Our ability to provide world-class ing in our footprint across the state – of service,” Couris says. “With all this
advanced-level care across medical from Fort Myers to Palm Beach – cen- work, our ultimate goal is to propel
specialties places us in the top five in John Couris ters around pivoting toward an overall innovation to support our physicians
the state and in the top 50 in the system of care coordination. and care teams and provide the best
country in several areas,” says John the University of South Florida Health “Our goal is to allow us to continue patient experience.”
Couris, Tampa General Hospital pres- Morsani College of Medicine sets to improve quality, increase One of the biggest challenges for
ident and CEO. “We are one of the them apart and has contributed to its Floridians’ access to leading-edge care Tampa General today is the challenge
leading organ transplant centers in the reputation not only as pioneers in across all specialties, to lower costs, faced by all health care systems in the
United States, ranking sixth in the clinical care but in research and edu- and to ensure the best possible out- country: how to fund health care.
country by volume, having performed cation, as well. In partnership with comes for our patients,” he says. “And Specifically, how to provide world-
more than 10,000 transplants, and USF, there are more than 30 clinical we continue to fulfill our strategic class care at a cost that allows
offering the most advanced level of trials that are currently active at TGH. vision of becoming the safest and providers to remain viable and that is
care for transplant patients.” As the primary teaching hospital and most innovative academic health sys- affordable for employers and individ-
Couris adds that its work in the academic partner of USF, they now tem in America.” uals.
fields of cardiac care, heart surgery, train more than 700 residents and fel- He notes that their work is strength- “Everyone involved in the funding
and orthopedics are consistently rec- lows in 60 specialties each year—pro- ened by a strategy of innovation of health care – from providers, to
ognized as the best in the state and are moting and educating the future of across the hospital which allows them employers, to insurance carriers, to
ranked best in the state of Florida by world-class medical care here in to support the research from our legislatures – is working to find a
U.S. News & World Report. Florida. USF’s medical faculty, as well physician-scientists and to leverage solution,” says Couris. “The reality is
“Our nationally designated compre- as the region’s leading providers, technology to develop new models for that to make real and lasting change,
hensive stroke center and 32-bed admit and care for patients at Tampa better meeting patients’ health care we must redesign the whole model for
Neuroscience Intensive Care Unit are General. USF’s physician scientists are needs. For example, in 2019 they how care is provided and paid for in
the largest on the west coast of working with Tampa General to devel- launched TGH’s CareComm Center— our state and across the country. To
Florida,” he says. “As home to the op cutting-edge treatments and med- an 8,000-square-foot, NASA-style, that end, I continue to work with
only Level I trauma center on the ical breakthroughs. high-tech command center to manage Florida officials in Tallahassee, health
West Coast and with one of just five Most significantly, since the out- patient flow and increase efficiencies care leaders, and other stakeholders
burn centers in Florida, we can care break of COVID-19, Tampa General, across the hospital. CareComm was working toward real and substantive
for not only Tampa Bay’s most critical- in collaboration with USF, has led the developed in partnership with GE change.”
ly injured and ill patients, but also way in the care, containment and pre- Healthcare and allows the region to
patients across the entire state. Our vention of the pandemic. leverage artificial intelligence, predic- For more information, visit
five medical helicopters traversing the “Within the last year we opened the tive analytics, and modeling to www.tgh.org.
state allow us to transport patients Global Emerging Diseases Institute, improve and better coordinate patient
from 23 surrounding counties and which treats patients suffering from care. In the first 18 months, Part 2 of “Tampa General Hospital:
provide them with the advanced care COVID-19 as well as other infectious CareComm helped save more than 40 Delivering World-Class Patient Care
they need as quickly as possible.” diseases, and developed TPRO (TGH million dollars by reducing inefficien- Throughout the Southeast”
Tampa General’s relationship with cies and dramatically improving the will appear in our June 2021 issue.
Prevention – Response – Outreach), a

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