Latest news with #TampaGeneral
Yahoo
23-06-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Tampa General Expands Artificial Intelligence Capabilities with New Ambient Listening Technology for Nurses
Building upon positive momentum from the academic health system's ambient listening technology for physicians, Tampa General is deploying a new AI solution purpose-built for nursing. TAMPA, Fla., June 23, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Tampa General Hospital (TGH) today announced the rollout of Microsoft's ambient listening capabilities for nurses embedded in Epic's Rover mobile nursing application. These capabilities aim to reduce the administrative burden on nurses, who studies have shown can spend as much as 15 percent of their shifts on documentation alone.1 The deployment of this new solution, tailored to address the unique needs of bedside nurses, is the academic health system's latest initiative to harness the power of AI to increase productivity and job satisfaction while enhancing patient experience and quality of care. "Our guiding philosophy has always been to put our team members first, so they feel engaged, supported and empowered to show up at their best for our patients," said Wendi Goodson-Celerin, executive vice president and chief nursing executive at Tampa General. "Microsoft's ambient listening technology can give nurses back hours of time per shift that they'd ordinarily spend manually entering data into a computer, and the research shows that this is time they would prefer to spend at the bedside with their patients, upskilling newer nurses and honing their craft. In this way, it is giving nurses the gift of more capacity to what they were trained to do, and what no one else does better." Like DAX Copilot, whose ambient listening capabilities are now part of Microsoft Dragon Copilot and became available to more than 500 physicians affiliated with Tampa General in June 2024, the new ambient listening capabilities for nurses can securely capture a patient story, including details of symptoms, observations and experiences and automatically convert it into specialty-specific, clinical summaries in seconds, making it possible for nurses to spend more time providing direct patient care, training the next generation of nursing team members and investing in their own professional development. "We have long believed that the best, most successful innovations emerge as answers to real-world problems," said Amit Patel, chief nursing informatics officer at Tampa General. "When approaching the rollout of ambient technology for nurses, we took a hard look at how we could use existing technology in new ways to drive the most meaningful impact – both for our team members and for patients. We're proud to see this solution in action, enabling the personal connections that ultimately result in world-class care." Within the first few months of implementation, Tampa General aims to strengthen care coordination and free nurses' time to focus on providing direct care by reducing the time spent charting and closing the time gap between patient assessments and documentation in their charts. ABOUT TAMPA GENERAL HOSPITALTampa General Hospital, a 1,529-bed, not-for-profit academic health system, is one of the largest hospitals in America and delivers world-class care as the Tampa Bay region's only center for Level l trauma and comprehensive burn care. The system's hospitals include Tampa General Hospital, Tampa General Rehabilitation Hospital, Tampa General Behavioral Health Hospital, all in Tampa; Tampa General Brooksville, Tampa General Spring Hill and Tampa General Crystal River. Tampa General Hospital is the highest-ranked hospital in Tampa Bay in U.S. News & World Report's 2024-2025 Best Hospitals, with two medical specialties ranking among the top 20 in the nation and eight medical specialties listed among the top 50 best hospital programs in the United States. As the first hospital in Florida to open a clinical command center for real-time situational awareness, Tampa General has elevated its digital care coordination center to the next level by leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) and its analytics platform across inpatient and outpatient care to ensure patients receive leading-edge care as quickly and safely as possible. The academic health system's commitment to growing and developing its team members is recognized by three prestigious Forbes magazine rankings — in the 2025 America's Best Large Employers, the top 50 in Florida in the 2024 America's Best Employers by State and the 2023 America's Best Employers for Women. Tampa General is the safety-net hospital for the region, caring for anyone regardless of ability to pay; in fiscal year 2023, Tampa General provided a net community benefit of approximately $301.8 million in the form of health care for underinsured patients, community education and financial support to community health organizations in Tampa Bay. It was the nation's No. 1 adult solid organ transplant center in 2024 and is the primary teaching hospital for the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine. With five medical helicopters, Tampa General transports critically injured or ill patients from 23 surrounding counties to receive the advanced care their conditions require. Tampa General is home to a nationally accredited comprehensive stroke center and its 32-bed Neuroscience, Intensive Care Unit is the largest on the West Coast of Florida. It is home to the Muma Children's Hospital at TGH, the Jennifer Leigh Muma 82-bed neonatal intensive care unit and a nationally accredited rehabilitation center. Tampa General's footprint includes TGH North, which consists of three hospitals and several outpatient locations in Citrus and Hernando counties; 17 Tampa General Medical Group Primary Care offices; TGH Family Care Center Kennedy; two TGH outpatient centers; TGH Virtual Health; and 19 TGH Imaging outpatient radiology centers throughout Hillsborough, Pasco, Pinellas and Palm Beach counties. Tampa Bay area residents receive world-class care from TGH Urgent Care, powered by the Fast Track network of clinics. To see a medical care professional live anytime, anywhere on a smartphone, tablet or computer, visit Virtual Health | Tampa General Hospital ( For more information, go to 1 Media Contact: Beth Hardy, APRAssistant ManagerPublications & Physician Communications(727) 510-6363 (cell)ehardy@ View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE Tampa General Hospital
Yahoo
19-06-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
'My hand was all in blood': Girl, 9, recounts shark bite ordeal
Leah Lendel and her family were enjoying a typical day on the Florida Gulf Coast: walking around near a lighthouse, getting ice cream, then going to the beach to wade in the water, snorkeling, getting some pizza. But as the 9-year-old was snorkeling with her siblings and her dad, she felt something pull, hard, on her arm. She started screaming, first in pain, then in horror. "My hand was all in blood," she said as she recounted being attacked by a shark June 11. "I started screaming for my mom." At a news conference June 19, Leah and her parents talked about what happened and the care she received on the scene in Boca Grande, Florida, and at Tampa General Hospital, where she was flown to receive emergency care. Doctors discussed how they saved the girl's hand with the help of bystanders, first responders and Leah herself. Leah was swimming in the ocean off of Boca Grande, Florida, with other family members around noon local time on June 11 when she was bit, Boca Grande Fire Chief C.W. Blosser said in a social media video. People from a nearby construction site came running to help, calling 911 and applying a tourniquet that likely saved Leah's life, and certainly her hand. She was flown to Tampa General, and the decision to take her there meant there was a trauma team ready to stabilize her, restore blood flow and save her hand, doctors said. Tampa General, the only Level I adult and pediatric trauma center, was uniquely equipped to handle the complexity of saving Leah's hand, said doctors at the news conference. Dr. Alfred Hess, an orthopedic surgeon, said Leah's case had "a great outcome." "A shark injury is both a blessing and a curse in this case," he said. "The teeth are so sharp that the cut through the wrist is clean and not jagged, so it doesn't ruin all the tissue and we have clean tissue to work with." Hess said he's seen all kinds of animal-inflicted wounds in his 35 years of practice, including alligators, lions and sharks. Sharks' mouths, he said, "are like a bunch of razor blades; they go through tissue." Treating the wounds, he added, "is all about if you have something left to put back on." Shark attacks, though terrifying, are rare: According to there have been just four shark attacks in the U.S. so far this year, none of them fatal. In fact, the odds of being killed by a shark in the U.S. are more than 4 million to 1. Leah's parents, Nadia and Jay, said they were grateful not only for the medical professionals at Tampa General, but also to the people on the scene who helped the family during the horrific ordeal. And, Nadia said, a woman who lives nearby helped her with her two toddlers, calming her and giving her water as Jay flew with Leah to the hospital. All of the adults talked about Leah's role, as well: her resilience, her calm, her ability to handle surgery and rehabilitation. Sporting a big foam "cheese pillow" as one doctor described it (meant to keep her arm elevated, explained Dr. Joshua Linnell, orthopedic surgeon at Tampa General Hospital and Florida Orthopedic Institute), Leah continues to recover with the help of her family, a therapy dog named Belle and a team of medical professionals who'll help her regain full use of her hand. Asked how she's been able to handle everything so well, Leah was modest, or maybe just as honest as 9-year-olds usually are: "I don't know," she replied shyly. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'My hand was all in blood': 9-year-old recounts shark bite ordeal
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Tampa General Hospital Enhances Heart Care with Cutting-Edge Imaging Technology
This new 512-slice CT scanner excels in advanced imaging, prioritizing speed, resolution and patient comfort. TAMPA, Fla., May 21, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Tampa General Hospital (TGH) is raising the bar for heart care with the addition of two GE Healthcare Revolution APEX 512-Slice computed tomography (CT) scanners. The advanced scanners leverage artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning technologies to deliver faster, clearer and more precise scans, refining diagnoses and treatments of cardiovascular diseases. The purchase of the scanners was made possible thanks to a generous gift by the Ferman family to the TGH Foundation. One is located at the TGH Ferman Family Imaging Center in Tampa General Hospital Diagnostic Imaging on the Davis Islands campus; the other is being used for inpatient examinations within the hospital itself. "This technology is a game-changer for cardiac imaging at Tampa General," remarked Dr. Shone Almeida, director of the Cardiac CT program at Tampa General and a faculty member of the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine. "With sharper images and faster scan times, we can diagnose heart disease with greater confidence, allowing cardiologists to make better treatment decisions and improve patient outcomes." The 512-slice CT scanner is a cornerstone of the TGH Cardiometabolic Disease Prevention Program, providing highly detailed images of the heart and coronary arteries. The program focuses on early detection, risk assessment and personalized interventions to prevent the progression of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases such as diabetes and obesity-related heart conditions. "The integration of this technology into our cardiometabolic program enables us to identify early signs of heart disease before symptoms arise, offering patients a chance to take preventive action," said Almeida who is also the medical director for the cardiometabolic program at Tampa General. This latest upgrade in cardiac imaging represents a collaborative effort between the TGH Heart & Vascular Institute and the academic health system's radiologists. The scanners feature the latest technological advancements, from deep learning-based image reconstruction to ultra-high-resolution imaging. "This investment supports our mission to bring world-class diagnostic technology to our patients," said Sherri Lewman, senior vice president of Enterprise Imaging at TGH. "By integrating AI-driven imaging, we're improving accuracy while enhancing patient safety and comfort." Designed to enhance cardiac imaging precision, the CT scanners offer exceptional speed, clarity and diagnostic precision. It allows physicians to assess coronary artery disease, structural heart conditions and other cardiovascular abnormalities in unparalleled detail. "This is a significant breakthrough; access to this top level of imaging enables our team of cardiologists to identify even the most complex conditions accurately," said Dr. Aarti Patel, co-director of the TGH Heart & Vascular Institute's Cardiovascular Imaging program, Cardiology and an associate professor in the Division of Cardiology, USF Health Morsani College of Medicine. "This information is crucial for developing personalized treatment plans that cater to each patient's unique needs, ultimately leading to improved long-term outcomes." "The 512-slice CT scanners significantly improve diagnostic accuracy and efficiency by providing high-definition images that facilitate precise interpretation," said Dr. Hristina Natcheva, co-director of the TGH Heart & Vascular Institute's Cardiovascular Imaging program, Cardiothoracic and an assistant professor, Department of Radiology, USF Health Morsani College of Medicine. "We can conduct highly detailed diagnostic exams, enabling more refined and comprehensive interpretations, strengthening our ability to detect and diagnose cardiovascular diseases." The Revolution APEX CT scanner leverages advanced AI to enhance image quality and enable rapid scanning with motion correction — providing exceptional precision for complex cardiac and routine cases. Its ultra-high resolution is ideal for detailed visualization of cerebral blood vessels and musculoskeletal structures. By capturing larger areas of the body in a single rotation, the system helps to reduce the need for multiple scans and improves diagnostic accuracy with sharper, more precise, images. Additionally, faster scan times and dose-reduction technologies enhance patient safety and comfort, contributing to a more positive overall patient experience. The installation of this leading-edge imaging unit is part of Tampa General's broader commitment to innovation, advanced diagnostics and excellence in patient care. Tampa General's Ferman Family Imaging Center is a hospital-based diagnostic imaging center located at 2 Tampa General Circle in Tampa. For more information, call (813) 844-8288. The Cardiometabolic Disease Prevention Program can be reached at (813) 844-3900 or cardiometabolic@ ABOUT TAMPA GENERAL HOSPITALTampa General Hospital, a 981-bed, not-for-profit, academic health system, is one of the largest hospitals in America and delivers world-class care as the region's only center for Level l trauma and comprehensive burn care. Tampa General Hospital is the highest-ranked hospital in the market in U.S. News & World Report's 2024-2025 Best Hospitals, with two medical specialties ranking among the top 20 in the nation and eight medical specialties ranking among the top 50 best hospital programs in the United States. Tampa General Hospital has been designated as a model of excellence by the 2022 Fortune/Merative 100 Top Hospitals list. The academic health system's commitment to growing and developing its team members is recognized by three prestigious Forbes magazine rankings – in the top 100 nationally in the 2024 America's Best Large Employers, the top 50 in Florida in the 2024 America's Best Employers by State and the 2023 America's Best Employers for Women. Tampa General is the safety net hospital for the region, caring for everyone regardless of their ability to pay, and in fiscal year 2023, provided a net community benefit of approximately $301.8 million in the form of health care for underinsured patients, community education, and financial support to community health organizations in Tampa Bay. It was the nation's busiest adult solid organ transplant center in 2024 and is the primary teaching hospital for the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine. With five medical helicopters, Tampa General Hospital transports critically injured or ill patients from 23 surrounding counties to receive the advanced care they need. Tampa General houses a nationally accredited comprehensive stroke center, and its 32-bed Neuroscience, Intensive Care Unit is the largest on the West Coast of Florida. It also is home to the Muma Children's Hospital at TGH, the Jennifer Leigh Muma 82-bed neonatal intensive care unit, and a nationally accredited rehabilitation center. Tampa General Hospital's footprint includes TGH North, which is comprised of three hospitals and several outpatient locations in Citrus and Hernando counties, 17 Tampa General Medical Group Primary Care offices, TGH Family Care Center Kennedy, two TGH Outpatient Centers, TGH Virtual Health, and 19 TGH Imaging outpatient radiology centers throughout Hillsborough, Pasco, Pinellas and Palm Beach counties. Tampa Bay area residents also receive world-class care from the TGH Urgent Care powered by the Fast Track network of clinics. To see a medical care professional live anytime, anywhere on a smartphone, tablet or computer, visit Virtual Health | Tampa General Hospital ( As one of the largest hospitals in the country, Tampa General Hospital is the first in Florida to open a clinical command center that provides real-time situational awareness to improve and better coordinate patient care at a lower cost. For more information, go to Media Contact: Beth Hardy, APRAssistant ManagerPublications & Physician Communications(727) 510-6363 (cell)ehardy@ View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE Tampa General Hospital
Yahoo
01-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
St. Petersburg's Bayfront hospital earns first ever A grade for safety
When Orlando Health purchased St. Petersburg's flagship hospital in 2020, Bayfront was struggling. Nurses unions reported understaffing and equipment shortages that reportedly had led to high infection rates and unnecessary deaths. The 480-bed hospital had a D ranking for safety. Five years on, hospital leaders are celebrating Bayfront's first ever A grade in new rankings released by Leapfrog, a nonprofit that rates hospitals nationwide on number of infections and medical errors. They gathered at the hospital at midnight Wednesday to celebrate with night shift workers. 'The team has been working so hard for a number of years,' said Jim Tucker, chief quality officer. 'People are thrilled to be celebrating today. It means everything.' Most of the region's other larger hospitals, including St. Joseph's Hospital in Tampa, Morton Plant Hospital in Clearwater and St. Anthony's Hospital in St. Petersburg, also received an A grade. But Tampa General Hospital received its fourth straight C rating despite assurances from hospital leaders that its grade would improve. Hospital officials, however, point to the hospital's improved performance in a new ranking that placed it in the top 30% of academic medical centers in the nation. It was ranked in the 81st percentile of its peers in 2017. The ranking, conducted by Vizient, is more significant since it compares Tampa General to hospitals of similar size and complexity, including NYU Langone, Mass General Brigham and Vanderbilt University, officials said. 'With technology, innovation and exceptional talent, Tampa General is continuously working to elevate quality, enhance safety and improve patient outcomes,' John Couris, hospital president and CEO, said in a statement. Ten of 11 BayCare Health System hospitals that were rated received an A. But the grade for HCA Florida Brandon Regional hospital dropped to a B with MRSA infections and the number of collapsed lungs flagged as areas of concern. Eighteen of AdventhHealth's 26 Florida hospitals received an A grade. AdventHealth Tampa, the nonprofit's largest hospital in the Tampa Bay region, slipped from a B to a C after scoring below average for the number of blood and urinary tract infections. The first ever A for Bayfront comes after significant investment in the hospital by Orlando Health. The hospital has a new ambulance bay expanding the number of ambulances that can be accommodated to 13. There is also new medical pavilions being constructed on campus. Equipment in operating rooms, the labor and delivery department and the baby unit has also been upgraded. Surgical equipment used for neuro and orthopedic surgery has been replaced, new imaging equipment was purchased and sterile processing equipment improved. The company also had to change the culture, said Tucker, who joined shortly before Orlando Health took over. Up until then, there were clearly challenges to address, including the number of infections in patients who had vascular catheters, also known as central lines, he said. Now. there is an increased focus on minimizing the time that a patient is catheterized to reduce the likelihood of infections. The hospital has also been more successful at retaining nurses and surveys staff for ideas on how to keep improving safety. 'It's a never ending journey,' Tucker said. 'It's an infusion into the organization that has really helped us and will continue.' Leapfrog has been rating and assessing hospitals for more than a decade in an effort to reduce deaths and injuries from hospital errors by publicly recognizing safety and exposing harm. Twice a year it grades more than 3,000 acute-care hospitals across the U.S. twice a year on how well they keep patients safe from preventable harm and medical errors, using more than 30 performance measures that hospitals report to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. But the nonprofit has been accused by a Palm Beach hospital operator of running a 'brazen pay-to-play scheme' publishing rankings that are 'false, wildly inaccurate, and defamatory.' Leapfrog charges hospitals between $6,700 and $29,900 per year to advertise their safety grade. In a lawsuit filed this week in federal court, Palm Beach Health Network claimed that the grades awarded for 20% of hospitals that refuse to participate with Leapfrog are inaccurate and that the rating system punishes hospitals who decline to provide Leapfrog's safety survey. The legal challenge names five of its hospitals — Delray Medical Center, Good Samaritan Medical Center, Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center, West Boca Medical Center and St. Mary's Medical Center — as victims of the rating system: Leapfrog officials defended their rating system and said they provide important information that the public deserves to know. 'When we look at these hospitals' results from Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, we see preventable suffering and death far exceeding the national average,' said Leapfrog President and CEO Leah Binder in a statement. 'Instead of using their resources to file frivolous lawsuits, they should be improving how their patients are treated.'
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Tampa General Hospital to run Lakeside Medical Center, hoping to improve Glades healthcare
BELLE GLADE — Tampa General Hospital and the Health Care District of Palm Beach County have reached a five-year agreement in which the two organizations will partner to run Lakeside Medical Center in Belle Glade. Leaders of both groups say the goal is to expand access to healthcare in The Glades communities near Lake Okeechobee. They are promising to listen to the region's needs and comments. The partnership is the latest effort by Tampa General, the largest hospital system on Florida's west coast, to expand into Palm Beach County, a lucrative healthcare market. John Couris, the president and CEO of Tampa General and the former CEO of Jupiter Medical Center, said hospital officials will meet with community leaders and residents in The Glades in the coming months to identify needs. He stressed that most changes to Lakeside will be gradual. 'It's going to take us two to three years to get to where we believe we can get Lakeside to,' Couris told the nearly 200 people who attended an April 28 forum at Palm Beach State College's Belle Glade campus. 'It's going to take some patience. It's going to take grace. ... We don't want to build something that doesn't reflect your community's need.' Couris said the primary goal will be to reduce the need for residents to travel outside of The Glades for basic medical services. 'We believe that every single Floridian has a right to access world class healthcare in the communities that they live in,' he said. 'This is about creating an environment and a set of services and programs where people can access those services right here at home. You don't need to be transferred out. That's critically important.' As a part of the agreement, Tampa General appointed Ron Doncaster to be Lakeside Medical Center's business operations and integration vice president. 'We are not a nightclub': Hispanic restaurants in Greenacres fight new rules on music, dance Palm Beach County's only public hospital, Lakeside is a rural teaching hospital with 70 private patient rooms. It was built in 2009 and serves the rural communities near Lake Okeechobee, where about 40,000 people live and most of the population is middle- to low-income. In recent years, Tampa General has partnered with physician practice groups in Palm Beach County to create 18 medical offices stretching from Palm Beach Gardens to Delray Beach. It also has joined with Mass General Brigham, the teaching hospital system for Harvard Medical School, to build medical offices in Palm Beach Gardens. "Tampa General represents excellence on all fronts," said Darcy Davis, the Health Care District's president and CEO. "We really appreciate that they're going to be able to partner with us to bring more services to the Glades. It doesn't matter where you live. Everyone deserves the best care possible." $9.4 million in fines: Glenn Straub's Palm Beach Polo pays Wellington for damage to Big Blue Preserve During a question-and-answer session with the audience at the Dolly Hand Cultural Arts Center, a panel addressed a variety of issues, including whether there are any plans to reopen Lakeside's labor and delivery unit. The hospital announced in 2022 that it would close the unit due a declining number of births. The change left Palms West Hospital in Royal Palm Beach as the nearest medical outlet for expectant mothers. Davis said reopening the Lakeside unit will be considered and would largely depend on whether there is an increased need. 'Everything is on the table in terms of what we are looking at and of where we want to go,' she said. Couris addressed a question about whether the changes could include a reduction in the number of staffers at the hospital. 'We're not here to cut," he said. 'We're here to grow. We're here to expand. We're here to build. What we need is investment in these communities." Sign up for our Post on Wellington weekly newsletter, delivered every Thursday! Julius Whigham II is a criminal justice and public safety reporter for The Palm Beach Post. You can reach him at jwhigham@ and follow him on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, at @JuliusWhigham. Help support our work: Subscribe today. This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Tampa General to run Lakeside Medical Center, the hospital in the Glades
