acuity-adaptable rooms Archives | Florida Medical Office Space

The city’s oldest and largest hospital, Bayfront Health St. Petersburg, is set to be sold to nonprofit health care company Orlando Health, pending a vote by the City Council on July 9.

Community Health Systems Inc., the private company which currently owns the 480-bed facility, announced it had signed an agreement with Orlando Health on Thursday. The news comes about a year after city officials raised concerns about the management of the hospital, which sits on city-owned land and provides care to all, regardless of insurance status.

Orlando Health will take over operations and the long-term lease that Community Health Systems holds with the city, so long as council members approve next month, a news release said. A copy of the proposed lease obtained by the Tampa Bay Times shows it would run for 50 years.

The agreement states Orlando Health must continue to “provide charity care to needy and underserved persons” and “those who may otherwise be unable to afford or obtain care due to various possible adverse circumstances.”

City councilman Robert Blackmon, who was born at Bayfront St. Petersburg, said Friday that continuing the charity care was a “sticking point” in negotiations with Orlando Health. He said he will support the agreement, as did councilwoman Darden Rice.

After a one-on-one conversation with the company’s president and CEO David Strong a couple of months ago, Blackmon said he is confident charity care will continue at the hospital — and be even better under new management.

He pointed to a string of troubles at Bayfront under Community Health Systems, which purchased it in 2013. The hospital has seen layoffs and resignations of top executives, the ending of a partnership with the University of South Florida, and a Department of Justice investigation related to charity care finances in recent years.

Already frustrated, city officials grew more so in early 2019, when then-Bayfront CEO Joe Mullany gave council members a glowing annual report that did not align with problems playing out in public view.

“We’ve had difficult times in the last few years,” Blackmon said. “Orlando Health is the best-situated group to bring (Bayfront) back to the excellence it was once known for.”

Rice called the sale the “only reasonable solution” to the ongoing issues at the hospital.

“Ultimately, the new ownership is what is best for our community,” she said.

The city’s other six council members did not respond to requests for comment Friday. Mayor Rick Kriseman was not available for an interview.

About 15,000 patients were served at Bayfront St. Petersburg in 2018, according to hospital records. As of July 2019, the hospital employed 1,839 people and had 171 open positions.

Officials for Orlando Health declined to be interviewed, instead releasing a statement that said the sale should be final by Sept. 30.

Peter Young, a hospital consultant based in Fort Myers, said Orlando Health, which operates the only Level 1 trauma center in the Orlando area, is in an “expansion moment” of “picking up the skeletal remains” of hospitals in need of rejuvenation.

The purchase of Bayfront St. Petersburg would be the nonprofit’s debut in the Tampa Bay area, and make it so the nonprofit owns 14 total hospitals, according to the Orlando Sentinel. The sale also would mark the second Community Health Systems hospital acquired by Orlando Health, as it purchased Osceola County’s St. Cloud Regional Medical Center in April, the Sentinel reported.

Community Health Systems, based in Tennessee, has sold more than 50 hospitals since 2017 to pay off debt related to its $7.6 billion purchase of Florida’s Health Managed Associates in 2014, according to the National Business Journal.

Bayfront officials declined to be interviewed, and the company released a statement by Sharon Hayes, chief executive officer of the St. Petersburg hospital:

“Orlando Health is well-respected for their work to sustain and enhance medical services, and we are excited to partner with them to benefit our patients and communities,” she wrote. “This is an extraordinary time in health care and together we will continue to provide quality care for our neighbors, friends and family.”

Source: Tampa Bay Times

ECRI Institute has revealed its annual “Top 10 Hospital C-Suite Watch List,” which seeks to provide healthcare leaders with information on emerging innovations.

Here are the ideas, technologies and devices that made this year’s report.

An app for addiction. Pear Therapeutics’ FDA-approved reSET app topped the list. Intended to be used with outpatient therapy, it’s aimed at treating substance use disorders spanning alcohol, cocaine, marijuana and stimulants.

Direct-to-consumer genetic testing. DTC genetic tests will have an impact on how hospitals and health systems interact with patients. But as the report notes, “the exact role of DTC genetic tests in healthcare is still evolving and may vary by the information that individual tests collect.”

Acuity-adaptable rooms. As healthcare becomes more and more patient-centric, hospitals have been experimenting with a model in which they keep a patient in the same room from admission to discharge, no matter their acuity level. Challenges of this model include staffing and workflow issues.

An insertable cardiac monitor. Abbott Laboratories’ Confirm Rx Insertable Cardiac Monitor is an implantable cardiac monitor. It connects to a patient’s smartphone via Bluetooth and transmits information to the physician.

VR for pediatric patients. Numerous companies and hospitals have been developing virtual reality software to help kids be comforted in healthcare-related situations, such as repeated needle injections. However, experts have cautioned against overhyping the capabilities of VR.

A non-invasive device for treating Alzheimer’s. Neuronix’s NeuroAD Therapy System reportedly combines non-invasive transcranial magnetic stimulation with computer-based cognitive training to treat Alzheimer’s disease. It is CE-marked in Europe, but has not received FDA approval.

A device that reportedly makes blood draws less painful. Seventh Sense Biosystems created the TAP microneedle blood collection device. Cleared by the FDA, it adheres to a patient’s skin and uses 30 microneedles and a vacuum to collect blood. Seventh Sense claims the process is “nearly painless.” The downside is that blood samples currently have to be tested within six hours of collection.

A neonatal MRI system. The FDA-cleared Embrace Neonatal MRI System is for imaging of the neonatal brain and head. One limitation of the device is contraindications for babies that weigh more than 9.9 pounds or have a head circumference greater than 15 inches.

Radiation therapy for fighting brain tumors. GT Medical Technologies’ GammaTile Radiation Therapy System is “an investigational approach intended to enable intraoperatively delivered brachytherapy for brain tumors that standardizes seed placement, improves dose targeting and delivery and decreases the risk of seek migration.” It has not yet received FDA approval.

Microhospitals. In an effort to meet needs in fast-growing areas, some health systems are experimenting with the idea of microhospitals, which typically include 15,000 to 25,000 square feet of space. Usually, the scalable structures provide surgery, pharmacy, imaging, diagnostic services and occasionally labor and delivery.

Tag Archive for: acuity-adaptable rooms

Bayfront Health St. Petersburg To Be Sold To Orlando Health