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Tampa General Hospital Recognized on Becker’s List of Hospitals and Health Systems with Great Simulation and Education Programs for 2023

Published: Nov 29, 2023

Tampa, FL (Nov. 29, 2023) – Tampa General Hospital (TGH) today announced it has been named to Becker’s Hospital Review’s list of “34 Hospitals and Health Systems with Great Simulation and Education Programs” for 2023. With this recognition, Tampa General is among the nation’s 34 leading academic health systems providing innovative education programs to train the next generation of health providers, and one of only three in Florida included on the list.

 

As one of the leading academic health systems in Florida, Tampa General Hospital leverages its academic partnership with the University of South Florida to teach and train the next generation of health care professionals. In addition to in-situ simulation-based training conducted within Tampa General Hospital, a significant portion of this ongoing training is delivered through simulation programs at the USF Health Center for Advanced Medical Learning and Simulation (CAMLS).

“Our simulation programs with USF Health CAMLS are some of the best examples of how our academic partnership with the University of South Florida strengthens our health system and, by extension, our team members, students and affiliated physicians,” said John Couris, president and CEO of Tampa General. “Because of this, we are able to offer world-class training powered by some of the most cutting-edge technology available and led by renowned clinicians, which is making a positive impact on the quality of care we deliver every day.”

USF Health CAMLS was established in 2012 and encompasses 90,000 square feet and three stories in downtown Tampa, providing advanced simulation-based training and research for health care professionals and students. The facility is led by Dr. Haru Okuda, CEO and executive director of USF Health CAMLS, professor in the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine, and associate vice president for the Office of Interprofessional Education and Practice at USF Health. Okuda is one of the foremost health care simulation experts in the world, serving as the immediate past president of the Society for Simulation in Healthcare, and having co-authored the definitive textbook on health care simulation, as well as having built the simulation centers for the New York City public hospital system and the National Simulation Center for the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs.

“I became passionate about the use of simulation-based education to improve patient safety and learner experience through my own experience and frustrations with the traditional model of training over 20 years ago as an emergency physician,” Okuda said. “I am proud to have USF Health CAMLS recognized for the way we partner with Tampa General because simulation is not only a valuable tool to train our future workforce, but also critical to improving the skills and interprofessional teamwork of practicing health care professionals, including physicians, nurses and allied health professionals, to provide safer care. In my opinion, if your hospital or health care system is not utilizing simulation to train health care teams, they are putting patients at risk.”

In partnership with USF Health CAMLS, Tampa General trains nurses, physicians and support staff — as well as future simulation instructors — on various evidence-based clinical best practices, including for neonatal resuscitation and newborn care, Code Blue protocols skin preparation, Foley catheter insertion and removal, and more. USF Health CAMLS was a critical member of the team that led to Tampa General’s successful outcomes during COVID-19, training more than 500 health professionals on safe airway and resuscitation skills in 2020.

USF Health CAMLS supports Tampa General’s training of approximately 100 incoming medical residents annually in central line placement, ensuring the incoming cohort of interns are confident and competent in performing these skills and, in turn, improving patient safety systemwide. The academic health system also provides simulation training to medical residents by specialty, including emergency medicine, neurology, neurosurgery, obstetrics and gynecology, ear/nose/throat, pediatrics, plastic surgery, rehabilitation, pulmonary, surgery and vascular care.

“Our team takes great pride in serving as the leading academic health system in the region and in training the next generation of health care providers using innovative techniques,” said Dr. Charles J. Lockwood, executive vice president of USF Health and dean of the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine. “The practice of medicine and delivery of patient care are evolving and improving every day, and we are proud to offer a training program that proactively prepares for that evolution.” Lockwood also is executive vice president and chief academic officer at Tampa General.

Tampa General recently enhanced its simulation education programs through USF Health CAMLS’s research on the use of virtual reality to remotely train medical students’ and residents’ emergency airway skills as well as delivery techniques to reduce maternal mortality. The research was funded through an NIH SBIR partnering with a Tampa-based startup company, Immertec. Led by Shannon Bailey, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Medical Education in the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine, USF Health CAMLS continues to collaborate with Tampa General Hospital’s clinical experts to investigate future uses of emerging technology for health care education and training, including artificial intelligence and augmented reality. 

 

The most recent technology being researched and incorporated into training at USF Health CAMLS will be one of the first commercial, off-the-shelf devices for haptic technology in medical education, which allows learners to more deeply and realistically engage with the physical environment in their virtual simulation-based training environments. For example, if the learner is holding a scalpel in the virtual world or metaverse, they can feel the weight of the scalpel in their hands. Additionally, through USF Health CAMLS, Tampa General’s simulation education programs have access to innovative and technologically advanced manikins, which breathe, blink and produce vital signs; learners can also insert IVs into them and shock them with defibrillators. The facility’s most advanced manikins can also breathe in oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide and can be integrated with virtual and augmented reality training simulation programs.

 

This latest recognition for Tampa General follows several recent national accolades for the academic health system, including:

 

Becker’s Hospital Review is a leading source of hospital business news and analysis for the health care industry. Tampa General and USF Health CAMLS, and the remainder of this year’s honorees are profiled online here.