Baptist Health
Baptist Health has created a simplified way to access the health system with the Baptist Access smartphone app.
Features include help finding where a car is parked in the hospital parking garage; determining wait times in the emergency room; billing information; and securely accessing medical records.
Baptist Access and Baptist Health’s other digital initiatives were recently recognized by the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society for improving patient engagement and enhancing the delivery of high-quality health care.
Enhancing efficiency in the operating room
Baptist Health is collaborating on the development of the AITA Smart System, an intelligent inventory management system that serves as a central repository for surgical products and instruments.
The system creates a daily pick list of surgical products and tracks their usage in each operating room. The platform is currently used to keep track of hundreds of types of sutures and Baptist is underway with a beta test that extends AITA’s use to other surgical tools.
The system reduces waste, autonomously orders, recommends optimizations and enhances overall efficiency in the operating room.
HCA Florida Orange Park
Baptist Health
HCA Florida Orange Park Hospital and Baptist Health are using Pulsed Field Ablation, a new treatment for atrial fibrillation, known A-fib.
This technology offers patients a minimally invasive alternative to traditional therapies. A-fib is a common heart rhythm disorder affecting millions of Americans, characterized by irregular and often rapid heartbeats.
If left untreated, A-fib can lead to serious complications such as stroke, heart failure and other cardiovascular issues.
PFA targets and eliminates abnormal heart tissue responsible for triggering irregular electrical impulses.
Unlike conventional catheter ablation techniques that use heat or cold to destroy tissue, PFA delivers nonthermal energy in the form of pulsed electric fields.
The approach is designed to improve the procedural efficacy while potentially reducing the risk of complications and shortening recovery times for patients.
Patients also spend less time under general anesthesia because the outpatient procedure can be up to 60 minutes quicker than conventional ablation procedures.
UF Health Jacksonville
The UF Health Jacksonville Leon L. Haley Jr., MD, Brain Wellness program serves military veterans and first responders suffering from a multitude of conditions.
It is an interdisciplinary treatment program for those experiencing persistent health issues associated with mild to moderate traumatic brain injuries, along with associated behavioral health issues, such as post-traumatic stress, anxiety, depression and substance use.
For veterans, injuries do not have to be combat-related, and military discharge is not a factor for eligibility.
The Haley Brain Wellness Center, named in honor of the late UF Health Jacksonville CEO Leon L. Haley Jr., reached a milestone of caring for 100 patients who have successfully graduated from the program.
Treatment blends traditional modalities of care — including neurology, neuropsychology, speech and physical therapies — with nontraditional, such as art and equine therapies, acupuncture, mindfulness, tai chi and yoga.
The program works under the guidance of the UF Health Neuroscience Institute, which recently received a 2024 American Heart Association Quality Achievement Award for its commitment to providing high-quality stroke care. This is the first time the hospital has received the award.
UF Health Jacksonville will soon be offering a Mobile Stroke Treatment Unit in Northeast Florida.
The unit is designed to provide immediate care and will decrease the time it takes to make an accurate stroke diagnosis and administer time-sensitive stroke therapy.
The treatment unit is a combination of equipment and resources, including a diagnostic CT scanner, clot-busting drugs, medications given through IVs, medications to reverse the effects of bleeding inside the brain, and telemedicine equipment to transmit results to neuroscience providers immediately.
The process starts with a suspected stroke, and both emergency medical services and the Mobile Stroke Treatment Unit can be dispatched simultaneously.
The stroke team will conduct a neurological evaluation, and if the results are consistent with a stroke, treatment will begin immediately. By deploying to the patient, the team can begin that treatment while in transit to the nearest available stroke center, saving critical moments.
The MSTU is expected to begin service in Northeast Florida in spring 2025.
Mayo Clinic in Florida
Mayo Clinic’s campus in Jacksonville is constructing a 225,000-square-foot integrated oncology building that will house the first carbon ion therapy treatment available in the Western Hemisphere.
Carbon ion therapy belongs to a family of heavy particle therapies that include protons, helium and other ions. Carbon ions have a mass of 12 times the weight and size of proton ions and are much more destructive to cancer cells and tumors, but will not damage the surrounding tissue.
The carbon ion therapy facility is expected to be available in 2027.
CAR-T cell therapy innovations
Mayo Clinic was one of the first centers that treated patients as part of the clinical trial that led to the approval of CAR-T cell therapy, which uses the power of the immune system to fight cancer.
It involves modifying immune cells and training them to attack the cancer cells in the body. CAR-T cell therapy is used to treat conditions that include specific types of lymphomas and leukemias, as well as multiple myeloma.
With CAR-T cell therapy, about 70% to 80% of people with lymphoma experience remission, meaning their symptoms of cancer are reduced or gone.
Mayo Clinic is performing heart transplants using a new innovative perfusion system known as “heart in a box,” which is giving hope to thousands of people in need of heart transplants.
Traditionally, donor hearts were retrieved from patients who were declared brain dead, but their hearts remained beating. “Heart in a box” allows for donation after circulatory death when the heart has stopped beating.
The new system is expected to widen the donor pool while getting more donor hearts to more recipients. Until now, a donated heart had to be put on ice in a cooler for transport. The transplant team only had about four hours to get the heart to the recipient.
With the new system, instead of keeping the heart cold, the heart is resuscitated and placed in a portable box that keeps it warm in a metabolically active state.
Experts say the system also increases the window of transport by up to 12 hours, widening the pool of donors.