This is the eighth installment of a blog series we’re calling “Sarasota Sizzle.” What’s “sizzle,” you ask? The Blink;Tech team’s definition of “sizzle” is what happens at the local intersection of creativity, technology, and entrepreneurship. The more we look around us in Sarasota, the more we discover people, businesses, projects, and initiatives that “sizzle.” And when something sizzles, it’s too good not to share.
If we’re talking about creating a stronger and healthier community by upping our technological game, we have some great inspiration in the Sarasota Memorial Health Care System and the advances being made in what started out as a six-bed facility in 1925. Now with well over 800 beds and just as many physicians, Sarasota Memorial is the second-largest employer in Sarasota County, the second-largest acute care public hospital in Florida, and among the 20 largest public hospitals in the world. Due to its ability to blaze technological trails and expand research, U.S. News & World Report has called Sarasota Memorial one of the nation’s 50 best hospitals two years in a row.
As one of the first non-academic hospitals in the country to develop clinical research in the areas of lung disease, vascular disease, cardiology, and geriatric medicine, Sarasota Memorial is also a forerunner in robotic surgery. Now boasting four robots and a team of 22 surgeons trained in their use, the hospital leads the nation in minimally invasive cardiac procedures. As part of the most experienced robotic surgery program in southwest Florida, Sarasota Memorial surgeons are enhancing a number of procedures including coronary artery bypasses, mitral and tricuspid valve repairs, lobectomies, and a number of other cardiac and thoracic procedures.
In its hybrid cardiac catheterization lab/surgical “iSuite,” Sarasota Memorial has created a sort of “one-stop-shop” for cardiac surgery, vascular surgery, and interventional cardiology. The versatility of the operating suite allows patients to avoid multiple procedures on different days. Various surgeries can happen simultaneously, which cuts down on recovery time and prevents patients from being shuttled to room after room. With high-definition digital cameras and voice-activated surgical equipment, the state-of-the-art iSuite’s four “iORs” give surgeons real-time electronic medical records and two-way videoconferencing, making Sarasota Memorial’s the most technologically advanced hospital in the region.
Sarasota Memorial was also the first hospital to implement the Voalte One application, which empowers nursing staff to better care for their patients through smartphone technology. Launched by Sarasota start-up Voalte in 2009, the application is designed to cut down on the inordinate amount of time that nurses find themselves transmitting, locating, and coordinating information on a day-to-day basis. According to Wikipedia, Voalte smartphones are now installed in 150 hospitals around the country. This level of innovation enabled Sarasota Memorial to guarantee short wait times when they opened a new emergency room a few years ago.
By empowering its nursing staff, Sarasota Memorial has also been recognized as a Magnet hospital by the American Nurses Credentialing Center on more than one occasion. Fewer than 400 hospitals in the world have received the distinction, and Sarasota Memorial ranks in the 1% of hospitals to receive it 3 times. Although the hospital’s 1,200 nurses helped earn the distinction, Sarasota Memorial also employs almost another 3,000 Sarasota residents and has 1,000 volunteers devoted to patient care, which contributed to Forbes magazine calling it one of “America’s Safest Hospitals.”
For the most part, none of us are eager to take advantage of Sarasota Memorial’s cutting-edge services. That said, we feel extremely fortunate that the Sarasota Memorial Health Care System is right there when we need them, always fully prepared to come to our aid with the latest and greatest in medical technology.
At Blink;Tech, we synthesize cutting-edge web development with creative Internet marketing strategies to help businesses of all sizes and industries succeed on the web. Talk to us today about how we can make your business, project, or idea sizzle.
