Perspectives: Innovation

( ) there was an enormous spike in Medicaid enrollment applications, a 16.5% increase over the year before. The agency charged with vetting these quickly became swamped just as application reviews were put on hold as a result of the health emergency. To assist with the influx of applicants, the state staffed call centers. The federal government, too, helped through its Families First Coronavirus Response Act, passed in March 2020, and designed to help states access Medicaid money (which for Florida meant $1.2 billion extra in federal dollars). Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis found his willingness to work with the federal government tested after power in the executive branch transferred from the Republican Donald Trump to the Democrat Joe Biden. DeSantis, along with a slew of Republican governors nationwide, have shown hesitancy in accepting the Biden administration’s move to expand Medicaid.

Health infrastructure Locally, the Tampa Bay healthcare sector has a sizable infrastructure and vast resources to offer patients. The region’s largest hospital, Tampa General Hospital, can boast 1,007 licensed beds, $1.31 billion in net operating revenue and 7,548 employees. Not far behind is St. Joseph’s (897 beds, $1.34 billion, 5,839 employees), and in third is Lakeland Regional Medical Center (864, $723.33 million, 4,219).

The numbers on Tampa Bay’s physician groups are similarly impressive: the region’s largest, BayCare Medical Group, has 776 physicians; this is followed in second by Moffitt Medical Group (637 physicians) and then USF Health (428). The state’s largest managed care providers are all headquartered in Tampa and include, at the top, WellCare of Florida Inc. with 1.13 million enrollees statewide, followed by Humana Inc. (with 985,205 enrollees), and then Health Options Inc. (830,159).

In a further sign of growth for the sector, throughout the pandemic, the construction of new medical buildings continued apace in the Tampa Bay region. In September 2020, St. Joseph’s Hospital completed a four-year, $126 million expansion that saw an added 90 private rooms as well as a pedestrian bridge. Even with this huge amount of work, the hospital was able to expedite its opening in order to accommodate the influx in COVID-19 patients. In other news, AdventHealth announced plans to invest $400 million in its West Florida division. This includes $220 million spent on a hospital in Hillsborough County with 80 beds and 100,000 square feet of medical office space. Elsewhere, Tampa Memorial Hospital (owned by HCA) will be investing $19.5 million to expand and consolidate into what will be the Tampa Community

Steven Achinger

Managing Partner – Watson Clinic Early on, it was noted that there were some people with some fairly significant symptoms that lingered following COVID-19 infection. Our assumption is that there will be more clinics sprouting up out of the need to cater to the lasting effects of the virus. We’re seeing decent demand for that service.

Dave Rich

Founder & CEO – Ensurem One of the changes within the federal scope was a long time coming and should have happened sooner, which is telehealth for seniors. That is a critical component that aids in unlocking physician access to people in nursing homes.

David Whitney

Chief Innovation Officer & Partner – Health Innovation Partners Telehealth is the new normal in healthcare for 2021 and beyond. Providers, payers, and patients have embraced the future that telemedicine and telecare represent.

Hospital, which will notably feature the most advanced adult behavioral health program in the county.

Finally, AdventHealth’s Taneja Center for Innovative Surgery is slated to open in fall 2021. At the hefty price tag of $256 million, it will be the largest surgical tower in Tampa. These three projects are only a fraction of the medical construction occurring in the region at the moment.

Telehealth In a mirroring of society’s movement toward remote work, one of the major new trends in healthcare has been the rise of telehealth, or the use of video conferencing and mobile applications to address health problems. The use of this relatively recent technology has helped to replace many in-person consultations, quotidian check-ups, or at-home visits.

The benefits of this technology as the pandemic spread — the first time when its adoption became economically viable — are obvious. Not only were hospitals overloaded at the height of the pandemic, with severe stress placed on a doctor’s time, but clinics were also closed and people were strongly encouraged to stay at home. After all, a hospital waiting room is not a good place to be during a pandemic. Telehealth

Krishna Nallamshetty, MD

President – Radiology Associates of Florida

The main challenge we face is the psychology of going from this extreme to returning to a new normalcy. Many people are comfortable going back to normal but that does not mean everyone is. This last year has really opened our eyes to doing things differently from what we’ve done for years. I don’t think we will return to exactly the way we worked pre-COVID-19. Rather, we will continue to embrace and incorporate the technology we gained into a new normal workflow. Technology in healthcare has always lagged compared to other industries. Being forced to use telemedicine made people realize its benefits and potential. That only makes access to healthcare greater and improves the patient experience.

The pandemic solidified the accessibility and adoption of telehealth platforms across the sector, a fairly new development prior to the onset of the pandemic. was the great equalizer that allowed doctor “visits” to continue, and its benefits are still evident more than a year into the pandemic.

Another added benefit of telehealth is that it can make seeking treatment a more benign experience for marginalized communities. There has been a efflorescence of telehealth services for the LGBTQIA+ community, Black and brown communities, women, and many others.

Still, with all of this development and innovation, the consensus among doctors is that telehealth is a way to augment traditional medical practices, not to replace it altogether.

Companies and groups in Tampa also have positioned themselves to take advantage of trending innovation. In March 2021, it was announced that Tampa General Hospital would be partnering with TytoCare to create the first AI powered, at-home telehealth kit. The TGH Virtual Health Kit, as it is known, will be able to administer ondemand virtual medical examinations. The kit includes a high-resolution camera, a thermometer, an otoscope for ears, a stethoscope for heart and lungs and a tongue compressor for the throat.

Elsewhere in the region, telehealth has been applied to solve problems inherent in mental health treatment. There was a spike in mental health distress calls over the pandemic, and to help alleviate the situation, the Pinellas County nonprofit Directions for Living created TRACE, a telehealth program that offers mental healthrelated crisis evaluation. It has since been adopted successfully by the Belleair Police Department.