ORLANDO || GRAND ROUNDS
AdventHealth Breaks Ground on New Offsite Emergency Room in Marion County The AdventHealth West Florida Division announced plans to open a new offsite emergency room (ER) in Marion County. The new ER will provide more access to health care services in the growing communities of Belleview and The Villages. Construction has started on a $18 million, 13,000 square-foot, 12-bed facility that will be located at 5934 US 441, Belleview, FL 34420. The location will be a full-service ER, and will be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week for patients and EMS paramedic teams. AdventHealth Belleview ER will be staffed with board certified emergency medicine physicians as well as nurses who specialize in emergency care for adults and children. The ER will also offer state of the art, on-site diagnostic imaging services including x-ray, ultrasound, CT scans and onsite laboratory
AdventHealth Ocala Awarded a 'B' from Leapfrog 2020 AdventHealth Ocala was awarded a ‘B’ in the fall 2020 Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade, a national distinction recognizing AdventHealth Ocala’s achievements protecting patients from harm and providing safer health care. The Leapfrog Group is an independent national watchdog organization committed to health care quality and safety. The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade uses up to 27 measures of publicly available hospital safety data to assign grades to more than 2,600 U.S. acute-care hospitals twice per year. The Hospital Safety Grade’s methodology is peer-reviewed and fully transparent, and the results are available to the public. “How we care for our community makes a difference and the scores will reflect that,” said Patricia Price, Interim Chief Nursing Officer of AdventHealth Ocala. “We are continuing to implement key strategies to improve patient safety, reduce infections and create a culture of safety to make sure we are providing the best care possible to every patient, every time. Thanks to our dedicated administrators and care team members, we can continue to create a high quality, safe environment for anyone needing our care.” The Safety Grade assigns an ‘A’, ‘B’, ‘C’, ‘D’ or ‘F’ grade to all general hospitals across the country and is updated every six months. It is based on a hospital’s performance in preventing medical errors, injuries, accidents, infections and other harms to patients in their care.
services so patients can receive real-time results, enabling better diagnosis and treatment. “The addition of AdventHealth Belleview ER is a testament to our commitment to expand and elevate the quality of the care in the communities we serve,” said Joe Johnson, President and CEO of AdventHealth Ocala. “This new emergency room will provide more convenient access for families to receive the best emergency care when they need it most.” AdventHealth Belleview is slated to open Fall 2021. The construction and opening of the ER is expected to provide more than 100 jobs in Marion County. This will be the second offsite emergency in Marion County. AdventHealth West Florida Division also operates AdventHealth TimberRidge ER in Ocala.
AIM ImmunoTech's Drug Ampligen Awarded Orphan Drug Designation for the Treatment of Pancreatic Cancer OCALA — AIM ImmunoTech Inc. (NYSE American: AIM), an immuno-pharma company focused on the research and development of therapeutics to treat immune disorders, viral diseases and multiple types of cancers, announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on December 17, 2020 granted Orphan Drug Designation status to AIM’s drug Ampligen (rintatolimod) for the treatment of pancreatic cancer. The Orphan Drug Designation program provides orphan status to drugs and biologics which are defined as those intended for the treatment, prevention or diagnosis of a rare disease or condition, which is one that affects less than 200,000 persons in the United States or meets cost
recovery provisions of the act. The status helps incentivize the treatment of therapies to treat unmet medical needs by providing a company with seven years of exclusivity rights once a drug reaches market. Pancreatic cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States and the only cancer, among those most commonly diagnosed, with a five-year survival rate at just six percent, according to the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network. AIM recently announced receipt of statistically significant positive pancreatic cancer survival results from a multi-year Early Access Program conducted at Erasmus University Medical Center in the Netherlands. The
median overall survival was approximately two-fold higher – that is 200% – in the Ampligen arm, as compared to a historical control cohort matched for age, gender, stage of disease and number of cycles of Folfirinox therapy. “This study data demonstrates that Ampligen has the potential to extend the survival rates of people suffering with pancreatic cancer significantly when compared to the traditional standard of care for this deadly disease,” said AIM CEO Thomas K. Equels. AIM ImmunoTech Inc. is an immuno-pharma company focused on the research and development of therapeutics to treat multiple types of cancers, immune disorders, and viral diseases, including COVID-19, the disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
ORMC Named Top 50 Cardiovascular Hospital “Cardiovascular services is a foundational service at Ocala Health and this recognition reflects our continued commitment to deliver the highest quality of care for the cardiovascular patients in the communities we serve,” says Chad Christianson, CEO, Ocala Health. “In the coming weeks, Ocala Regional Medical Center will be opening a cardiovascular unit that includes 34 inpatient beds dedicated to Cardiac ICU services and Ocala Health will also be celebrating the addition of a cardiac cath recovery space and new cath lab at West Marion Community Hospital. As being named the only top 50 cardiovascular hospital in the region by Fortune and IBM Watson Health, this is further proof that these additional investments highlight the best in class service Ocala Health provides for our community’s cardiovascular patients. We look forward to continuing to invest in best in class facilities that complement the high quality service we provide.” This year's study included 980 U.S. hospitals with cardiovascular service lines. Based on comparisons between the study winners and a peer group of similar hospitals in the study, the winners delivered better outcomes while operating more efficiently and at a lower cost. Extrapolat-
OCALA, FL— Ocala Regional Medical Center was this week named as one of the nation’s top performing hospitals by Fortune and IBM® Watson Health®. The annual Fortune/IBM 50 Top Cardiovascular Hospitals study spotlights leading short-term, acute care, non-federal US hospitals that treat a broad spectrum of cardiology patients. The study is designed to identify impartial, actionable, and attainable benchmarks for hospital and clinical leaders as they work to raise their own organizations’ standards of performance in cardiac care. “This achievement is a demonstration of the patientfocused approach adopted by our multi-disciplinary team in the care of patients and families in need of heart surgery. We are motivated to continue the pursuit of excellence on behalf of our patients,” says Omeni Osian, MD, Cardiothoracic Surgery Medical Director, Ocala Health. Paul Urban, MD, FACC, Medical Director Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory and Chest Pain Center at Ocala Health says, “We are very proud to be recognized as a 50 Top Cardiovascular Hospital. This award demonstrates our continued commitment to providing the highest quality care for patients with heart attack, heart failure and coronary stenting procedures.”
16
||
ORLANDOMEDICALNEWS.COM
||
ing the results of this year's study, if all Medicare inpatients received the same level of care as those treated in the award-winning facilities: • More than 7,000 additional lives could be saved • More than 5,000 heart patients could be complication-free • More than $1.6 billion in inpatient costs could be saved
“With more than 120 million American adults living with some form of cardiovascular disease, cardiovascular services are among the most critical in healthcare,” said Ekta Punwani, 100 Top Hospitals Program Lead, IBM Watson Health. “Hospitals are constantly working to improve clinical and operational performance, and the exceptional organizations on this list demonstrate the standard for top performing cardiac care. Their benchmarks serve as a real-world checkpoint for cardiovascular care across the U.S.” The annual report highlights the top-performing cardiovascular hospitals in the U.S. based on a balanced scorecard of publicly available clinical, operational, and patient satisfaction metrics and data.
JANUARY 2021
