Consortium announces location of conference on technology and nursing

Early-bird registration opens in time for holiday gifting

The Nursing Consortium of Florida has announced that its next conference Caring Connections; Discovering Magic at the Intersection of Technology and Nursing will take place at Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort in the Walt Disney World® Resort.  The two half-day conference will begin at noon on Friday the 28^th of June and conclude before noon the following day.  “Conference attendees can look forward to informative and thought provoking presentations by leading subject matter experts and value-packed resort offers at Central Florida’s most magical destination,” stated conference planning chair Vicki Caraway the VP and Chief Nursing Officer of Baptist Health Cancer Care.  “As Consortium membership has grown to include hospitals and schools of nursing along the Treasure Coast and on the Florida Gulf Coast, our Board decided that, beginning in 2024, one of our two yearly conferences should take place away from South Florida.  The Greater Orlando area offered many venues, but none that put together a better package of discounted offerings for our attendees.  In addition to a great conference, we will offer an extraordinary get-a-way value for those traveling to Orlando and locals alike,” added Consortium Executive Director Ralph Egües. Once registering early to attend the conference, attendees will be able to book a discounted hotel room and select from a range of specially-priced Theme Park tickets including partial-day tickets available only to those attending a conference at Walt Disney World®.  Consider gifting yourself a Consortium conference this holiday and your family or a friend a magical weekend.  Please click here to register at early bird rates and see the special travel packages available only to conference attendees and their accompanying families and friends!  

Nominate a hero for the 2024 Health Care Heroes Awards

Closing date: December 15

The Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce is inviting nominations for its 2024 Healthcare Heroes Awards. These annual Awards provide an extraordinary opportunity to honor the unsung heroes of the South Florida healthcare community. The "Health Care Heroes Application" is your chance to celebrate the exceptional contributions of individuals, institutions, professionals, students, volunteers, or programs that have left an indelible mark on the region's healthcare landscape. Those who should be nominated as a Health Care Hero include nurses who, through their individual or collective actions have made an extraordinary impact in the South Florida health care community. The nominee might be working in one of the following fields: bio- medical, community health, education, private practice, government, public service, or the news media. Their "acts of heroism" should display of dedication to excellence in their area of expertise beyond the scope of their jobs. Through their commitment to their profession and community, nominees inspire others to improve the quality of health care and discover new ways to assist those in need. Nominations must be received by 5:00 p.m. on December 15, 2023. Please click here to nominate your Health Care Hero.

Join the ranks of nursing education’s elite

The National League for Nursing Academy of Nursing Education fosters excellence in nursing education by recognizing and capitalizing on the wisdom of outstanding individuals in and outside the profession who have contributed to nursing education in sustained and significant ways. Fellows are expected to provide visionary leadership in nursing education and in the Academy, and to support the vision of the National League for Nursing. Academy of Nursing Education Fellows have made enduring and substantial contributions to nursing education as teachers, mentors, scholars, public policy advocates, practice partners, and administrators. Now is the time to join this community of fellows and help lead the way in transforming nursing education. Academy applications are open through February 16, 2024. Please click here to read more

IFDHE seeks interns and host sites for Summer Enrichment Program 

The Institute for Diversity and Health Equity (IFDHE) is seeking hospitals, health systems and other health care organizations to sign up to host one or more interns for the Institute for Diversity and Health Equity’s 2023 Summer Enrichment Program. The program begins the first week of June and runs through mid-August. The Summer Enrichment Program is an intensive 10-week, paid, full-time internship that provides diverse first- and second-year graduate students with training and mentoring from an experienced health care leader, as well as experiential learning and networking that exposes them to the inner workings of health care organizations and the field. Since its inception in 1994, more than 1,500 students have participated in the SEP, many of whom now hold senior leadership and board positions at organizations across the country. Application deadline: Feb. 2, 2024. For more information, visit the IFDHE website.

House subcommittee hearing explores AI use in health care

A hearing was held on November 29 by the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health to explore how medical devices and hospitals are using artificial intelligence and what Congress should consider as AI in health care evolves. Witness Michael Schlosser, M.D., senior vice president of care transformation and innovation for Consortium member HCA Healthcare told the subcommittee, “At HCA Healthcare, our commitment to integrating AI into healthcare is driven by a vision to enhance patient care and operational efficiency and effectiveness. Our initial use cases are largely focused on removing administrative burden from clinicians, providers, and leaders so we can return precious time to them, allowing them to focus on patients, critical decision making, and other high-risk activities like transitions of care.” Other witnesses included: Christopher Longhurst, M.D., chief medical and digital officer for UC San Diego Health; David Newman-Toker, M.D., director of the Armstrong Institute Center for Diagnostic Excellence at Johns Hopkins Medicine; and representatives from Transcarent and Siemens Healthineers. Please click here to read more.

Advisory on new ransomware threat: Rhysida Group targeting hospitals

The American Hospital Association has issued a joint Cybersecurity Advisory from the FBI Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center (MS-ISAC) warning about Rhysida, a ransomware-as-a-service group that has predominantly deployed its ransomware variant against the health care, education, manufacturing, information technology and government sectors. Hospitals and health systems are urged to lower their risk by prioritizing remediation of known vulnerabilities, segment their networks and enable multifactor authentication. When hospitals are attacked, lives are threatened,” said John Riggi, AHA’s national advisor for cybersecurity and risk. “Let's be clear: Ransomware attacks against hospitals are not financial crimes; they are acts of cyber terrorism and threat-to-life crimes. We encourage the U.S. government and our allies to continue to use their combined capabilities to respond as such, with offensive cyber operations against these cyber terrorists. We in health care need to do our part to defend against these attacks by following the recommended mitigation strategies and enhancing our resiliency against these attacks. Preparing clinical downtime procedures to sustain a loss of technology and communications for up to 30 days will assist in mitigating the impacts to patient care and safety.” Please click here to read more.

UNC Health reduces nurse turnover and saves $5.4 million

Like many health systems, UNC Health recently contended with the challenge of high turnover rates among its nurses. Realizing the need to take new approaches to address this, UNC Health partnered with Deloitte to develop an innovative new people strategy called UNC Health for Me. The initiative was designed to strengthen the health system as an employer of choice and boost employee retention. A key part of the initiative was deploying new technology to enhance support for frontline leaders. Specifically, UNC Health implemented Laudio’s leader operations platform, which empowers frontline leaders to work differently by automating key workflows, providing AI-driven insights to support proactive team member engagement, and freeing up more time for management best practices. Key results to-date have included reducing nurse turnover rate by almost 20% and generating annualized savings of $5.4 million. To learn more, access the recently published case study here.

UM Health System launches system-wide Aidoc AI technology to improve patient care

Consortium member UHealth—University of Miami Health System has announced the launch of a system-wide AI deployment across the organization’s facilities powered by Aidoc, a pioneer in artificial intelligence. The technology uses AI to identify suspected findings early in the

University of Miami Miller School of Medicine said, “By combining our physician expertise with Aidoc’s AI technology, our goal is to be able to provide even more timely and precise care to our patients, ultimately improving their overall health care experience. We intend to move AI up to the ‘point of care’ and even the ‘point of scan.”  UHealth will integrate Aidoc’s 13 FDA-cleared algorithms and pathway-optimized workflow technologies designed to identify a wide range of suspected acute abnormalities in patient scans. Aidoc’s platform, the aiOS™, flags these abnormalities and expedites the triaging process for physicians, then facilitates seamless coordination among cross-specialty medical teams. Collectively, these solutions help ensure patients receive timely and precise care when and where they need it most. Please click here to read more.

Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital expands services at Memorial Hospital Miramar’s Campus

In a significant move aimed at enhancing children’s healthcare services in the southwest Broward County, Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital has expanded its world-class specialty care at Memorial Hospital Miramar. This expansion includes a broader range of services, such as allergy and immunology, cardiology, complex gastroenterology, genetics, otolaryngology (ENT), physical medicine and rehabilitation. The expanded services have increased appointments and access to specialists. The Miramar location also offers children’s surgery three days a week. All specialties are housed within the newly built Medical Office Building on the second floor at Memorial Hospital Miramar. “The health and well-being of South Florida's children and families drives everything we do,” said Caitlin Stella, CEO of Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital. “As our community continues to grow so do the healthcare needs of children, and Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital is committed to bringing our specialized services close to home to families near Miramar and Miami-Dade County.” Please click here to read more. 

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Memorial Healthcare System among the best places to work

Be at the heart of exceptional care. Memorial Healthcare System is Great Place to Work^© Certified and we’re a Modern Healthcare “Best Places to Work in Healthcare” for 2023. As a forward-looking healthcare system, we invest in our nurses so they can grow, thrive, and build their careers with us. Memorial Healthcare System offers pre-licensure and post-licensure programs for nursing professionals to provide extensive support and hands-on clinical experience. In addition, the work environment offers a supportive team of clinical professionals and state-of-the-art equipment and technologies. We have low patient ratios, high patient satisfaction scores, and positive feedback from the community. You’ll be accepted, supported, and valued for who you are. Our rewards package offers competitive compensation, family-friendly healthcare benefits, and sign-on bonuses for eligible candidates in certain roles. Explore roles at an award-winning healthcare group and apply today at www.mhs.net 

Baptist Health and FIU join forces to elevate care, address doctor shortage and boost medical research

Consortium members Baptist Health, South Florida’s largest not-for-profit healthcare system, and Florida International University, South Florida’s public research university, have announced a collaboration that will expand physician training, research, and patient care for the benefit of the South Florida community. Under the new enhanced affiliation with FIU, Baptist Hospital is on track to become a statutory teaching hospital with expanded undergraduate and graduate medical education programs, clinical research, and patient care. Baptist Health President and CEO Bo Boulenger said, “This enhanced clinical and academic collaboration between Baptist Health and FIU’s Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine will be transformative in reshaping healthcare in the region. The designation as a statutory teaching hospital will launch Baptist Hospital into a pivotal role to attract the most highly specialized physicians to our Institutes, where they lead disease-curing research and clinical innovation to advance medical care in our community.” Please click here to read more.

Trinity Health uses new 3-person team approach to tackle care redesign

Michigan-based Trinity Health is taking a new team approach in redesigning care delivery inside the hospital, using a three-person model that includes nurses, nursing assistants, and virtual care technology. Chief nursing officer Gay Landstrom, RN, PhD, NEA-BC, FAONL, FACHE, FAAN for the Michigan-based health system with 101 hospitals in 27 states, says the model, piloted in the summer of 2022 and is now live in roughly 40 sites, addresses not only the growing shortage of skilled nurses but a need to reduce complicated workflows that negatively affect patient care and staff morale. Trinity’s three-person strategy is unique. The floor team consists of a nurse and either an LPN or CNA, with the former handling the nursing duties at the bedside and the latter doing tasks that don’t require an RN. The third team member, a veteran nurse, is in the telehealth center, monitoring patients and assisting the bedside team (as well as doctors) with documentation and consults. Landstrom says, “This is a fundamental change to how we [deliver] patient care.” Please click here to read more.

Providence reveals FHIR tool for seamless data transfer

Providence health system has created its own data exchange technology and tested it with a regional payer to ensure it meets HEDIS standards. The health system unveiled an HI 7 FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources) tool that enables seamless data exchange with payers. The Washington-based health system, which spans more than 50 hospitals in seven states, tested the technology earlier this year with Premera Blue Cross, one of the largest health plans in the Pacific Northwest. Officials say it was vetted by internal teams as well as HEDIS (Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set) auditors. With the tool, Providence pushes to the head of the pack in the nationwide quest for interoperability through national FHIR standards, alongside federal efforts to develop TEFCA (Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement). The goal is to create a national framework for the exchange of all data between healthcare organizations, health information exchanges, payers, consumers, and other stakeholders, eliminating silos, improving clinical and business operations, and moving the industry toward value-based care. Please click here to read more.

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