When I first volunteered to write a post for one of our program days, I figured I would write about something I did not know too much about, so that I would not have any sort of preconceived notions coming into my writing. My assumption was that we would focus on several types of medicine - but admittedly, I was not expecting the focus on mental health. Frankly, I am glad the program did just that. My previous experience with mental health issues was of the veteran flavor - PTSD, TBI's, etc. Seeing how mental health is pervasive across all levels of society was a revelation for me. Special thanks to our first round of presenters, Carrie Zeisse from Tampa Bay Thrives. She talked about the effects of the pandemic and barriers to access for treatments. After that, Gail Ryder from St. Joseph's succinctly put mental health into 3 buckets: Big Daddy's, Mood Disorders and Anxiety/Addictions. These straightforward divisions clarified much of what I considered to be a confusing topic overall and will help me at work as well as in my endeavors to raise teenagers currently. Finally, she explained that medicines are the biggest difference maker in mental health treatment - but at the end of the day, it is not about a cure - it is about learning to live with it through medicine and therapy.
After taking a tour of the St. Joseph's North facility, we headed to TGH on Davis Island for lunch and a deep dive into their innovative thinking and what is to come. With an intro by the highly esteemed Robin DeLaVergne, the EVP, and Chief Ambulatory Officer of TGH, Adam Smith, started us out with some interesting stats - we have the highest healthcare costs in the world at $13k per year, per capita - debatable whether we as Americans are getting our money's worth there. Of that, 50% of the total cost stems from only 5% of the population. So TGH has an effort called 'Hospital at Home', led by the very energetic Dr. Peter Chang, which focuses on coordinated health care vice transactional care. Coordinated care is a more holistic, proactive approach whereby caregivers can perform their jobs at patients’ homes, saving hospital costs for the patient and offering a variety for the medical staff. A win all around!
Dr. Peter Chang, TGH, gives an overview of their ‘Hospital at Home’ innovation.
Finally, we closed our time at TGH with a visit to the helipad to get an up-to-close look at the helicopter fleet and get first-hand knowledge from the pilots!
Our last portion of the day was at the USF Morsani College of Medicine and Heart Institute in downtown Tampa. This was a very hands on portion, where we got to try our hand at checking blood pressures & heartbeats with stethoscopes, as well as using sonograms under the tutelage of final year medical students - I think I can speak for all of the class when I say it was all much harder than it looked, and we'll all have a new perspective when going to our own doctor appointments!
Nicole Travis, Mike Smith & Curtis Delaquil try their hand at sonograms while under the tutelage of a USF Morsani student.
Overall, the Healthcare program day was filled with unique insights and amazing people - par for the course for Leadership Tampa!