Tampa General Hospital Unites with Florida Hospitals to Share Data in the Fight Against COVID-19

Unprecedented collaboration benefits the people of Tampa Bay and Southwest Florida during the diagnosis, treatment and recovery stages of patients testing positive for the virus.

TAMPA, FL (April 30, 2020) Tampa General Hospital is partnering with SME Solutions Group, Inc. and other hospitals in Tampa Bay and Southwest Florida to share data across systems. This new collaborative allows health care systems that typically compete for market share to join forces and battle the COVID-19 pandemic together.

Through this partnership, interactive dashboards have been developed to aggregate data among 51 hospitals.  The dashboard, called the COVID-19 Florida West Coast Regional Data Exchange, is giving health care leaders a bird’s eye view with real-time data, so clinical teams in multiple locations can make the best decisions to help patients find care at the right time and in the right place. 

Tampa General Hospital is monitoring a dashboard that shows how many patients are being treated for COVID-19 at these 51 hospitals in Florida, including those in Tampa Bay and surrounding areas. The dashboard reflects critical information that includes highlighting the resources available at each hospital such as the number of available negative-pressure rooms, ICU rooms and ventilator counts.

“As we navigate day by day, through this public health crisis… this dashboard is critical in helping us potentially save lives. It gives us situational awareness of resources that are available across the region to take care of COVID-19 patients,” said Dr. Peter Chang, TGH vice president of care transitions. “It breaks down silos between competing hospitals for this collaborative community effort.”

The result is a powerful partnership between TGH, AdventHealth, BayCare Health System, HCA Healthcare, Lakeland Regional Health, and Manatee Memorial Hospital.

“Today more than ever, data integrity and data trust are of the utmost importance to ensure proper communication and to improve the speed of decision making.  At a time when the balance between speed and accuracy is crucial, making critical data readily available, accessible, and reliable to these hospitals is a must,” said Chris Moyer, President & CEO of SME.  

SME worked  closely with Tampa General and partnered with Qlik to donate and deploy Qlik Sense Enterprise software as part of the project. One of SME’s key roles in this project was to rapidly deploy a cloud environment allowing approved users to access the data while maintaining privacy and security protocols.

The dashboard shows the number of patients with COVID-19 and those without COVID-19, as well as which hospitals have the capacity to take in additional patients. Every hospital bed count differs, so this data is life-saving to see how many ICU beds are available simultaneously in the region.

This is not only helpful for hospital leaders, but also for emergency managers and state health officials who can make better decisions with a wide overview of how the region is responding to the pandemic. Among other metrics, the COVID-19 Regional Data Exchange:

• Tracks the number of “patients under investigation,” who may have COVID-19 but are awaiting test results;
• Tracks the number of available negative-pressure hospital rooms, ICU beds and ventilators; and
• Incorporates a forecasting model developed by IBM to anticipate COVID-19 patients in the ICU.

“Tampa General Hospital has a vision to become the safest and most innovative academic healthcare system in the country. We look for partners that can help us be creative in ways we’ve never thought imaginable. This data is helping us join forces as health care leaders and systems to fight this global pandemic affecting our entire world,” said TGH President and CEO John Couris.  “It’s a great use of technology, but even more than that, it’s a powerful tool of collaboration to benefit our community.”

ABOUT TAMPA GENERAL HOSPITAL
Tampa General Hospital, a 1007-bed non-profit academic medical center, delivers world-class care as the region’s only center for Level l trauma and comprehensive burn care. It is one of the nation’s busiest adult solid organ transplant centers and is the primary teaching hospital for the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine. With five medical helicopters, Tampa General Hospital transports critically injured or ill patients from 23 surrounding counties to receive the advanced care they need. Tampa General houses a nationally accredited comprehensive stroke center and its 32-bed Neuroscience Intensive Care Unit is the largest on the West Coast of Florida. It also is home to an 82-bed Level IV neonatal intensive care unit, and a nationally accredited rehabilitation center. Tampa General Hospital’s footprint includes 14 Tampa General Medical Group Primary Care offices, TGH Family Care Center Kennedy, TGH Brandon Healthplex, TGH Virtual Care and 15 outpatient Radiology Centers. Tampa Bay residents also receive world-class care from the TGH Urgent Care powered by Fast Track network of clinics, and they can even receive home visits in select areas through TGH Urgent Care at Home, powered by Fast Track.  As one of the largest hospitals in Florida, Tampa General Hospital is first in the state to open a command center in partnership with GE Healthcare. For more information, go to www.tgh.org.

About SME Solutions Group, Inc.
SME bridges the gap between product, strategy, execution, and sustainability for our clients while creating a single version of the truth with their data. Through BI, AI, data analytics, machine learning, data governance, data literacy, project management, and process improvement, our goal is to deliver solutions that overcome business challenges. Our Subject Matter Experts are skilled consultants that understand the technologies, numerous industries, and requirements necessary to ensure the successful execution of your business intelligence needs and objectives.  To learn more about SME Solutions Group, Inc. please visit our website or email info@smesgroup.com