May/15/2012
Nurses Week - Sarasota Honorees
Please share these kudos of our 10 Nurses of Excellence as time/space allows... National Nurses Week culminates tomorrow, May 12, on the birthday of Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing. Attached is a photo of nurses and patient care technologists honored during the week at Sarasota Memorial Health Care System.

May/14/2012
Sarasota Memorial Auxiliary awards scholarships to high-schoolers
Sarasota Memorial Hospital’s Auxiliary volunteer organization recently awarded college scholarships to six outstanding high school students who plan to pursue careers in health care. The G. Duncan Finlay Health Careers Scholarships, named after former Sarasota Memorial CEO G. Duncan Finlay, MD, will contribute $10,000 to each student over four years.

May/07/2012
Sarasota Memorial Celebrates its 1,200 Nurses
National Nurses Week is May 6-12, 2012, culminating on Florence Nightingale’s birthday

May/04/2012
Seau death spotlights concussion link to depression
Football fans were shocked this week when news came that Junior Seau, 43-year-old former Pro Bowl linebacker, had died of a suspected suicide on Wednesday morning.
View an ABC7 news segment on the link between depression and concussion here:

Apr/27/2012
Media Alert: Sarasota Memorial, Sarasota County Fire Department and City of Sarasota Police Department to Conduct Training Drill Friday, April 27
The Sarasota County Fire Department’s Special Operations Team, Sarasota Memorial Hospital (SMH) and Sarasota Police Department will conduct a training drill to test the organizations’ response to a simulated bomb threat and explosion on Friday, April 27,
View the ABC video here

Apr/23/2012
Robotic Cancer Surgery Comes to Classroom
Students “prep” for cutting edge fieldtrip into the operating room
Read the Herald-Trib article

Apr/18/2012
Sarasota Memorial Harnesses Florida’s Sunshine
Solar panels latest energy saving project in health system’s ongoing effort to promote an environmentally friendly and green workplace
View the ABC video here

Apr/16/2012
Sarasota Memorial Named Among Nation’s 100 Top Hospitals
The public hospital is one of only 15 independent institutions to make the list, and one of 12 to earn Thomson’s Everest Award for best and fastest long-term improvement

Mar/29/2012
SMH-Columbia Medical Center Collaborate to Provide Leading Edge Heart Care
Affiliation between Sarasota Memorial Health Care System and Columbia University Medical Center’s Division of Cardiac Surgery to provide local patients greater access to the latest innovations and treatment options in cardiac care.
Click here to read the Sarasota Herald-Tribune article

Mar/20/2012
Sarasota Memorial Named One of HealthGrades' Elite "America’s 50 Best Hospitals"
HealthGrades study: If all U.S. hospitals had performed at the level of Sarasota Memorial, more than a half million Medicare deaths could have been prevented between 2000 and 2010
Click here to read the Sarasota Herald-Tribune:
Watch the SNN6 video here:

Mar/01/2012
SMH Delivers a Dozen Leaplings
A dozen leaplings made their world debut yesterday at Sarasota Memorial Hospital — February 29 — a date which only comes once every four years.
Click here to view Herald Tribune article

Feb/28/2012
SMH Earns Advanced Certifications in Stroke, Heart Failure Care
Sarasota Memorial once again has demonstrated its superiority in treating two life-threatening conditions that affect millions of people each year, earning special Joint Commission certification for its congestive heart failure program and advanced re-certification for stroke care.

Feb/08/2012
Hospital Compare: SMH rates better at preventing infections
The federal government’s Hospital Compare website added an important new quality measure to help prospective patients compare hospital performance – the rate of central line-associated bloodstream infections — preventable infections that can lead to serious complications following a hospital procedure or stay.
Read the Sarasota Herald-Tribune story here.

Feb/02/2012
SMH Offers New Test to Help Doctors Identify, Treat Early Stage Parkinson Patients
The new technology is the first and only FDA-approved test that helps differentiate Parkinson from Essential Tremor Syndromes

Jan/31/2012
Experimental Ovarian Cancer Vaccine Offers Hope for Local Cancer Patients
SMH first site in world approved to begin enrolling patients in international clinical trial
Read the Sarasota Herald-Tribune article here.

Jan/30/2012
Providers Collaborating to Streamline Sarasota’s Health Care Safety Net For Uninsured and Underinsured
The Patterson Foundation is funding a consulting team that will develop a plan to preserve and provide for the long-term sustainability of Sarasota County’s health care safety net. The foundation offered its support after learning about an existing collaboration among Sarasota Memorial Health Care System, Senior Friendship Centers and the Sarasota County Health Department to explore this community issue.

Jan/30/2012
Sarasota Memorial Hospital Ranks Among Top 5% in Nation
Sarasota Memorial Hospital announced today that HealthGrades, the nation’s leading independent healthcare ratings organization has named it a Distinguished Hospital for Clinical Excellence™. This prestigious distinction places Sarasota Memorial Hospital among the top 5% of hospitals nationwide for clinical performance.

Jan/24/2012
Let’s Get Behind Healthy Start Coalition’s “Save My Life” Program
Safe motherhood is more than just two words. It is a goal for every provider who cares for women and children in Sarasota. It is a desire of every pregnant woman or would be pregnant woman as well. There are many proponents of safe motherhood, but Healthy Start Coalition of Sarasota County has a long history of providing the means to this end of safe motherhood.

Jan/13/2012
NATION’S LARGEST PARKINSON SYMPOSIUM COMING TO SARASOTA
The nation’s largest Parkinson Disease symposium is again coming to Sarasota on Feb. 4, 2012. The event is open to patients, caregivers and physicians, and features physician lecturers from around the world. Almost a thousand people are expected to attend.

Jan/12/2012
Adults age 50 and older urged to get shingles vaccine
Health officials are urging adults age 50 and older to get vaccinated against shingles. Caused by the same virus associated with chickenpox, shingles is more common and serious in older adults.

Jan/03/2012
SMH Dietitians Share 5 Realistic Resolutions for a Healthy 2012
Improving health and fitness are among the top 5 New Year’ resolutions Americans make each year. But too often we set goals too high and fail to set ourselves up for success!

Jan/02/2012
SMH Welcomes Sarasota’s First New Year’s Baby
Sarasota Memorial Hospital welcomed New Year’s baby Gabriel Barnes into the world at 12:07 am today – Sarasota’s first birth in 2012. Gabriel was one of more than four babies whose mothers began laboring at SMH on New Year’s Eve. "We weren't aiming for it, but it’s pretty cool," Gabriel's mom Robyn Barnes said. She and husband Robert are from North Port and have three other children.