SMH-Sarasota COS Newsletter – February 2025

Important Message from Kenneth Hurwitz, MD Chief-of-Staff, SMH-Sarasota

I hope that everyone has recovered from the series of storms last fall. I know that many of you sustained damage to your homes and properties. Despite that, patient care activities quickly returned to full service. The Joint Commission team arrived for our evaluation less than a month after hurricane Milton. After a very thorough inspection, we received excellent reviews from the visiting team, a tribute to the hard work and dedication of all of our staff. Thank you to everyone for your professionalism and commitment to supporting our community. As everyone knows, we are heading into our busy season. As always, there will be challenges with scheduling and bed flow as we try to keep up with the seasonal rise in volume. Please look for ways to maintain efficiency, whether by facilitating discharges early in the day, selectively choosing imaging studies, favoring outpatient workups when safe or other means particular to your specialty. Increased capacity at the Venice campus will hopefully provide some relief. Please review the following items that may affect your practice, and do not hesitate to reach out to me with any questions or concerns.

#1 Medical Staff Education Highlights

Radiology and Interventional Radiology procedures
As we enter into the busy season, it is important that we all stay laser-focused on the delivery of timely and efficient inpatient care. With regard to certain radiology and interventional radiology procedures please consider the following educational points of interest:

• PET/CT scans cannot be performed on inpatients
• Breast biopsies cannot be performed on inpatients
• Routine MRI exams should not be performed on inpatients and deferred to the outpatient setting.
• CT or ultrasound-guided biopsies on inpatients should be deferred to the outpatient setting especially when there is an anticoagulation washout period required.
• Procedures for pain such as steroid injections and kyphoplasty are best performed in the outpatient setting if the patient can tolerate them.
• If a procedure order needs to be moved from an inpatient to an outpatient setting, please alert the interventional radiology team so that we can facilitate this transition of care for the patient.

Observership Link
If you have a high school or college student interested in shadowing a physician or APP at SMH Venice, please use the following link so that all required documentation and authorization can be obtained before their arrival. This is paramount to the maintenance of patient safety. Click Here

HealthStream Link
Don’t forget to enroll to receive important CME updates from SMHCS targeted at physicians and APPs. Click on the link below to sign up for email updates. Click Here

#2 Electronic Short Form H&P for outpatient surgeries & procedures

Dr. Seaman has worked with IT to build a short-form H&P for Outpatient surgeries and procedures. Per our Bylaws, we can use an abbreviated H&P to meet JC and AHCA requirements.

(d) Short Stay Documentation Requirements
A Short Stay History and Physical Form, approved by the Medical Executive Committee, may be utilized for (i) ambulatory or same-day procedures, or (ii) short stay observations that do not meet inpatient criteria. These forms shall document the chief complaint or reason for the procedure, the relevant history of the present illness or injury, and the patient’s current clinical condition/physical findings. This can be used in place of the older paper form.

The generic electronic short form H&P can be found in the SCM document writer as “Short Form Surgery/Procedure H&P”. The surgeon/physician needs to type the name of the surgery/procedure. From there, the remainder of the form is largely pre-filled – there are a few areas where the doc will need to click a box and type a few words.

There are a couple of other versions as well - one specific for cardiology (other PP attached – note titled “Cath Lab History and Physical Short Form”), one specific for GI (note titled “GI Endo History and Physical Short Form”), and one for Pulmonary (note titled “Pulmonary Procedure History and Physical Short Form”). Please click on the link below to access the information.

Short Form H&P Solution

#3 Upcoming Education Opportunities in March 2025

Please click the links below to view the flyers containing details about the upcoming CME opportunities in person and via Webex.

March 6, 2025, Pharmacy Ground Rounds - Artificial Intelligence in Pharmacy – Advancing care and education in the clinical setting

March 7, 2025, Abdominal Catastrophes & Compartment /syndrome and management of the Open Abdomen

March 10, 2025, Pitocin Use, Misuse, and Legal Documentation Pitfall

#4 SMH-Saraosta Free Lecture Series

Please click on the link below to see the free lecture series for March 2025 that will take place at SMH- Sarasota

Flyer 2025 Diabetes Lecture Series

#5 Unit Overflow Reference Guide

Please click on the link below to see the 2024-2025 Unit Openings to Accommodate Increase in Volumes

Flyer 2024-2025 Unit Overflow

Thank you,
Kenneth Hurwitz, MD
Chief of Staff