The ACUSON Sequoia, the flagship ultrasound system from Siemens Healthineers, is now available in South Florida. An ultra-premium ultrasound system, ACUSON Sequoia is designed to address the most prevalent challenges in ultrasound today, according to Lucas Diaz, co-owner and Director of Customer Experience for Med-Lab, an Advanced Partner of Siemens Healthineers in South Florida.

“Patients’ varied physical characteristics and user dependent variabilities can negatively impact a clinician’s ability to deliver an accurate diagnosis,” he says. “The ACUSON Sequoia enables powerful automation in each major mode to reduce user variability and deliver high quality imaging with no user interaction.” Some examples of this include InFocus imaging technology, which eliminates the need for manual focal zones. InFocus imaging delivers improved B-mode image quality and image uniformity with automatic focusing of the image at all depths, and with high frame rates. The ACUSON Sequoia was built from the ground up with a new architecture called BioAcoustic imaging technology; designed to deliver more image clarity and penetration than the conventional ultrasound system.
 
The ACUSON Sequoia is also equipped with AutoDoppler technology. Immediately upon freeze, AutoDoppler will automatically optimize relevant Doppler parameters with no user interaction and all those parameters, including the scale, can be adjusted in post-processing.
 
“Think about that crying pediatric patient or ICU patient on a ventilator and you can only acquire a few waveforms,” says Diaz. “This allows you to optimize in post processing for the first time instead of having to reacquire that challenging view.”
 
Med-Lab has been an Advanced Partner of Siemens Healthineers in South Florida since 1967. Their story begins in Cuba, where Saul Diaz Sr., Lucas’ great grandfather, started the company to provide medical supplies to health care providers.
 
“He started this company back when exploratory surgery was standard,” he says. “Most of what was sold then were surgical instruments. But when diagnostic imaging was introduced in Cuba, he started getting into X-ray technologies. As a family, we have always been interested in technologies that bring less invasive diagnosis and treatment solutions to providers and patients.”
 
When the business was rebooted in Miami following the Cuban revolution, it started with the second generation of the Diaz family with an emphasis on diagnostic imaging. Today, the company is owned and operated by the fourth generation, including Lucas and his two cousins.
 
“We really love to put people above transactions,” says Diaz. “I watched my father for many years put our customers’ needs above profits and he always said to cater to the customer because the money will come around. A loyal customer will help to sustain our business. We are focused on helping customers of every size increase efficiency, decrease costs, and enhance patient care.”
 
He notes that Med-Lab does this through a commitment to being the experts and the best engineers. “We pride ourselves in our expertise and focusing on customer service as we continue to adapt to the changes in the medical imaging industry,” says Diaz.
 
Ultrasound is unique as it truly relies on the user’s ability to utilize the ultrasound system to its maximum potential. Therefore, an intuitive easy-to-use ultrasound system is a critical attribute.
 
When speaking with ultrasound experts, adds Diaz, "we hear time and time again that as patients get larger, we are challenged to get reliable and diagnostic images in an ergonomic and economic way. The deeper the ultrasound signal needs to penetrate, the more attenuation occurs resulting in image quality degradation and often results in inconclusive results or repeat exams, sometimes in another modality.”
 
To address this challenge, Siemens designed the industry exclusive Deep Abdominal Transducer (DAX) to increase diagnostic confidence for patient populations often limited by traditional ultrasound technology. With its powerful architecture and patented DAX, the ACUSON Sequoia can image up to 40cm allowing clinicians to confidently image high BMI patients.
 
“In a collective effort to reduce operator stress and help eliminate long-term ergonomic injuries, Siemens Healthineers hosted 170 workshops with nearly 600 ultrasound users to create a platform designed by the user, for the user. In an effort to validate the usability design of the Sequoia, we sought a third-party evaluation to put the ACUSON Sequoia to the test with other leading manufacturers,” says Diaz. “In this third-party study, ACUSON Sequoia rated #1 in ease of use and 82% of the study participants preferred the ACUSON Sequoia.”
 
This is an exciting time for the ACUSON Sequoia, notes Diaz.
 
“Powerful automation in each major mode helps to reduce variability amongst users and improve image quality with no user interaction,” he says. “Remember, ease of use not only pertains to the control panel, but also the ease and ergonomics of acquiring images. ACUSON Sequoia is ushering in a new era in ultrasound imaging.”
 
“Being a new platform built from the ground up, the ACUSON Sequoia has the advantage of being early in its product lifecycle,” he says. “This helps to maximize return on investment as there will be a pathway of sustained innovation and upgradability for years to come.”


The other primary challenge for Tampa General, and again, one faced by all health systems, is learning to coexist with COVID-19, John Couris, CEO, adds.

“We have spent the last 15 months successfully responding to a global pandemic. We came together with our colleagues from across the region to collectively care for and improve health outcomes for our community, and we understood that we were responsible for safeguarding our community’s health. Tampa General and University of South Florida teams led on the frontlines and leaned in to help find solutions to every problem the pandemic put in our path. I was asked to provide a health care leader’s perspective on Governor DeSantis’ Re-Open Florida Task Force. We hosted Vice President Mike Pence and other members of the White House’s coronavirus response task force for a roundtable discussion on Tampa General’s response to the global pandemic. We shared interactive data among 51 area hospitals to ensure equitable hospital access and safely reopen businesses. Finally, we implemented rapid testing for front-line workers, including teachers, and were among the country’s first sites to administer the COVID-19 vaccine after FDA approval.”
 
Moving forward and under the auspices of the Global Emerging Diseases Institute, Couris says that they are now working on research and development of medical interventions to mitigate the impact and spread of COVID-19.
 
“For example, and in collaboration with USF Health Morsani College of Medicine, we have established one of the very few in-house COVID-19 genomic sequencing hospital laboratories in Florida. Here, our physician-scientists are currently performing in-house sequencing tests to identify and track COVID-19 variants,” he says. “The data are uploaded to a global database (GISAID) to track the variants and are provided to the Florida Department of Health as well.”
 
Tampa General Hospital’s services also extends beyond the four walls of the hospital. With 80 specialty centers across the region and with a footprint that literally extends across the state from west coast to east coast, they are committed to providing affordable, high-quality care to individuals throughout Florida.
 
“Our asset-light strategy allows us to have outpatient centers for everything from imaging to urgent care to surgical centers in highly accessible low-cost environments,” says Couris. “Patients in need of more complex care are then brought to the main campus for treatment.
As we continue to expand our reach, we have invested significant resources into the comprehensive care of East Coast Floridians.”
 
Today, Tampa General serves the Treasure Coast’s oncology patients through a new alliance between Tampa General Hospital and the Cancer Center of South Florida. In its two locations in Palm Beach County, the new Tampa General Hospital Cancer Institute now enables cancer patients on the East Coast to receive our leading-edge services right in their own backyard. In addition, they recently developed a partnership with Gastro Group of the Palm Beaches, forming the Tampa General Hospital Gastro Group of the Palm Beaches, providing patients in Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast with world-class gastrointestinal care at two locations close to home.
 
A key component of their expansion includes working directly with and employing local Palm Beach and Treasure Coast physicians, aggregating more specialists into the Tampa General network to provide comprehensive treatment options across multiple specialties. When patients need more interventionist complex treatment, they can come across the state to the Tampa General campus. Here, Tampa General specialists work in collaboration with East Coast physicians to provide the comprehensive treatment options in a seamless, coordinated manner.
 
Couris says that he discovered his passion for health care during his first job when he worked as an orderly at a nursing home outside of Boston.
 
“Throughout my 25-plus-year career in the industry, I have focused on helping patients and teams grow and thrive,” he says. “My spectrum of experience has provided me with the perspective and tool kit to ensure my teams can provide world-class quality care to our patients and I can support them while they do their incredible work. As CEO, my primary responsibility is developing an organizational culture that is built on authenticity, kindness, vulnerability, and transparency in order to best care and support my team as they care for our community.”
 
In addition to being one of the leading academic medical centers in the state and in the country, Couris stresses their ongoing commitment to partnering and collaborating with physicians to provide the most efficient, high-quality and cost-effective care possible for patients.
 
“Through the practice of world-class care, we continue to offer a value proposition that is second to none,” he says. “This is only made possible through our physician partnerships, collaborating with them on what is most important to them as a way to better serve patients and the community. Through efficiency, innovation and a commitment to excellence, we offer our doctors the resources and support they need to care for their patients at the highest level possible.”
 
Couris believes his primary and fundamental responsibility is to his team and physician partners. He recognizes that if they have what they need to succeed and feel supported, their patients are better served.
 
“For our team members, we developed a host of programs to support their professional growth and development,” he says. “Through a collaboration with USF Muma College of Business, our new People Development Institute provides next-level training and skill acquisition. The Institute also will provide management training at all levels so our organizational culture and values can be reflected in all that we do.”
 
Recognizing the tremendous hard work and the immense value of its physician partners, Tampa General launched a program that looks at the physician as a whole person as well as addressing their well-being, which was perhaps never more important than in 2020.
 
“This initiative, Physician+, is built on direct physician input and feedback and has offerings for the mind (lunchtime CME seminars, a stress management program), body (executive fitness facility, pre-order take-home meals) and spirit (renovated physicians lounge, 24/7 concierge service),” Couris says. “At the end of the day, we want to be our physicians’ medical home for now and long into the future.”


Busy hospital systems need efficient parking more than any other industry sector. Visitors, in particular, want to get to their destination quickly and without confusion. All too often, erecting a parking garage can become a costly afterthought. The good news is that with the right planning and design expertise from the beginning, the result can be an aesthetically attractive, highly functional, cost-effective parking garage.

Here are some considerations in planning a healthcare parking project:
 
Choose a fully integrated design-build company: A vertically integrated company that offers in-house design, manufacturing and construction services can lower your overall construction costs while ensuring that your parking garage is both functional and aesthetic. Companies who routinely design and build parking garages understand the process and often have years of experience allowing them to identify what works and what doesn’t to ensure a durable, low maintenance structure with reduced lifecycle costs.
 
FINFROCK, the largest design design-builder of parking garages, has erected more than 300 precast parking structures across the country and has a team that intricately understands how to create a cost-effective structure that offers the best function for available space and budget.
 
At Baptist Health in Boca Raton, for example, FINFROCK created a parking garage that was not only within budget, but also integrated certain aesthetic and functional needs that were requested by the client. The finished garage included decorative metals and wall panels that seamlessly tied the garage design into the overall hospital campus aesthetic. The garage also included added functionality such as secured physician parking areas and electric charger stations.
 
Cost Containment: In working with one company, from start to finish, that understands how to deliver hospitals the building they want, pricing is often guaranteed before the completion of the design documents, which means construction schedules can be accurately predicted, costly change orders are avoided and the need for time consuming redesign periods are eliminated.
 
Minimal Disruption: Hospital campuses are active and minimizing disruption to ongoing activities during a construction project is essential. Experienced contractors will work to create a logistics plan that minimizes road closures and interference with patient and employee access while keeping its team on the least traveled and least critical streets to the hospital.
 
Choosing a precast system for a parking project also requires a smaller footprint. Structural components are manufactured off-site and delivered in time to be erected, allowing for minimized onsite construction.
 
Efficient Technology: Efficient hospital parking relies on the newest technologies to guide people to parking spaces with ease. Parking guidance systems and sensors that can track and indicate the number of spaces available ensure that patients and families who are stressed and unsure of where to go will be parked safely and conveniently. Additional technology requirements might also include access control, security, revenue collection, charging stations and photovoltaic panels. Implementing these technologies can generate additional revenue for the hospital and create a better user experience.
 
Integrated Building – Multi-Use Facilities: With the increase in demand for more flexible and personalized patient care, the need for multi-use facilities has risen across the country. Designing a healthcare mobility system for these outpatient services is critical. This process will help identify elements such as acceptable walking distances, ambulance accessibility, the willingness to use rideshare hubs and access to off-site parking and the need for enhanced wayfinding in parking garage systems. Experienced design-build companies have a vast range of capabilities to create structures that seamlessly blend with the surrounding buildings, integrate mixed-uses and meet architectural requirements to disguise the parking elements of the structure.
 
Sustainability: Healthcare parking facilities that include sustainable and green options promote cost-savings and long-term value. At the top of the Advent Health Orlando parking structure, FINFROCK installed solar roof panels to provide power to the hospital and offset energy costs. As hospitals pay more attention to their carbon footprint, there is greater demand for designs to produce better air flow, use LED lighting and add electric vehicle charging stations. In addition, the type of material chosen for a parking garage is crucial to the lifecycle and maintenance costs of the building. Precast/prestressed concrete building systems offer a resilient solution that results in added value and longevity.
 
Effective integration of parking and healthcare campus access into long-term facility planning creates an environment that provides for superior customer service and satisfaction. Choosing a design-build partner with the qualifications and experience to deliver the building hospitals want without interference in daily hospital operations is the first step toward success.


According to Marc Egort, "There are quite a few things a CPA gets involved with." Those "things" might even be ones not usually associated with CPA work. For example, a person may not consider that a CPA would be engaged in mergers and acquisitions; but Egort, founder of Marc Egort CPA, P.A., has been handling them for years.

Interestingly, the two can go hand-in-hand and he explained how this evolved into his practice, saying he basically got started by being somebody’s accountant. He said a client may indicate he is thinking of selling his business, and Egort will reply, all right, let’s talk about it; let’s figure out how you’re contemplating the valuation, what you think some of the trigger points are, some of the vulnerabilities. "As their CPA, you are in a unique position to assist them with positioning their business for sale and assisting them on the due diligence side. Like anything else in practice, things evolve because there’s a need for them. Inevitably it just shows up when you’ve been practicing as long as I have."
 
Egort has been in the health care space business for 32 years, with over 30 years in public accounting, starting in a Medicare certified home health agency in 1989. From there he went to work for a boutique CPA firm that specialized in home health reimbursement. He formed his own practice 10 years later. "I became known as a Medicare reimbursement consultant, but the funny thing was, when my clients learned I had a CPA license, they would say ‘Oh by the way, I need you to help me with my taxes.’ From that it just kind of evolved into an accounting practice, and now we are able to offer more in the way of customized services for our clients."
 
He said when going over financial information with clients, he occasionally asks about their plans for the future, and they may say that in five or 10 years they want to position the company for sale. His first recommendation is: let’s start with your financial statements. "Most of my clients – if they are service businesses – will prepare cash basis financial statements, whereas buyers usually want to see things on an accrual basis. So the first place to start is to make sure they have financial statements that the potential acquirer could use or meet industry standard financial reporting."
 
Because of his background in the home health market, Egort has a strong presence in the health care space and has worked with quite a number of physicians – both groups as well as solo practitioners. He pointed out how health care clients differ from others when it comes to mergers and acquisitions. "Working with health care is different from companies that rely on sales of inventory. All have varying elements that change the way you would view the valuation approach." He cited a jewelry company as an example, saying it might have $5 million in inventory on their books. "What is that company worth? Using an over-simplistic approach, one could make an argument that because the inventory is the largest asset of the company, its value would dictate the sale; if I’m taking over that company, I’m basically buying that inventory."
 
On the other hand, physician practices are more likely based on either the number of patients or revenues. Egort said in some cases, the buyer may have a strategic reason for wanting it, or might just want to make an investment in it. "Perhaps they want to get the other group off the market because they’re a competitor, or maybe they’re taking over a dermatology practice that utilizers lasers, and their investment in that company gives them access to technologies they don’t currently have. There are also strategic alliances, simply because a physician wants to retire." He added that there are often intangibles that have to be considered as well, such as the goodwill of the practice, how long the physicians have been involved, or how long they will continue to be involved post-sale.
 
All of these must be taken into consideration, but Egort said, "The discussion with my clients before they put their company up for sale is often, what’s the number that makes you want to walk away from everything. That’s an important discussion. It’s got to feel good for them to walk away from their life’s work and feel as if they’ve gotten value out of that."
 
Egort didn’t anticipate 25 years ago having his practice expand into areas such as mergers and acquisitions, but as he said, things sometimes evolve because there’s a need for them. However, the most important aspect of his business is service. "Service and communication have been the hallmark of our practice for over 30 years."


With more than 20 years of nursing experience, Jennifer Higgins has been named chief nursing officer for Lee Health. She had previously been serving as the interim chief nursing officer.

Higgins began her career at Lee Health in 2000 when she joined the health system as an emergency room nurse. Throughout the years, she progressively advanced through a variety of key senior operational roles before being appointed chief nursing officer. Her most recent position was chief nurse executive at Gulf Coast Medical Center.
 
Higgins earned a Diploma in Nursing from St. Luke’s School of Nursing, a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of South Florida and a Master of Science in Nursing from Walden University. She is currently enrolled in a Doctor of Nursing Practice program at Walden University.