Improving safety for employees and patients, Baptist Health South Florida has unveiled its brand new Patient Safety Simulation Lab – on wheels. It’s the first of its kind in South Florida.
“It’s a bus, equipped with a full simulation lab, that can travel to Baptist Health facilities throughout Monroe, Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties,” said Matt Arsenault, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at Baptist Health. “By making the lab mobile, we’ve made crisis training more accessible to employees and physicians at all our locations spanning four counties.”
Used extensively in the aviation industry and in the military, simulation training in health care gives doctors, nurses and other caregivers the opportunity to practice a variety of realistic scenarios in a safe setting with lifelike mannequins programmed to replicate life-threatening emergencies.“We also work with specific groups on crisis procedures that target their specialties, such as running through a complex surgical procedure or offering practice with new technology and equipment,” said Dr. Charles Augustus II, chief medical officer at Homestead Hospital, part of Baptist Health.
The U.S. ranks 65th in maternal death among industrialized nations, and the mortality rate is going up, as reported by the CDC.
“This is one of the reasons that The Joint Commission has recently included new care standards for obstetrical hemorrhage and obstetrical hypertensive crises,” said Dr. Larry Spiegelman, physician at Baptist Health. “Through the Mobile Simulation Lab, we will be able to educate medical staff members on the newest recommendations for treating these emergencies by mimicking real-life situations that occur in the healthcare setting.”
