As 2014 comes to an end, St. Mary’s Medical Center and Palm Beach Children’s Hospital look back at a year full of landmark surgical procedures, new staff appointments and national recognition for quality patient care.The year started off with Dr. Dror Paley, medical director of the Paley Advanced Limb Lengthening Institute at St. Mary’s, becoming the first surgeon in the United States to use the PRECICE 2 Intramedullary Limb Lengthening System for cosmetic stature lengthening. Dr. Paley co-designed the system to allow for greater weight bearing and longer limb lengthening capabilities.
Later in the year, St. Mary’s earned an “A” Hospital Safety Score from The Leapfrog Group, a non-profit organization that provides health care information to consumers. The hospital was only one of 800 health care providers in the United States to receive the top score during Leapfrog’s spring 2014 evaluations.
In May, St. Mary’s was chosen to participate in SWIFT PRIME, an international study involving acute ischemic stroke patients. The purpose of the trial was to determine if patients treated with combined IV t-PA and Covidien’s Solitaire™ FR Revascularization Device within six hours of symptom onset have less stroke-related disability than those treated with IV tPA alone. The medical investigators at St. Mary’s Comprehensive Stroke Center were able to combine their expertise with colleagues at the best institutions in the nation to test this new treatment modality.
In June, Palm Beach Children’s Hospital opened the first inpatient pediatric rehabilitation unit between Ft. Lauderdale and Orlando. The primary focus of the program is to work with children to improve their physical, cognitive, emotional and social functions, following an injury or illness.
Later that summer, St. Mary’s welcomed four new members to its 2014 Governing Board, which is responsible for the hospital’s care quality and environment, medical staff credentialing, and patient safety and satisfaction. The new board members were Denise Marie Nieman, Palm Beach County attorney, Dr. Rudolph Scheerer, thoracic surgeon, Catherine Fanjul, community resident, and William Fleming, president of Palm Beach Atlantic University.
In September, St. Mary’s and Palm Beach Children’s Hospital were recognized by HealthStream with an Excellence through Insight award for receiving the most improved patient experience ratings in the ‘large hospital’ category. Later that month, Palm Beach Children’s Hospital was once again honored with South Florida Parenting’s 2014 Kids Crown Award for “Best Pediatric Hospital.”
In October, St. Mary’s Medical Center was officially designated a Level I Trauma Center. This is the highest level trauma service designated by the Florida Department of Health and elevates St. Mary’s to a select group of trauma research centers in the state. Also that month, the hospital received national attention for performing a CT scan on a 2,100-year-old Egyptian mummy. Doctors revealed the mummy, a girl believed to be around 3 years old, died from appendicitis.
Meanwhile, at the Paley Advanced Limb Lengthening Institute at St. Mary’s, Dr. Paley completed a series of surgeries on a 2-year-old Ghanaian boy who was born with deformed thumbs and radial club hand. After three successful procedures where Dr. Paley straightened the toddler’s hand and wrist and then created new thumbs using his index fingers, the child is expected to gain complete normal function of his hands.
Toward the end of 2014, St. Mary’s received three more national awards for patient care. In November, St. Mary’s was awarded the ‘Top Performer on Key Quality Measures’ designation from The Joint Commission for heart failure, pneumonia and surgical care. Additionally, St. Mary’s received its second “A” in hospital safety from The Leapfrog Group. Lastly, the hospital earned the American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines–Heart Failure Gold-Plus Quality Achievement Award and, for the third consecutive year, the Stroke Gold-Plus Quality Achievement Award.
St. Mary’s Medical Center and Palm Beach Children’s Hospital are proud of this year’s many accomplishments and have high expectations for 2015.
