JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — How has your hospital been graded on safety?
First Coast News is on your side when you have to make healthcare decisions for yourself and your family. A national nonprofit, Leapfrog Safety Group released their latest grades for hospitals across the country for this spring, including Jacksonville's five major hospital systems. The grades are based off safety standards that range from handwashing to post-surgery problems.
You can view the hospitals on a map on the website. Receiving A's near Jacksonville are Mayo Clinic, HCA Florida Memorial Hospital, Baptist South, Baptist at the Beaches and Baptist Medical Center Nassau. Each of these hospitals have recently been featured on First Coast News for new advancements.
From Mayo Clinic doctors working video game-looking controllers in removing mouth cancer with robots, to the area's first dedicated center to treat heart rhythm disorders at Baptist Health, and a 24/7 response team created to remove blood clots at HCA Florida Memorial Hospital, the First Coast's hospitals are always evolving.
But behind the new technology and throughout the advancements, the hospitals' people remain.
"Many, many changes has occurred from a 75 hospital bed to over 450 now," said Regina West, a veteran hospital employee at HCA Florida Memorial Hospital.
West has watched the evolution of healthcare for the last 50 years at HCA Florida Memorial Hospital. She started working at the hospital four years after it was founded in 1969. That was the same year the first rechargeable implantable pacemaker was invented.
West started working in the hospital a year before they began using computers.
"It was very exciting because you don't no longer have to deal with the paper," West said. "Oh man, it was so neat, compared to now, the nurses used to have different caps."
West is the voice heard throughout the entire hospital as the lead switchboard operator, a position she got to after working in several different departments. What advancement will West witness next? As healthcare advances today, she encourages the industry's workers to always stay curious.
See the map on Leapfrog's website to view your hospital's report here.