Sarasota Memorial ‘Performed Strongly’ During COVID Pandemic: Panel

SARASOTA COUNTY, FL — A panel review found the Sarasota Memorial Health Care System “performed strongly” during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a report released Wednesday.

The Sarasota County Public Hospital Board voted Nov. 29 to conduct a review of the care provided by the healthcare system during the three years of the pandemic. The board assembled a COVID-19 Panel to review policies, procedures and practices of Sarasota Memorial’s pandemic response.

“The Panel found that Sarasota Memorial performed strongly across a wide range of assessment areas when compared to other Florida hospitals and U.S. hospitals, and was pivotal to the strong COVID survival rate and clinical outcomes seen in the Suncoast region,” the healthcare system said. “The report reflects deep lessons learned and outlines how Sarasota Memorial intends to move forward on behalf of the community we faithfully serve.”

Sarasota was “ground zero” for the pandemic in Florida as one of the state’s first two confirmed coronavirus cases, announced March 1, 2020, was hospitalized in the county.

“Within the first few weeks of Sarasota’s outbreak, Sarasota Memorial had more than 70 inpatients confirmed or presumed to have the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2,” according to the report. “It quickly became clear that the extensive planning and preparations Sarasota Memorial’s COVID Task Force had done in the two months leading up to its own Patient Zero was only the beginning of the work that would be required to manage the many critical issues that would face Sarasota Memorial, its staff and surrounding communities.”

With no known treatment or cure for the virus, Sarasota Memorial doctors participated in clinical trials and expanded access programs that gave local patients earlier access to promising treatments like monoclonal antibody therapy, remdesivir and convalescent plasma.

In the last three years, since the start of the pandemic, more than 70 percent of all COVID patients in Sarasota County were cared for by Sarasota Memorial.

The panel compared the healthcare system’s performance against data from Premier Inc., an independent quality improvement organization used by state and federal agencies and 1,300 hospitals across the country.

Compared to this data, the panel found that Sarasota Memorial’s COVID mortality rate was 24 percent better than expected and was lower than Premier’s national, South Atlantic, Florida and peer hospital benchmarks during each year of the pandemic.

The hospital system treated 13,400 patients with a 91 percent survival rate for inpatients. About 11 percent of patients required ventilator support.

Data also showed that the hospital system had lower complication rates and shorter hospital stays related to COVID than national, regional and peer hospital benchmark groups.

"The performance of the health system and its hospital physicians and staff was impressive and the report demonstrates that,” Tramm Hudson, hospital board chair, said. “We encourage everyone to read the report, which reflects deep lessons learned and outlines how Sarasota Memorial intends to move forward on behalf of the community we serve.”

Read the full report here.