The Laker/Lutz News

Serving Lutz since 1964 and Pasco since 1981.
Proud to be independently owned.

Shayne George

Bayonet Point hospital CEO participates in Rose Bowl tradition

By

The Rose Bowl football came on New Year’s Day will feature Florida State against Oregon, to see which college team will end up in the national championship game Jan. 12. But the Seminoles won’t be the only Florida representative showing up in Pasadena, California.

Regional Medical Center Bayonet Point’s chief executive Shayne George prepares his 2015 note to be placed in the Donate Life Rose Parade Float. (Courtesy of Kurt Connover)
Regional Medical Center Bayonet Point’s chief executive Shayne George prepares his 2015 note to be placed in the Donate Life Rose Parade Float. (Courtesy of Kurt Connover)

Regional Medical Center Bayonet Point has received an invitation to participate in the 2015 Donate Life Rose Parade Float Hospital CEO Rose Dedications. The Hudson hospital is part of a select group of hospitals in the area that have been asked to have its chief executive prepare a handwritten message honoring the patients and families who, with the support of hospital staff members, have saved and healed lives through the gift of organ, eye and tissue donation.

Shayne George, the chief executive of Bayonet Point, has shared the following message:

“In honor of Regional Medical Center Bayonet Point and our life-saving staff, we are honored and grateful to those who chose to donate a gift that can change a life.”

This handwritten dedication will be placed in one of the rose vials in the “dedication garden,” which is filled with thousands of roses in the Donate Life Rose Parade float.

The American Hospital Association has joined with the Association of Organ Procurement Organizations and the Eye Bank Association of America to offer this inspirational tribute to the donors of tissues and organs, according to a release.

For more than 10 years, dozens of organizations nationwide have collaborated to enter the Donate Life float in the Rose Parade. Originally envisioned by a lunch recipient who wished to thank organ, eye and tissue donors for their gifts of life, the Donate Life Rose Parade float has grown into a national tradition featuring dozens of participants each year.

The dedication garden is one of the trademarks of the float, with each vial carrying a unique personal message from an individual, family or organization.

Internal medicine residency program to start at Bayonet Point

By

As the nation grapples with a physician shortage, Regional Medical Center Bayonet Point is gearing up to offer the first internal medicine residency program in Pasco County.

The hospital has received approval from the American Osteopathic Association for the program that is scheduled to begin with six residents in July 2014.

Regional Medical Center Bayonet Point is preparing to offer the first internal medicine residency program in Pasco County. (Photo courtesy Regional Medical Center Bayonet Point)
Regional Medical Center Bayonet Point is preparing to offer the first internal medicine residency program in Pasco County. (Photo courtesy Regional Medical Center Bayonet Point)

This program is the hospital’s first step in developing graduate medical education residency programs. It also intends to add Allopathic Graduate Medical Education Programs in general surgery and internal medicine in 2015.

The hospital is honored to extend an opportunity to participate in the hospital’s post-graduate medical education program, Shayne George, the hospital’s chief executive officer, said in a news release.

“Our program will be dedicated to providing the highest quality graduate medical education for those who come to Regional Medical Center Bayonet Point from the nation’s medical schools,” he said.

The program will help address a growing need for doctors, according to the 2012 Physician Workforce Annual Report issued by the Florida Department of Health.

“Florida has added undergraduate medical education capacity by opening new medical schools, but lags in creating corresponding graduate medical education opportunities,” the report states.

“Preventing the annual export of qualified GME (residency) candidates to other states is the first step toward shaping the physician workforce of the future,” the report adds.

Statistics contained in the report reveal that nearly 12 percent of Pasco’s active doctors plan to retire within the next five years, and nearly 4 percent plan to relocate. Next door, in Hillsborough County, 10 percent of doctors plan to retire within five years and 3 percent plan to relocate.

Those figures compound the problems of an expected increase in health care demands, as more people are insured to meet requirements of the nation’s changing health care laws, and as the state’s population ages.

Planning for the residency program began more than a year ago, said Kurt Conover, spokesman for Regional Medical Center Bayonet, a 290-bed acute care hospital at 14000 Fivay Road in Hudson. It will take internal medicine residents three years to complete the residency program.

Students from Osteopathic Medical Schools from around the country will be eligible to apply, Conover said. The information will also be posted on the hospital’s website.

“Florida is a popular state for training,” he said, adding that the hospital anticipated filling six positions beginning next July.

Regional Medical Center Bayonet Point has a nationally acclaimed heart institute, more than 350 physicians, 900 employees and 500 volunteers on its integrated health care delivery team.

For more information about the hospital, visit www.rmchealth.com.