Accreditation

Last Friday morning, I was privileged to attend a breakfast at Oak Hill Hospital to celebrate the accreditation of their chest pain center. The room was packed with doctors, nurses, support staff, several elected officials, representatives from the Spring Hill Fire Rescue and Hernando County Fire Rescue EMS units and the Oak Hill Community Advisory Board.

Oak Hill's CEO, Mickey Smith opened the meeting with some light-hearted jokes about the items on the menu which included bacon and sausage, saying they had a top-rated heart facility downstairs. He then thanked Rich Linkul, their public relations director for his outstanding job of setting up the entire breakfast.

Walt Panonne, Director of Nursing, then took the opportunity to thank everyone from the EMS, to their support staff personal that made this accreditation possible for Oak Hill Hospital. Mr. Panonne then asked Mickey to come back the podium for the presentation of the letter of accreditation while photos were taken by Rich Linkul.

Mickey took the opportunity in his closing comments to introduce Senator Mike Fasano and Hernando County Commissioner Chris Kingsley and give them the opportunity to say a few words about the accreditation. Dr. Blackburn took this opportunity to explain the 12 point EKG lead system that will be installed on all EMS vehicles in Hernando County, complements of Oak Hill Hospital in a private-public partnership for excellence in health care for our county.

As an attending member of the Oak Hill Community Advisory Board, I would like to mention a few fellow board members in attendance who were John Druzbick, Nick Morana, Pat Crowley, John Ehlenbach, and Gus Guadignino.

Hernando County residents are lucky to have this state of art medical facility in our community. Oak Hill Hospital is only one of nine facilities in the entire state of Florida to hold this chest pain accreditation and soon all EMS will have a direct 12 point EKG link to their emergency staff for triage in the field.