DR. ALLEN WEISS, PRESIDENT & CEO OF NCH

        THE RIGHT ANGLE MEN’S CLUB MARCH MEETING 

The Right Angle Men's Club met on March 19, 2015 to enjoy comradery, a plated lunch and to listen to the CEO of NCH Healthcare, Dr. Allen Weiss. The theme of Dr. Weiss’ talk was “The Future of Healthcare Is Now”.   

The meeting began with the Pledge of Allegiance, a 50/50 raffle and the introduction of our guest speaker by Bill Cooper.  Dr. Weiss spoke about the technological evolution in delivering healthcare services and some of the new capabilities being piloted today at NCH and Sloane Kettering which included:   

1)      IBM’s Watson computer providing better patient diagnosis than humans at Sloane Kettering

2)      “Doctors on Demand” using Skype and FaceTime for diagnosis over the web

3)      “Smart Pills” that can signal when medicine has entered the stomach to help insure elderly patients are taking their medicine

4)      “Smart Rooms” at NCH that use Radio Frequency for patient vital signs and medical records

5)      Advances in Telemedicine     

6)      The use of robots in Collier County to deliver clot busting medicine to stroke patients which can significantly reduce delivery time in a very time sensitive process

7)      The use of “Regenerative Medicine” at the Mayo clinic for issues like cancer of the larynx

NCH is very focused on quality of patient care and improving the outcomes for the patients that they serve. Dr. Weiss discussed a program at NCH to monitor patient mortality for Sepsis (blood infection) in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) that was instituted using Statistical Quality Control Methods and 6 Sigma. That program has reduced the mortality rate from 34% to 8% for ICU sepsis. This has significantly improved both patient outcomes by preventing many mortalities as well as lowering the cost to deliver the service.  

Florida, as a state, is in the 2^nd quintile for quality of healthcare in the United States.  An individual’s zip code is the best predictor for life expectancy. The use of sewers and “potable water” has been the most significant factor in improving life expectancy worldwide. In the future, you can expect to see further exploitation of technology to improve patient outcomes as well as reduce the cost of medical care in both the United States broadly as well as in Collier County.

Dr. Weiss answered several questions and concerns from our members including a description of the new NCH facility being built at Collier and Immokalee which will have an emergency room and 20K square feet of full service hospital facilities and offices for family physicians.

The meeting was adjourned at approximately 1:30 with Paul L’Esperance announcing the next meeting date and speaker.