Tampa General Hospital and USF Health Start the New Year by Moving Forward with Enhanced Alliance

TAMPA, Fla., Jan. 6, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Tampa General Hospital and USF Health announced that on Jan. 1, 2022, they officially launched USF Tampa General Physicians (USFTGP), a new organization dedicated to providing a unified management and support structure for physicians of both USF Health and Tampa General Medical Group, making it one of the largest academic medical groups in the state of Florida.

The creation of the USF Tampa General Physicians follows more than a year of transition planning since announcing the broadened affiliation in July 2020.

"Tampa General Hospital is on a path to become the safest and most innovative academic health system in the country and our affiliation with USF Health gets us closer to achieving that vision," stated John Couris, president and CEO of Tampa General Hospital. "USF Tampa General Physicians represents an elevation of our already established and dynamic alliance and will further our collaboration on key priorities and share a greater level of resources."

USF Tampa General Physicians will help drive growth, improve quality, and increase access to world-class, academic medical care across the community. Academic medical centers provide cutting-edge specialized care for the most complex and challenging illnesses and conditions, as well as provide patients with access to innovative research and clinical trials and train the next generation of health care professionals.

USF Tampa General Physicians will also serve as a recruiting tool for leading academic physicians from across the country and represents a new framework for physician management services. USF Tampa General Physicians will further elevate the reputation of both organizations as the collective force behind the region's preeminent academic medical center, attract additional research dollars and help support the economic engine of the medical district here in Tampa Bay.

The alliance will benefit patients by elevating and enhancing the growth of West Florida's leading academic medical center.

"USF Tampa General Physicians is a jointly created academic medical group between USF Health and Tampa General Hospital and represents the best medical care available in the Tampa Bay region and beyond. It is a comprehensive and sustainable affiliation that formally joins shared clinical, research, and teaching efforts from both organizations," said Charles J. Lockwood, MD, MHCM, senior vice president for USF Health and dean of the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine. "Ultimately, this organization will help Tampa Bay become a center for the finest health care in Florida, and potentially the Southeastern United States." 

Approximately 1,400 clinical personnel will comprise USF Tampa General Physiciansto serve and support physicians employed by Tampa General Medical Group and USF Health. USF Tampa General Physicians will provide practice infrastructure, clinical management, and related operational and administrative support services. The new group also will benefit the private practice physicians on staff at Tampa General Hospital by offering purchased services and management services through the new organization. 

USF Tampa General Physicians is currently led by interim co-presidents Dan Vukmer, senior associate vice president and chief strategy officer for USF Health, and Steve Short, advisor for special projects at TGH. A national search is underway to recruit a recognized leader in the field to lead the organization and serve as its first president. 

ABOUT TAMPA GENERAL HOSPITAL
Tampa General Hospital, a 1,041-bed non-profit academic medical center, is one of the largest hospitals in America and delivers world-class care as the region's only center for Level l trauma and comprehensive burn care. Tampa General Hospital is the highest-ranked hospital in the market in U.S. News & World Report's 2021-22 Best Hospitals, and one of the top 4 hospitals in Florida, with five specialties ranking among the best programs in the United States. The academic medical center's commitment to growing and developing its team members is recognized by two prestigious 2021 Forbes magazine rankings – America's Best Employers by State, third out of 100 Florida companies and first among health care and social organizations and 13^th nationally in America's Best Employers for Women. Tampa General is the safety net hospital for the region, caring for everyone regardless of their ability to pay, and in fiscal 2020 provided a net community benefit worth more than $182.5 million in the form of health care for underinsured patients, community education and financial support to community health organizations in Tampa Bay. It is one of the nation's busiest adult solid organ transplant centers and is the primary teaching hospital for the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine. With five medical helicopters, Tampa General Hospital transports critically injured or ill patients from 23 surrounding counties to receive the advanced care they need. Tampa General houses a nationally accredited comprehensive stroke center, and its 32-bed Neuroscience, Intensive Care Unit is the largest on the West Coast of Florida. It also is home to the Jennifer Leigh Muma 82-bed Level IV neonatal intensive care unit, and a nationally accredited rehabilitation center. Tampa General Hospital's footprint includes 17 Tampa General Medical Group Primary Care offices, TGH Family Care Center Kennedy, TGH Brandon Healthplex, TGH Virtual Health and 19 outpatient Radiology Centers. Tampa Bay residents also receive world-class care from the TGH Urgent Care powered by Fast Track network of clinics, and they can even receive home visits in select areas through TGH Urgent Care at Home, powered by Fast Track.  As one of the largest hospitals in the country, Tampa General Hospital is the first in Florida to partner with GE Healthcare and open a clinical command center that uses artificial intelligence and predictive analytics to improve and better coordinate patient care at a lower cost. For more information, go to www.tgh.org.

ABOUT USF HEALTH
USF Health's mission is to envision and implement the future of health. It is the partnership of the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine, the College of Nursing, the College of Public Health, the Taneja College of Pharmacy, the School of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Sciences, the Biomedical Sciences Graduate and Postdoctoral Programs, and USF Health's multispecialty physicians' group. The University of South Florida is a high-impact global research university dedicated to student success. Over the past 10 years, no other public university in the country has risen faster in U.S. News & World Report's national university rankings than USF. For more information, visit health.usf.edu.

SOURCE Tampa General Hospital