Sarasota Memorial Hospital board to review report on COVID-19 pandemic patient care

Correction: Britt Riner served as chair and Patricia Maraia as vice chair of the Sarasota Memorial Hospital Quality Committee. An earlier version of this story said otherwise.

An internal examination of Sarasota Memorial Hospital Hospital’s handling of patient care during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic will be shared with the public during the 2 p.m. hospital board meeting Tuesday.

The public hospital’s Quality Control Committee – essentially the nine member elected board and top medical professionals at the hospital – were charged with reviewing the pandemic response after a November board meeting punctuated by concerns raised by people upset about being denied access to loved ones because of COVID-19 isolation practices. They also have complained about the hospital’s refusal to incorporate the off-label use of medicines such as ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine as part of their treatment.

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Sarasota Memorial Hospital is at 1700 S. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota. The board meets in the Waldemere Auditorium.

What to expect

The hospital board will actually review two reports on Tuesday.

The first includes a detailed review of the handling of five specific cases – many of which were highlighted by aggrieved loved ones last November – during a four-hour morning session that is closed to the public.

Hospital Board Chairman Tramm Hudson said that the board will discuss the findings of some 60 medical professionals to “make sure that the standard of care was being met.

“What happens that morning will dictate how the 2 p.m. meeting unfolds,” he added.

That 2 p.m. meeting would cover a more “macro level” report that will be made available to the public.”

What's under review

Hudson stressed that the report and any hospital board recommendations will deal with practices within the Sarasota Memorial Health Care System that could be controlled.

“The direction we gave the staff was this report should be related to those things: how did the hospital respond to the pandemic, not to get into the weeds of (federal Centers for Disease Control) protocols, or the (National Institutes of Health), comments from Dr. Fauci (Anthony Fauci, former chief medical advisor to Presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden), pros and cons, the difference between the Biden administration and the Trump administration,” Hudson said. “We can’t control that, that’s not what we’re looking at.

“We want to see what did Sarasota Memorial Hospital do right, what did we learn from this, what can we put in place so we can be better prepared for the next one.”

Underlying perspectives

Yet politics and concern about how SMH cleaved to national protocols in its decision to treat COVID-19 patients instead of assenting to requests from relatives to administer ivermectin helped fuel the groundswell of candidacies of three new board members who ran on the “Health Freedom” combination in last year's election, Victor Rohe, Bridgette Fiorucci and Patricia Maraia.

Maraia served as vice chair of the quality committee, which was led by fellow board member Britt Riner, chaired the quality committee.

The board is likely to receive extended input from the public, including critics who dislike the hospital's approach to COVID treatment and supporters who say the facility is unfairly maligned and excelled during the pandemic.

Nancy Rosema, an Osprey resident who plans to attend Tuesday, said she thought “the medical profession has not stepped up to the plate and done what I feel doctors should do," adding that "they were advising families and patients on hospital protocol that I felt was totally wrong and they were following what our government had told them.”

Rosema contacted the Herald-Tribune after she saw a photo of a flier posted at break room tables at SMH urging hospital employees to attend Tuesday's meeting to offset the voices of the “Medical Freedom” and “Anti-Vaccination” movement.

“We need a hospital to go to when we’re sick but we don’t need a hospital to go to when we don’t feel safe there,” she added. “That’s my whole issue.”

But that is also a concern shared by those who fear that the new board members who were critical of Sarasota Memorial during their campaigns and political pressure will lead to a degradation in the quality of care at Sarasota Memorial.

“Basically I think it’s a worry that these new people have gotten on the board and are challenging the quality of the board – which, we have a fantastic hospital and nobody wants it to change,” said, Longboat Key resident Arlene Skversky, who is also president of the Longboat Key Democratic Club.

The Longboat Key club shared an email from the Sarasota County Democratic Club people to arrive early to claim a place in the 340-seat Waldemere Auditorium.

“We love our hospital,” Skversky said. “They’re growing by leaps and bounds, they’re great doctors and nurses and we don’t want them to change – except to get better.”

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: COVID response at Sarasota Memorial Hospital: Board to discuss reports