A Record-Breaking Season at Boca Grande Health Clinic
As the pace slows down on the Island, the Boca Grande Health Clinic wraps up an extraordinarily busy season marked by record-setting patient engagements.
- Patient Visits: We reached a total of 5,394 patient visits from October 2023 to April 2024, a 32 percent increase over last season.
- Busiest Month: March was our busiest month with 888 patient visits.
- High Demand: The clinic regularly exceeded 800 visits per month, a heavy load for our three-doctor team.
- Immunizations: We administered 764 immunizations, outperforming last year’s figures.
- Diagnostic Increases: Diagnostic tests saw significant increases, with X-rays up by 50 percent and blood tests by 43 percent.
- Referrals: We managed more than 1,200 referrals to specialty providers during the season.
- Same-Day Access: As busy as we were, we continued to offer same-day access for the most part throughout the season. Some weeks during the season, we received over 300 calls – and every one of those was answered by a member of our front-office team, ensuring you connect with a caring professional, not an automated system.
More residents and Island workers are using the Clinic than ever before. We’ve had a steady increase of Island residents under the age of 65 using the Clinic for their primary care. We are seeing more Island employees, not just from the Gasparilla Inn, but from other local employers.
Expanding our Reach: Referrals and Partnerships
- Referral Network: We’ve fostered strong ties with top-tier specialty providers and networks, enhancing our referral capabilities through strategic alliances with the Sarasota Memorial Health Care System and Tampa General Hospital’s Health Ambassador Program. This streamlines and improves our referral process and provides a mechanism to get patient appointments for emergency, urgent and specialty care.
- National Connections: In addition, through a Boca Grande Health Clinic Foundation partnership, the Clinic can refer to the nation’s top hospitals and doctors to provide fast access to world-class care. And we work with national healthcare providers that our established patients use when they are not in residence on the Island.
- Smooth Referrals: Our care navigators personalize, streamline and “close the loop” on each referral, exemplifying our personalized approach to healthcare. The Clinic coordinated more than 1,200 referrals during the season. You can read more about our referral process here: https://www.bghc.org/news/healthcare/can-you-refer-me-how-it-works-at-the-clinic/.
Unwavering support
Board governance remains strong, guided by a strategic plan that continues to evolve under the stewardship of dedicated board members.
- Outgoing Board Members: I want to thank outgoing board members Tom Bowers, Charlotte Cowan, M.D. and Honey Skinner for their six years of service. The Clinic is a better place because of you, and we are forever grateful for your expertise and guidance in shaping our strategic direction.
- New Board Members: We welcome Deborah Lilly and Barry Mills as the newest members of our board of directors and we look forward to benefiting from their impressive expertise as we move into the next very exciting chapter of the Clinic.
What’s ahead?
- The Clinic of the Future: Detailed planning is moving forward with our Clinic of the Future project. We expect to begin construction of a new clinic building in April 2025. With enhanced diagnostic imaging, expanded lab services, and advanced physical and rehabilitation therapy options, all within state-of-the-art facilities that address the growing need for on-island primary care and convenience for our community, the new clinic will be a huge step forward in improving healthcare on the Island.
- EHR System: This summer, the Clinic will transition to a new electronic health record (EHR) system called Epic. Many of you may be familiar with Epic’s MyChart and use it with your providers back home. One benefit of Epic is that it automates many tasks, which will free up time for our physicians to focus even more on quality time with patients. We will provide more information about this as we work through the transition.
We are grateful for the extraordinary community support
I want to send a big “thank you” to the entire Boca Grande Health Clinic team, who rose to the challenges of the season and provided personalized, high-quality care despite record demand and tight quarters. Many patients took the time to respond to a patient satisfaction survey or sent a note of appreciation. We love to hear from you, whether it’s a suggestion or a compliment; it’s the only way we can continue to improve, so please keep them coming.
We wish everyone continued health and happiness.
Mark Driscoll
CEO, Boca Grande Health Clinic
About the Author
Mark Driscoll
Mark began leading the Clinic’s operations in July 2020. He brings with him more than 30 years of healthcare experience in service line administration, practice management, managed care, and business development. His strengths as an entrepreneurial-minded, financially grounded executive with strong performance and achievement drive and exceptional team-building skills are invaluable in his role as […]
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