HCA Florida Bayonet Point Hospital Response to NBC News

We value the input and leadership of our medical staff members at HCA Florida Bayonet Point Hospital. In addition to seeking input from physicians through informal relationships, we have medical staff department meetings, medical executive committees, physician relations teams assigned to get feedback from individual physicians, and annual physician voice surveys.

It’s important to note that we have more physicians practicing at our hospital than ever before. We are able to attract physicians due to the systems we have in place that help improve quality.

The board did not confirm Dr. Giannakopoulos to continue as Chief of Staff because of repeated instances of inappropriate and unprofessional behavior, including threatening, yelling at, and berating staff, physicians and hospital administrators.

We take quality issues very seriously, no matter who raises them. We rely on feedback from our physicians, and when issues are validated we take necessary action. For example, physician feedback led to changes in the staffing and administration of the anesthesiology department.

Dr. Giannakopoulos references an “unanimous” vote of the medical staff; it is important to note that 20 eligible voters attended the meeting, 12 voted, and he received 11 votes.

In each of our approximately 79,000 annual patient encounters at HCA Florida Bayonet Point Hospital, we strive to give every one of our patients the high-quality care they want and deserve. As a learning hospital, we are continually looking for ways to improve patient safety and quality of care. We apply those learnings, including reports by both federal and state regulators, to ensure best practices for quality care are in place.

HCA Florida Bayonet Point Hospital is appropriately staffed to ensure the safe care of our patients. There are no mandated staffing ratios in Florida.

The Florida Agency for Healthcare Administration’s (AHCA) role is to ensure quality and safety of all Florida hospitals, and we work closely with AHCA to ensure we meet or exceed its standards. The surveys completed by AHCA in 2021 and 2022 at HCA Florida Bayonet Point Hospital identified issues, and we worked with AHCA to resolve those issues successfully. Today, our hospital is in good standing with all regulatory and accrediting bodies, including AHCA.

We view AHCA’s role as essential to ensuring the safety of all Florida hospitals. Its guidance and partnership make all hospitals better.

We strive to deliver superior care to our patients during every interaction. We continually look for ways to improve patient safety and quality of care. The reports referenced were issued based on 2017-19 data, and since that time we have improved our performance. HCA Florida Bayonet Point Hospital has made improvements on mortalities and readmissions measures, two of the measures that impacted its star rating.

Growth in Pasco, Hernando and Citrus has created capacity constraints throughout the hospital. To meet the increasing demand to treat patients with complex health conditions, we are investing $85 million in the new patient tower to meet the community’s needs for rehabilitation services, expanded medical and surgical services, and critical care. In the past three years we have invested an additional $123 million to improve and upgrade many areas of the hospital. Specifically, we renovated and expanded our ER and updated our Post-Anesthesia Care Unit, Preoperative/Holding Area, and Central Sterile Processing Unit. Additionally, we made upgrades to the cafeteria and common areas, invested in new equipment and general maintenance, including repairing minor roof damage.