Tampa General Hospital performed its first kidney transplant in 1974 and by 1985 had completed Florida’s first successful heart transplant. In October of this year, they hit the ten-thousand transplant mark.
TGH is also the primary teaching facility for the University of South Florida Health Morsani College of Medicine.
“Our private practice physicians and our university physicians represent world-class quality, and through the transplantation program, we are going to provide it to people where they live and where they work across the state,” said John Couris, president and CEO of Tampa General Hospital.
According to Couris, transplantation is one of the most sophisticated and complicated work in healthcare.
He explained with the number of transplants that TGH performs, the skills of the medical practitioners also improves, leading to better quality and safety in clinical outcomes.
"So volume equals proficiency, and proficiency equals high degrees of quality clinical outcomes in patient safety," said Couris.
A large number of the procedures are adult solid organ transplants. These include heart, lung, liver, kidney, and pancreas transplants.
TGH is planning on adding new transplant procedures as well.
“We are moving towards live liver transplants, which is a big deal,” said Couris.
The hospital is expanding its service area, by adding a transplant institute at Lee Health in Fort Myers.
Copyright 2018 WUSF Public Media - WUSF 89.7