Tampa General Hospital Honored with Healthcare Innovation Award by Joint Commission

The academic health system was recognized for integrating innovative strategies and technologies to enhance safety and quality of care.

TAMPA, Fla., Sept. 24, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Tampa General Hospital (TGH) has been recognized with the 2025 Healthcare Innovation Award by The Joint Commission, an independent, evidence-based standards-setting organization that sets the benchmark for safe, high-quality patient care through health care accreditation and certification. As the inaugural recipient of the award, Tampa General was honored for fostering a culture of innovation and advancing patient safety and quality of care using innovative solutions.

"We boldly set out with a vision of becoming one of the safest and most innovative health systems in America and have worked every day to build trust and a psychologically safe environment that lends itself to a spirit of innovation," said John Couris, president and CEO of Tampa General. "Our team recognizes that innovation is more than a buzzword and that true innovation is in solving real problems. To be successful, we need to be willing to embrace change, fail fast and learn from our missteps. This in turn will allow us to transform our approach to care coordination, patient experience, quality and safety."

Recent examples of Tampa General's continued investment in innovative strategies, solutions and partnerships include:

• Partnership with Palantir: Using Palantir's AI software to connect care coordination, enhance efficiency and improve patient outcomes has led to significant improvements, including an 83% reduction in patient placement time, a 28% decrease in PACU holds, and a 30% reduction in sepsis patient length of stay. Recently, Tampa General expanded upon this partnership by leveraging Palantir's AI platform to reimagine its centralized hub – Care Coordination Center (C3) – that uses real-time data to optimize patient flow, improve care transitions and enhance overall care coordination. It is also used to develop early warning systems to identify patients who are at high risk for critical conditions such as sepsis and congestive heart failure and accelerate clinical intervention.
• Ambient Listening Technology: Implementation of AI-powered ambient listening technology for both physicians and nursing teams to reduce administrative burden, improve documentation accuracy, and allow for more focused patient interaction.
• Partnership with Apella: This partnership transforms operating room safety and efficiency with AI-powered insights. Apella's technology utilizes AI and computer vision to predict case durations, optimize staffing, and identify opportunities for improvement, enabling data-driven decisions that lead to better surgical outcomes and patient care.
• TGH at Home: Since 2022, this hospital-at-home program, which delivers acute-level care in the comfort of patients' homes, has saved 2,200 bed days and resulted in a 30% reduction in the average patient's total cost of care, as well as increased patient satisfaction and reduced readmission rates as compared to the brick-and-mortar facility.
• TGH Ventures: Tampa General's venture capital arm invests in early-stage health care companies and fosters collaboration through entrepreneurial resources and programs like IdeaHQ (team member idea crowdsourcing), recognizing that multiple innovators drive better solutions.
• TGH Innovation Week: Launched in 2024, this event was designed to inspire team members to accelerate innovation across the system and empower them to play an active role in bringing innovative ideas to life with tangible tools and takeaways. TGH Innovation Week demonstrated Tampa General's commitment to innovation through a week-long series of keynote and breakout sessions, including the TGH Ventures Summit, which showcased the innovative solutions of early-stage companies that TGH Ventures identified as having significant potential for streamlining access to comprehensive health care, lowering costs, optimizing care delivery methods and enhancing the overall patient experience, and has directly invested in to help develop and bring these solutions into the patient care environment at Tampa General.

Tampa General has also achieved national recognition for several consecutive years for its innovative culture and initiatives, having recently been ranked as one of the "World's Best Smart Hospitals" for 2026 by Newsweek and honored among the "Hospitals and Health Systems with Great Innovation Programs" for 2025 by Becker's Hospital Review, Modern Healthcare's "Top Innovators" for 2025 and Tampa Bay Business Journal's "Inno Award" recipients for 2024.

"Our 2025 award recipients shine a spotlight on how bold innovation and unwavering commitment to patient-centered care are transforming the landscape of health care quality and safety," said Jonathan B. Perlin, MD, PhD, president and chief executive officer of Joint Commission. "Congratulations to Tampa General Hospital, whose work inspires us all to challenge convention, embrace collaboration and harness data-driven insights to improve care for every patient."

Scott Arnold, executive vice president and chief digital and innovation officer of Tampa General, accepted the award on behalf of the academic health system during a special session at UNIFY™ 2025: Convening for Quality, Joint Commission's inaugural health care leadership conference that brought together more than 850 health care leaders, clinicians, changemakers, and quality and safety experts to discuss the industry's most pressing challenges.

"Health care innovation is moving faster than ever, and our focus is on rapidly pinpointing the partners and solutions that will drive the greatest impact for our providers, team members and patients, and meaningfully implementing them across our system to coordinate and deliver the best care possible," said Arnold. "We are honored to be recognized by Joint Commission, a steadfast partner in ensuring our patients receive safe, high-quality care, for this important work."

The Healthcare Innovation Award honors an organization for its steadfast commitment to advancing the frontiers of health care. Honorees set innovation as a core pillar of their respective organizations, creating new standards of excellence and fostering an environment where new ideas are cultivated, and bold solutions are pursued. More information about the Healthcare Innovation Award, including the full list of honorees, is available here.

ABOUT TAMPA GENERAL HOSPITAL

Tampa General Hospital, the Tampa Bay region's only academic health system, is a 1,529-bed not-for-profit network of hospital and outpatient services spanning across Florida. As the only center for Level l trauma and comprehensive burn care center serving 23 counties, Tampa General delivers world-class care. The system's hospitals include Tampa General Hospital, Tampa General Rehabilitation Hospital, Tampa General Behavioral Health Hospital, all in Tampa; Tampa General Brooksville, Tampa General Spring Hill and Tampa General Crystal River. Tampa General is the highest-ranked hospital in Tampa Bay in U.S. News & World Report's 2025-2026 Best Hospitals, with six medical specialties ranking among the top 50 in the nation and five additional medical specialties ranked among the top 10% best hospital programs in the United States. As the first hospital in Florida to open a clinical command center for real-time situational awareness, the academic health system has elevated its digital care coordination center to the next level by leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) and its analytics platform across inpatient and outpatient care to ensure patients receive leading-edge care as quickly and safely as possible. Tampa General's commitment to growing and developing its team members is recognized by three prestigious Forbes magazine rankings — in the 2025 America's Best Large Employers, the top 40 in Florida in the 2025 America's Best Employers by State and the 2023 America's Best Employers for Women.

Tampa General is the area's safety-net hospital, caring for anyone regardless of ability to pay; in fiscal year 2023, Tampa General provided a net community benefit of approximately $301.8 million in the form of health care for underinsured patients, community education and financial support to community health organizations in Tampa Bay. It was the nation's No. 1 adult solid organ transplant center in 2024 and is the primary teaching hospital for the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine. With five medical helicopters, Tampa General transports critically injured or ill patients from surrounding counties to receive the advanced care their conditions require. Tampa General has a nationally accredited comprehensive stroke center and its 32-bed Neuroscience, Intensive Care Unit is the largest on the West Coast of Florida. It is home to the Muma Children's Hospital at TGH, the Jennifer Leigh Muma 82-bed neonatal intensive care unit and a nationally accredited rehabilitation center. Tampa General's footprint includes TGH North, which consists of three hospitals and several outpatient locations in Citrus and Hernando counties; 17 Tampa General Medical Group Primary Care offices; TGH Family Care Center Kennedy; two TGH outpatient centers; TGH Virtual Health; and 19 TGH Imaging outpatient radiology centers throughout Hillsborough, Pasco, Pinellas and Palm Beach counties. Tampa Bay area residents receive world-class care from the TGH Urgent Care, powered by the Fast Track network of clinics. To see a medical care professional live anytime, anywhere on a smartphone, tablet or computer, visit Virtual Health | Tampa General Hospital (tgh.org). For more information, go to www.tgh.org.

Media Contact: Karen Barrera
Sr Dir MarComm Media & Partnerships
(813) 844-8725
[email protected] 

SOURCE Tampa General Hospital