In the second quarter of 2022, thanks to the community’s support, Morton Plant Mease Health Care Foundation granted your not-for-profit hospitals more than $4 million in support of one program and six capital projects. Please refer to the following descriptions highlighting key grants supported in the second quarter:

Morton Plant Hospital Electrophysiology Lab
Morton Plant Hospital's cardiac electrophysiology program is a full-service rhythm program from testing to diagnosis to treatment of any type of arrhythmia, including atrial fibrillation (AFib), ventricular tachycardia, supraventricular tachycardia, and atrial flutter. As a leader of cardiac electrophysiology, Morton Plant Hospital performs the most complex procedures, and complex ablation volume continues to increase. Over the ensuing years, technology, procedures, and approaches to cardiovascular care have continued to grow and evolve. The current system in Lab # 1 was installed in 2009 and does not have the ability to perform complex ablations, hindering operations and volume. This leaves only two labs for eight EP physicians to perform complex ablations. Despite this limitation, complex ablation volume continues to grow and is expected to continue to grow over the next few years. Upgrading Lab # 1 will allow Morton Plant Hospital to better service our community, patients, and providers.

Ventilators for Morton Plant and Mease Countryside Hospitals 
New ventilators were needed to safely and effectively manage our mechanically ventilated newborns with the same vents being used at the other BayCare facilities. This allows the hospitals the ability to utilize modes of ventilation that are not readily available on the present vents and standardizes the type of vent our caregivers are familiar with. The new vents are interchangeable and can be used with both adult and pediatric patients.

LUCAS Training Device for Nursing Education
Our hospital Emergency Departments have LUCAS chest compression systems for emergency codes that occur within the unit. The LUCAS devices are also brought to codes that occur in other hospital units. The LUCAS device has been shown to improve the quality of chest compressions. Funding for this grant helped provide a LUCAS training device for the nursing education team on the Mease Dunedin Hospital campus to ensure optimal training and use of the device for our team members.

Pediatric Mental Health Support
Since the pandemic, the hospital has seen a significant increase in admissions of pediatric Baker Act patients and there are limited resources for those patients. There has also been an increase in mental health issues stemming from the pandemic. Teenagers are finding themselves with added stressors, social isolation, and mental health diagnoses. Each of these patients is assigned a sitter to provide access to more social interaction rather than being isolated. Examples of items included in this request range from activity books, card games, puzzles, and board games.

Morton Plant Hospital Cardiac Rehab Telemetry
The Morton Plant Hospital Cardiac Rehabilitation program is one of the largest in BayCare and the state. The program cares for patients who are post cardiac surgeries including, but not limited to bypass, Aortic valve, Mitral valve, TAVR, PCI. Other diagnoses include Angina, Congestive Heart failure, and post MI. The current system has reached end of life and the new system allows the hospital to monitor patients while they are exercising and communicates directly with our existing patient safety software, which the current system does not allow. A new telemetry system will provide reliable documentation and the ability to admit additional patients to the program.

To learn more about the projects funded by your community investments at the not-for-profit hospitals of Morton Plant Mease, please contact Eric Barsema, Director of Community Impact, at (727) 461-8647 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..