St. Petersburg Hospital Wins International HealthImpact Daisy Award

St. Petersburg, FL (November 27, 2024) – Orlando Health Bayfront Hospital’s emergency room team won the 2024 HealthImpact DAISY Nurse Leader Team Award in Compassionate Policy, for their work to advance care for patients struggling with addiction.

On Tuesday, November 26, 2024, the Daisy Foundation along with the HealthImpact organization surprised Emergency Room Director Stefan Sumby, team members and the program’s partners virtually with the announcement. The Pinellas Matters program, is a partnership between the hospital, Pinellas County and Operation Par that provides patients facing addiction access to detoxification, rehabilitation and other harm reduction services.

“In 2022, more than 500 people lost their lives to accidental overdoses,” said Sumby. “It has been an honor to work with my team and our partners to provide underserved patients comprehensive solutions through the Pinellas Matters program.”

The award is given annually to nurses who show compassion for underserved communities through hospital policy change. Through Pinellas Matters, more than 1500 patients struggling with addiction have been helped since 2022 at the St. Petersburg hospital.

About Orlando Health

Orlando Health is a private not-for-profit, integrated academic healthcare system with $12 billion of assets under management, that serves the southeastern United States – including Florida and Alabama – and Puerto Rico. With corporate offices in Orlando, Florida the system provides a complete continuum of care across a network of medical centers and institutes, community and specialty hospitals, physician practices, urgent care facilities, skilled nursing facilities, home healthcare, and long-term and behavioral health care services. Founded more than 100 years ago, Orlando Health’s mission is to improve the health and the quality of life of the individuals and communities we serve. The system provided nearly $1.7 billion in community impact in the form of community benefit programs and services, Medicare shortfalls, bad debt, community-building activities and capital investments in FY 23, the most recent period for which the information is available. For more information, visit orlandohealth.com, or follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and X (formerly Twitter.)