Undersea Oxygen Clinic - New Chamber Available in Tampa

[Michael F]

Michael F, we as American Citizens here, it helps to know how to work with and apply the system (i.e. US Dept of Health & Human Services -getting help in applying for and writing a proposal for a Monetary Grant in Need, for example) -instead of uselessly whining why it can't be done -like the idiots below- because of redtape bureaucracy, state gov't politics and malpractice litigation. See link to a major source of these funds below.




There are numerous rural health grant opportunities aimed at improving the quality of health care in rural areas made available to hospitals in the form of public grants, federally-funded demonstration projects, and private grants. The single best resource for federal funding of rural health grant programs is Grants.gov

https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/le...-services.html

Y'all are Federal Taxpayers too -how come you Florida Dive Community Residents are too stupid to know what your resources are???

If you ain't helping to find the solution, then y'all are part of the problem. . .

Kevrumbo, as much as I appreciate your stamina and drive to push this concept, I think it could be more productive to remain friendly, polite, and respectful of others even if they have a different opinion than yours.

I really appreciate the myriad of approaches and resources you have compiled and presented. Please try to work more diplomatically and maybe we can find a solution. Thanks,

Michael
Just a diver that loves Caves and Cave Country.

[bent]

Kevrumbo, as much as I appreciate your stamina and drive to push this concept, I think it could be more productive to remain friendly, polite, and respectful of others even if they have a different opinion than yours.

I really appreciate the myriad of approaches and resources you have compiled and presented. Please try to work more diplomatically and maybe we can find a solution. Thanks,

Michael
Just a diver that loves Caves and Cave Country.

I think he's just trolling at this point. He keeps posting the exact same stuff over and over again.

[Jack Hammer]

I think he's just trolling at this point. He keeps posting the exact same stuff over and over again.

Well if we'd all just convert to using Ratio Deco for all our dive planning we'd never get bent or need a chamber... just ask him how that's been working out for him

Sent from my SM-G900T using Tapatalk

[Kevrumbo]

Pardon my ignorance if this item has already been flogged but have Government officials been petitioned to enhance services at Shands to better serve divers?

I suppose the tourism $ created by Cave divers and OW divers in Florida isn't sufficient in their minds to justify the expense. . .

There is no evidence offered here on Cave Diver's Forum that any state department of health or state/federal gov't representative being aware of or helping to resolve the problem at Shands UF Gainesville.

For starters, DAN should be able to offer some advice to the local dive community and possibly help on how bring this urgent need to the attention of state gov't officials.

The crisis and Shands chamber has been discussed ad nauseum, but this more likely is a study in hospital economics 101, which has effected the whole state. . .

Shands UF is not a private medical center subject to basic for-profit economic models.. Do you understand?

N. Florida residents and the local dive community are being vitally underserved by a taxpayer supported public University of Florida School of Medicine and Regional Level 1 Trauma Center in Gainesville. You as state taxpayers are entitled to a higher quality of critical care improvement based on this level 1 trauma designation -go demand for it and get it instead of ignorantly rationalizing it away as due to basic "hospital economics 101".

. . . Florida has added a new facility that can be helpful in less severe cases. That's a win in my book. . .

"Florida" per se has nothing to do with this new clinic. The OP is an example of a private stand alone for-profit facility and a temporary band-aid solution that may very well dissolve again like all the other private ventures tried there before up in N/NW Florida. This is NOT a state funded and run, taxpayer supported facility.

The last thing I want to do is aggravate people but if we don't make an effort to find a solution it will never improve. . .

. . .I saw a reference to contacting various Florida officials concerning funding but I didn't see anything on the concept of funding/support/or promotion of having the chamber at Shands available for divers and/or in a standby capacity.

I will admit that I don't have the answer or possibly enough understanding of the complexity of a solution, however, I believe that if not working towards a solution we are accepting status quo. End of story. . .

Working on getting a 6ATA Multiplace w/ Auxiliary Lock Hyperbaric Chamber for Shands UF Gainesville with Federal Grant Money is the most viable solution they have. It's the best permanent and sustainable model, again because of its state publicly funded medical school, level 1 trauma center designation, and better legal protection and immunity.

They have to start "trolling" their elected state and/or federal government officials to help them resolve this crisis and implement this very workable solution. . .

[MarkR]

You as state taxpayers are entitled to a higher quality of critical care improvement based on this level 1 trauma designation -go demand for it and get it instead of ignorantly rationalizing it away as due to basic "hospital economics 101".

You almost had me on your side until you start with this nonsense. On what planet are you entitled to some service just because you pay taxes and need it for your own specific need? ..paid for by a vast majority that would never use it.

And Shands does still have to operate within a budget. Perhaps California could learn a thing or two about that.

That doesn't mean I would not appreciate and work towards that same model that you keep presenting. Only that the "hold my breath and make demands loudly" approach would not be a strategy I would support.

[Kevrumbo]

You almost had me on your side until you start with this nonsense. On what planet are you entitled to some service just because you pay taxes and need it for your own specific need? ..paid for by a vast majority that would never use it.

And Shands does still have to operate within a budget. Perhaps California could learn a thing or two about that.

That doesn't mean I would not appreciate and work towards that same model that you keep presenting. Only that the "hold my breath and make demands loudly" approach would not be a strategy I would support.

Because the rationale is that you have a state publicly funded university school of medicine and research center with a serious deficiency and lack of capability to treat critical DCI casualties, despite being state designated as a Regional Level 1 Trauma Center. And from looking through the Shands UF Medical Center/School of Medicine website, there doesn't seem to be a dedicated Department of Hyperbaric Medicine after all, nor even as a sub-specialty of Emergency Medicine --only a small off-campus mono-chamber type M-F/9-5 clinic for general outpatient wound care.

So the motivation and justification is there as the state's primary public medical school and research/teaching hospital, to secure gov't funding and with private donations (and that's coming from Florida businesses like Dive Rite, Halcyon etc and from you -the Florida Resident Dive Community) to establish a dedicated on-campus Department of Hyperbaric Medicine with a large 6ATA Multiplace Chamber, able to treat the entire spectrum of patient care --from burns, diabetic wounds, gangrene, CO poisoning etc as inpatients/outpatients, to worst case 24/7 emergency near-drowning DCI casualties in support of the Level 1 Trauma Center.

[rddvet]

Because the rationale is that you have a state publicly funded university school of medicine and research center with a serious deficiency and lack of capability to treat critical DCI casualties, despite being state designated as a Regional Level 1 Trauma Center. And from looking through the Shands UF Medical Center/School of Medicine website, there doesn't seem to be a dedicated Department of Hyperbaric Medicine after all, nor even as a sub-specialty of Emergency Medicine --only a small off-campus mono-chamber type M-F/9-5 clinic for general outpatient wound care.

So the motivation and justification is there as the state's primary public medical school and research/teaching hospital, to secure gov't funding and with private donations (and that's coming from Florida businesses like Dive Rite, Halcyon etc and from you -the Florida Resident Dive Community) to establish a dedicated on-campus Department of Hyperbaric Medicine with a large 6ATA Multiplace Chamber, able to treat the entire spectrum of patient care --from burns, diabetic wounds, gangrene, CO poisoning etc as inpatients/outpatients, to worst case 24/7 emergency near-drowning DCI casualties in support of the Level 1 Trauma Center.

Thanks so much. We'll get right on it. You're help has been great. We'll give you a call when we're done with all of that in a couple years. In the meantime we'll be very busy so don't bother us. We promise we'll let you know when we need more of your help.

Talk soon,
-Everybody in Florida.

[Michael F]

There is no evidence offered here on Cave Diver's Forum that any state department of health or state/federal gov't representative being aware of or helping to resolve the problem at Shands UF Gainesville.


For starters, DAN should be able to offer some advice to the local dive community and possibly help on how bring this urgent need to the attention of state gov't officials.

Funny that you say that. During my discussions with DAN the other day, the medic offered to put me through to someone more familiar with starting the ball rolling with getting action at Shands.

He assured me that DAN was familiar and experienced with the process to provoke government funding and support for the idea. I declined his offer, as I'm only another foreigner who visits a few times per year.

If anyone of my US Cave diving brothers would be interested, please call DAN and see what you can discover. Why not invest a bit of time in a phone call, it might be productive. PM me if I can assist in any way.

If DAN thinks it has possibilities, maybe it could be accomplished.

[Kevrumbo]

Funny that you say that. During my discussions with DAN the other day, the medic offered to put me through to someone more familiar with starting the ball rolling with getting action at Shands.

He assured me that DAN was familiar and experienced with the process to provoke government funding and support for the idea. I declined his offer, as I'm only another foreigner who visits a few times per year.

If anyone of my US Cave diving brothers would be interested, please call DAN and see what you can discover. Why not invest a bit of time in a phone call, it might be productive. PM me if I can assist in any way.

If DAN thinks it has possibilities, maybe it could be accomplished.

Of course it is possible and can be accomplished because the emergent medical need is so clearly obvious:

It doesn't make sense for a major public teaching hospital and level one trauma center like Shands/UF Medical Center Gainesville to potentially triage out an acute DCI casualty two hours drive time or medevac flight down south to Tampa, to a small stand-alone private hyperbaric facility like Undersea Oxygen Clinic with no Advanced Cardiac Life Support contingency or certification. That's an absolutely absurd scenario and gross public health service failure of the state's trauma care system.

Shands/UF Medical Center Gainesville deserves a large 6 ATA Multiplace Recompression Chamber with Auxiliary Lock Entrance to treat all routine inpatient/outpatient patients, as well as 24/7 emergency support of acute to critical DCI/near drowning dive accidents & casualties.

[Kelly Jessop]

Moderator's note- Kevrumbo you are starting to tread outside the line of civil discussion. We are aware of your views, and this forum has heard it repetitively,but keep responses free of insults.