Real Deal: Baylor Scott & White Health Hosts Simulation Event to Help Caregivers Learn to Treat Heart Attacks

Mayor of Temple joins patient volunteers helping caregivers practice life-saving skills

TEMPLE, Texas – How many times have you heard that practice makes perfect? For the health care professionals at Baylor Scott & White Health, the more practice, the better. When heart attacks strike and every second counts, this kind of practice can be life-saving. 

Today, Baylor Scott & White Health held a special simulation event to celebrate the work of the largest simulation lab in the Baylor Scott & White Health system. In honor of heart month, the hospital conducted its simulation focused on treatment of heart attacks.

A special guest, Danny Dunn, Mayor of Temple, participated by communicating to medical staff symptoms observed during the simulation with one of 13 specialized mannequins.  These specialized mannequins, ranging in age from neonate babies to life-size adult robot mannequins, can mimic real human responses. This program helps provide critical learning needed to discover the kind of practices that help save lives in a risk-free environment.

"This kind of learning helps our caregivers make the kind of mental maps that they can draw on in the event of a real patient situation," said Dr. Jose Pliego, director of the simulation program. "Simulation programs provide safe, hands-on learning for caregivers."

This unique program is the largest in the Baylor Scott & White Health system and has mobile capabilities. New facilities and staff benefit from the training program, which helps build competency and improve communication strategy for the teams. By honing their skills in the patient simulator's controlled environment, caregivers can be better prepared to deal with the situations they encounter in operating rooms, ERs and other real-life settings.

In addition to real human patients, the high-tech patient simulators used in the program are life-sized robot mannequins that can mimic health responses. Ranging in age from newborns to adults, the robots' capabilities include talking, breathing, bleeding, having seizures, sweating, moving, blinking and even giving birth. The sophisticated robots can respond dynamically to the treatment they are given by the clinicians – similar to their real-life counterparts. If the team takes the right steps in treatment, the robot patient improves, while the wrong moves will worsen a patient's condition. After the simulation has been completed, caregivers continue their education through extensive debriefs.

"The caregivers have the opportunity to learn with a very realistic-seeming patient while honing their skills as a team." said Dr. Pliego.That's invaluable training."

# # #

About Baylor Scott & White Health
As the largest not-for-profit health system in the state of Texas, Baylor Scott & White promotes the health and well-being of every individual, family and community it serves. It is committed to making quality care more accessible, convenient and affordable through its integrated delivery network, which includes the Baylor Scott & White Health Plan, Baylor Scott & White Research Institute, the Baylor Scott & White Quality Alliance and its leading digital health platform – MyBSWHealth. Through 51 hospitals and more than 1,200 access points, including flagship academic medical centers in Dallas, Fort Worth and Temple, the system offers the full continuum of care, from primary to award-winning specialty care. Founded as a Christian ministry of healing more than a century ago, Baylor Scott & White today serves more than three million Texans. For more information, visit: BSWHealth.com