Newly Dedicated Diane Clark Patient Simulation, Education, and Safety Center at Northside Hospital Gwinnett

Cliff Clark, President and CEO of Discovery Point Franchising, decided to honor his late wife, Diane by making a multi-year lead gift to name Northside Gwinnett hospital’s new patient simulation, education and safety center after Diane.

Medical education has traditionally relied upon the use of live patients for training nurses, therapists, and physicians about new techniques and procedures. Increasing patient acuity, technology, cost containment, and focus on safety have changed traditional workplace education models in healthcare.  Textbook information is certainly the foundation for quality patient care practice, but what if a patient doesn’t behave like the textbook says?  Simulation allows the learner to safely apply textbook knowledge to the world of real patient scenarios.

The new space will provide sufficient simulator rooms designed for the variety of practice settings found in the hospital, such as a Labor and Delivery room, an Emergency Department Trauma room, a Medical-Surgical department room, an OR, and a Critical Care room. Realism is an essential requirement of effective Simulation training, because the human mind doesn’t transfer learning very well from a clearly “fake” environment to the “real” environment.  Simulations by definition require the replication of nearly all of the essential aspects of a clinical situation.  That’s the reason why airlines and the military have relied heavily on simulation to train their team members to perform reliably and safely.

·        Graduate Medical Education is a real priority for Northside Gwinnett and across the system.

·        For a county as large as Gwinnett, this program is helping us tremendously to recruit and retain talented physicians for our community. 

·        Wherever a physician completes their residency training often times that determines where they will begin their practice.  Northside is committed to growing and training our own world class physicians here and the Clark Center is a very important piece to that puzzle.

·        The Clark Center will also be a continuing resource for teaching, learning and sharpening the skills for physicians and all of our healthcare providers.

On July 12, 2021, Senior Leaders from Northside Gwinnett joined Cliff Clark and the Discovery Point corporate staff in the dedication of the new Clark Simulation, Education, and Safety Center.

To learn more about this innovative addition to Northside Hospital, click HERE.