Simulation Technologies And Training Center

By some estimates, over 90,000 people die each year because of medical mistakes. Simulator-based education is designed to reduce those statistics. Greenville Tech's STAT (Simulation Technologies and Training Center) Center will serve over 3,500 allied health and nursing students. Eight lifelike environments including an outdoor scene, indoor scene, emergency room, labor and delivery area, neonatal resuscitation, standard patient room, operating room, and specialty room such as ICU or pediatric ICU are part of the 3,800 square foot facility on Greenville Tech's Barton Campus.

Simulators have drastically changed the quality of education provided in the allied health and nursing programs at Greenville Tech, says Mike Fisher of Greenville Tech's center. "Up until 10 or 15 years ago, our practice in medicine has always been on real humans. Now we have simulators that respond to medications, treatments, and oxygen or a lack of it. We can program them to have any condition you can imagine, and the students have to deal with it, yet if they make a mistake, the patient isn't harmed," Fisher says.

Greenville Tech's center is pioneering in its scope. While many colleges have nursing and paramedic students learning with human patient simulators, Fisher knows of no other college that is using the tool across all health programs. Radiologic technology students, for example, learn how to handle situations that might occur while giving patients x-rays. Dental students learn what to do if a patient should unexpectedly experience an allergic reaction, heart attack or seizure while in the dental chair.

In 2005, the state of South Carolina provided $5 million to help Health Sciences South Carolina (HSSC) establish a center of economic excellence in clinical effectiveness and patient safety. One part of that included establishing a statewide network of simulation centers aimed at improving healthcare education, and with it, patient care and safety. The first of those centers -- the Greenville HealthCare Simulation Center -- is a partnership between Greenville Hospital System and Greenville Technical College.

Greenville Tech's STAT Center is considered a satellite location for HSSC, developing the skills of future nurses, paramedics and allied health professionals, while the Greenville HealthCare Simulation Center provides orientation, skill review and further education for people who work in the profession. 

Affiliate Partners
Greenville HealthCare Simulation Center
Health Care Simulation South Carolina 
Health Sciences South Carolina

Simulation Suppliers
B-Line Medical 
Gaumard 
Kb Port 
Laerdal Medical
METI