Florida Trend | Florida's Business Authority

Kid friendly: South Florida hospitals are bucking the national trend on pediatric centers

For years, pediatric units have been money losers for hospitals. The flow of patients slows in summers and is generally unpredictable, leaving beds empty but staff costs constant. Plus, improvements in care and the shift toward outpatient treatment, urgent care centers and preventive care have shortened or reduced the number of patient stays.

The trend nationally has been for hospitals to close pediatric units. But in Southeast Florida, a growing population and moves to make facilities more up-todate and kid-friendly are pushing trends in the opposite direction.

Among the new investments:

  • Last year, 138-bed Palm Beach Children’s Hospital, a unit of Georgia-based Tenet Healthcare’s St. Mary’s Medical Center, opened a pediatric medical and surgical facility that features a family lounge, VIP family suites with adjacent living rooms and an Xbox in every room. Rooms don’t have numbers. Instead, they have descriptors: The “wave” room or the “turtle” room. Tenet said pediatric nurses and on-staff child development experts helped design the facility.
  • Martin Medical moved its inpatient pediatric unit from Stuart to its Tradition Medical Center in Port St. Lucie in March. The ar ea’s population didn’t support two in-patient pediatric units, and administrators came to see the best location as Tradition, where its location near I-95 provides easy access to Treasure Coast families. “It allows us to provide in-patient pediatric care in a modern, state-of-the-art hospital and better serve the area’s growing community of young families,” says spokeswoman Donna Murphy. The Tradition unit has eight private patient rooms each with bathrooms and showers, sleeping areas for parents, a PlayStation in each room, a family room with a computer workstation and kitchenette and laundry access for families.
  • Broward Health, the taxpayersupported hospital enterprise, expects to complete its large-scale renovation of the Salah Foundation Children’s Hospital in Fort Lauderdale in 2019. The $52-million project, the first major renovation since the hospital opened more than 30 years ago, began in earnest in 2016, the same year the system renamed the Chris Evert Children’s Hospital for the Salah Foundation. The foundation donated $10 million toward the project.

Business briefs and people on the move for these communities:

BOCA RATON

  • Gov. Rick Scott suspended Mayor Susan Haynie from offi ce after she was charged with three counts of offi cial misconduct and other corruption-related charges related to money she allegedly took from developers.
  • Consultant and Florida Atlantic University alumna Kathleen Brush donated $1.3 million to establish a College of Business Kathleen Brush Program for Women in Leadership. The Seattle resident was an executive with several companies.
  • The U.S. Offi ce of Naval Research awarded FAU a $1.25-million grant to work on autonomous unmanned marine vehicles.

CORAL SPRINGS

  • Optical products and services company ABB Optical acquired Jacksonville Beach-based eye care data and analytics company Glimpse Live. Terms weren’t disclosed.

DANIA BEACH

  • Liberty Property Trust paid $13.9 million to buy a 28-acre industrial site from the city of Fort Lauderdale. Liberty plans a 300,000-sq.-ft. industrial distribution space.

DELRAY BEACH

  • Developer Craig Menin and restaurateur Dennis Max plan a 30,000-sq.-ft. food hall downtown.

FORT LAUDERDALE

  • After spending at least $33 million in federal, state and local money, local governments involved in The Wave downtown street car project fi nally agreed to kill it as costs soared to $226 million for the 2.8-mile project.
  • JetBlue will locate its travel products subsidiary, which includes its JetBlue Vacations brand, travel insurance, cruises and other products, in Fort Lauderdale. It is led by Andres Barry.
  • Silver Airways acquired Seaborne Airlines’ business and assets, expanding Silver’s operation in the Caribbean, Bahamas and Florida. The combined airline, operating under two names, has a total fl eet of 31 aircraft.
  • Taplin Development opened its 150- room TRYP by Wyndham Maritime hotel, managed by Innisfree Hotels, on the Marina Mile at 168-slip Marina Bay.

HALLANDALE BEACH

  • A Louis Birdman-led partnership sold the 127-acre Diplomat Golf & Tennis Club for $43.3 million to a company held by Ari Pearl, an investor in Miami real estate. The site has approval for conversion into highrise residential or hotel development.

JENSEN BEACH

  • CarMax opened a store in Jensen Beach.

JUPITER

  • Scripps Florida won a $3.6-million grant from the National Institute of Mental Health to continue research related to autism.

PLANTATION

  • Sears closed its store, eliminating 81 jobs.

PORT ST. LUCIE

  • ABC Home Medical Supply says it will add 200 employees over 18 months to its 89-employee workforce at Prima Vista Boulevard property.

STUART

  • Miami’s Keyes Co. acquired 25-agent The Real Estate Co., led by Jim Weix. Weix’s fi rm had $40 million in sales volume last year. Keyes says it will continue to expand in Southeast Florida.

PLAYERS

  • Broward College general counsel and vice president for public policy and government affairs Gregory Adam Haile, 40, took over as the state college’s seventh president, replacing David Armstrong, who retired.
  • Deerfi eld Beach-based JM Family Enterprises appointed COO and President Brent Burns CEO, replacing Colin Brown, who remains chairman. Brown, 69, had been CEO since 2003.
  • BBX Capital CEO Alan Levan became chair of Nova Southeastern University’s board of trustees, succeeding Ron Assaf, who served as chairman for 13 years. Assaf will retain a board seat. Levan has been on the board for 18 years.

 

See other stories from Florida Trend's August issue.

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