No Trauma Here
Trauma Services Not Likely to Be Offered in Jackson’s Newly Acquired North Dade Hospital

Jackson North Medical Center may have a helicopter pad, but it won’t be taking in gunshot and accident victims anytime soon.

“It requires a lot of infrastructure and logistics.”

By Randy Abraham

On Dec. 17, Parkway Regional Medical Center effectively became Jackson North Medical Center, a month after the Miami-Dade County Commission approved the $35 million acquisition of Parkway from the for-profit hospital giant Tenet Healthcare Corp.

Although the dust hasn’t settled yet on the purchase, the county’s Public Health Trust, which operates Jackson Memorial Hospital and Jackson South in the Cutler Ridge area, will soon begin reviewing operations at the former Parkway, said Keith Boyermaster, a spokesman for the county’s public health system. He noted that existing services in pediatrics, obstetrics/gynecology, orthopedics and cardiology, and the Wound Care Clinic, Sleep Lab and Pain Institute will remain, and possibly be augmented if additional community needs are identified. “Jackson Memorial is always reviewing service lines,” Boyermaster said.

Marilyn Baumoehl, president of the North Miami Beach Civic Association, welcomes the changeover. She said her grandson was once forced to wait in Parkway’s emergency room waiting area for four hours with a broken arm, and her later dealings with Parkway were just as unsatisfactory. “I think this will be a plus for the area, and I’m glad that Jackson took over Parkway. I think North Miami Beach will see better service, and I hope care for local children improves. We have a lot more families with young children moving into the area.”

One service that probably won’t be offered is trauma care, a high-tech, often life-and-death surgical service for victims of severe auto collisions, falls, gunshots and stabbings. In the early 1980s, Parkway was one of several for-profit hospitals in Miami-Dade that forged a trauma network with Jackson. Parkway still has a rooftop helicopter landing pad from those days, but the plan to decentralize trauma services countywide fell apart almost as soon as it was launched, mostly due to funding issues – all the private, for-profit hospitals said they weren’t receiving enough to cover the service, and dropped out of the network. “I’m not aware of plans to offer trauma service at Jackson North; it requires a lot of infrastructure and logistics,” said Boyermaster.

That position didn’t sit well with North Miami Beach resident Ken Gulstrand, who lives a block from the hospital. “This area needs it. In the North Miami-Dade area we don’t have a trauma center,” said Gulstrand, an NMB Civic Association board member who said he hopes to meet with city and hospital officials to discuss area medical needs. Even without trauma services, however, Gulstrand said he welcomes the arrival of Jackson. Gulstrand said previous attempts to suggest additional medical services were rejected by past Parkway officials who cited corporate cost restraints, and he hopes the public, not-for-profit nature of Jackson will bring a difference. “Over the years we had problems with Parkway. Parkway never wanted to work with this neighborhood, and we look forward to working with Jackson.”

Medical officials agree trauma is not something you can put on every block; the staff must be kept busy and their skills sharp from continual practice or they get “rusty,” and allowing too many providers in the area could dilute the quality of care. Jackson Memorial in downtown Miami is ranked as a level 1 trauma center by the Florida Chapter of the American College of Surgeons, as is Broward General Medical Center in downtown Fort Lauderdale. Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood is a level 2 trauma center, and Miami Children’s Hospital in South Miami-Dade operates a pediatric trauma center. Five years ago, Westside Regional Medical Center in the western Broward County community of Plantation applied to develop a trauma center, but was opposed by the North Broward Hospital System, which operates the public hospitals approximately north of the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, and the professional body of trauma and emergency medical professionals. Westside, owned by HCA Healthcare – formerly Columbia HCA Healthcare – dropped the proposal in the face of opposition.

However, the late Dave Samson, a community activist who as head of the Concerned Citizens of North Dade helped the Public Health Trust’s campaign for a penny sales tax to fund indigent care, had insisted – until he died in 2003 as founding mayor of Sunny Isles Beach – that Public Health Trust leaders assured him after the successful passage of the sales tax initiative that trauma would be provided in North Miami-Dade.

Tenet still operates local hospitals, including Palmetto General, Coral Gables Hospital, North Shore Medical Center, Hialeah Hospital and West Boca Medical Center, said Frank Canonica, an executive with Tenet’s South Florida network. Tenet also recently sold Hollywood Medical Center to the South Broward Hospital District, operators of Memorial Regional, as well as 49 percent share of Cleveland Clinic Florida in Weston to the Cleveland Clinic Foundation. Although Canonica said the two sales transactions were unrelated, the day before Tenet announced it would sell off a number of its hospitals it had entered into an agreement with the federal government to settle a U.S. Department of Justice Medicare and Medicaid investigation for $900 million. So far, Tenet has paid $725 million to settle charges of overbilling and other alleged offenses.

Nearly all current employees at the 382-bed hospital will keep their jobs, said Boyermaster, and interviews for a chief administrative officer have begun. Sandy Sears, senior vice resident of the Jackson Memorial Health System, is serving as interim CAO until a permanent candidate is fielded, he said.