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Boynton Panel Backs Bethesda Heart Center Hospital Moves Ahead on Plan for Heart Center

Posted on: Friday, 1 July 2005, 03:01 CDT

Plans to construct a four-story comprehensive heart center at Bethesda Memorial Hospital got a boost Tuesday from the Boynton Beach Planning and Development Board.

Board members unanimously recommended approval of the 86,167- square-foot addition to the northeast corner of the hospital. The addition is set to open its doors in 2007. The city commission is expected vote on the project in July.

"It's a pleasure to see what's being accomplished," said board member Shirley Jaskiewicz. "This fits in perfectly with the demographics of this city."

The new wing would house examination rooms, preparation and recovery areas, laboratory space, nursing stations, offices and eight patient rooms.

Bethesda Chief Executive Officer Robert Hill said a heart center in Boynton Beach will save lives because patients will no longer have to be transferred to other facilities for emergency heart surgeries.

"They weren't getting the same level of care," Hill said. "We can now provide those services."

The construction plan for the heart center marks a milestone for nonprofit Bethesda considering how long it took to win approval for such a facility.

For nearly 20 years, the state's nonprofit hospitals waged a legal battle with for-profit hospital chains Tenet Healthcare Corp. and HCA Inc. over which facilities should offer heart surgery in the region.

In a settlement agreement reached in December, four nonprofit hospitals - Bethesda, Boca Raton Community Hospital, Martin Memorial Medical Center in Stuart and Indian River Memorial Hospital in Vero Beach - received approval to begin offering the heart procedures.

Four hospitals in Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast already perform open-heart surgery: Tenet's Delray Medical Center, Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center, HCA's JFK Medical Center in Atlantis, and Lawnwood Regional Medical Center and Heart Institute in Fort Pierce.

Hill said the main reason Boynton Beach needed a community heart center was also the simplest.

"Coronary artery disease is still the number one killer in this country."

will_vash@pbpost.com

Source: Palm Beach Post

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