UM Doctors Set Up Shop in Gardens Office
By Phil Galewitz, The Palm Beach Post, Fla.
Jul. 6–The University of Miami medical school continued its push into Palm Beach County this week with the opening of an internal medicine practice on PGA Boulevard.
Two doctors started working at the office Monday, and a total of five physicians will be there by November.
“We have been told many times about the lack of internists in Palm Beach County, and we wanted to bring good quality medicine to the citizens of Palm Beach County,” said Jerry Broderick, assistant chairman of the Department of Medicine at the UM’s Miller School of Medicine.
The medical school’s main attraction to Palm Beach County is the large upper-middle-class population — and the county’s world-renowned philanthropic largesse. In contrast, UM’s home in downtown Miami is known for its largely poor and uninsured clientele.
UM has operated the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute in Palm Beach Gardens for nearly a decade, and more recently has set up an affiliation with Florida Atlantic University to operate a four-year medical school at its Boca Raton campus. The university also is developing residency training programs with several county hospitals, including JFK Medical Center in Atlantis.
For the past two years, residents of the town of Palm Beach have been clamoring for a top-flight academic medical center to provide health services in or near the town — rather than just coming here to raise money.
The Cleveland Clinic in January opened a physician practice in West Palm Beach. Johns Hopkins Hospital of Baltimore opened a patient referral office on the island to help residents make travel arrangements to the hospital’s facilities in Baltimore.
Yale University is exploring opening an outpatient facility in the county.
The University of Miami plans to open a multi-speciality physician practice on the FAU campus in the fall, Broderick said. That center will be used to treat patients and educate students.
UM is still exploring having some of its doctors work at an urgent care facility in the town of Palm Beach, he said.
The five UM internists are all moving here from Detroit, where they practiced before affiliating with the medical school.
They are seeking privileges to admit patients to hospitals in northern Palm Beach County.
Patients with more serious illnesses will be referred to Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, which is closely affiliated with the UM medical school.
“We are destined to grow off our campus,” Broderick said. “If people think this is not a value added for Palm Beach County, then either they are mistaken or we are way off the mark.” Earlier this year, the Palm Beach County Medical Society reported that the county will be facing a major doctor shortage in the future because of the lack of new doctors coming to the area and the expected retirement of older doctors.
Dr. Jose Arrascue, medical society president, said the additional doctors will be welcomed if they are willing to handle emergencies and see uninsured patients.
“We just hope these doctors are fully engaged in the community,” he said.
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