On December 12, South Miami civic and community leaders and guests joined Baptist Health executives to celebrate the completion of South Miami Hospital’s $80 million expansion and renovation project. A beaming hospital CEO Lincoln Mendez greeted guests and lead a tour of the new facility.
And after other welcoming remarks from South Miami Mayor Stoddard and surgeon Jorge Rabaza, M.D., rather than the all-to-predictable “ribbon-cutting,” Miami-Dade County Fire Rescue Unit 14, located in South Miami, revved-up its engine, and with lights flashing and sirens wailing, pulled out of the driveway with the ceremonial ribbon attached, thus opening the entrance to the new Emergency Center.
The first floor of the two-story project houses the new Emergency Center which is nearly double in size, increasing its total number of treatment rooms from 21 to 40. In 2011, ER visits totaled 30,941. Above the Emergency Center on the second floor, the hospital’s surgical services have expanded to 16 state-of-the-art surgical suites including the Center for Robotic Surgery which will provide thousands of robotic-assisted surgeries performed each year.
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- Physicians Ted Feldman, M.D., medical director of The Heart Center, Jorge Rabaza, M.D., chief of surgery, and radiologist Adam Geronemus, M.D., with CEO Lincoln Mendez.
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- Dr. Jorge Rabaza demonstrating the Da Vinci® Robotic Surgerical System.
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- South Miami Hospital CEO Lincoln Mendez, and Baptist Health South Florida COO, D. Wayne Brackin.
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- Baptist Health South Florida Foundation Chair Rudy Kranys and Lois Russell.
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- Lee Stapleton, Esq., Baptist Health Enterprises Board member, Yvonne Johnson, M.D., president, South Miami Hospital medical staff, and radiation oncologist Maria- Amelia Rodrigues, M.D.
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- Celebrating the opening are: Ivan Mladenovic, RSMA President, CEO Mendez, Chamber South Board Chairman Zac Hall and Chamber President Mary Scott Russell.
