Cornerstone of the Clinical enterprise
New University of Miami Hospital Expands Region’s Health Service

or the first time in its 55-year history, the Miller School of Medicine has a hospital to call its own. On December 1 the former Cedars Medical Center officially became the University of Miami Hospital. The 560-bed facility, which has single rooms for all patients, is located just across from the medical campus on Northwest 12th Avenue.

“This is a great opportunity for the University to own its own hospital and develop services that are totally unique in the region and to serve patients in Miami, South Florida, and beyond in a way that no other hospital can,” said Miller School Dean Pascal J. Goldschmidt, M.D. “The type of very sophisticated care we are planning to develop can only happen if we control the delivery of care from the time a patient makes an appointment to the time the patient leaves the hospital.”

The University’s Executive Committee and full Board of Trustees voted in late October to give UM senior officers the authority to complete the purchase with HCA. The deal closed on November 30, with ownership changing hands the next day.

At a town hall meeting a few days before the sale closing, Goldschmidt told faculty and staff that the new hospital will be the cornerstone of the University of Miami clinical enterprise. “Building a health system by greatly expanding our clinical operations has been one of the major points in our strategic plan,” said Goldschmidt. “We must now take the next step and make our medical center the most patient-centric place on earth.”

The Miller School will continue to strengthen its ties with the Jackson Health System by expanding existing programs in such areas as acute cardiac and stroke care, neurological and orthopaedic surgery, pediatrics, obstetrics, organ transplant, and trauma at Jackson Memorial Hospital while concentrating in areas such as cardiology, urology, orthopaedics, internal medicine, and several others at the University of Miami Hospital.