Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital Bringing Specialized Pediatric Care To Wellington
Wellington provides a unique quality of life filled with an abundance of parks, quality schools, charming neighborhoods and engaging equestrian interests. Joining the community will be Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital, with its first pediatric specialty center in Wellington set to open its doors in early 2019.
The new center will be the largest specialty center outside of the four-floor freestanding children’s hospital. Known in South Florida as one of the region’s leading pediatric hospitals, Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital offers a comprehensive scope of healthcare services and programs in a child-friendly environment. Located in Hollywood, the pediatric hospital has several satellite physician offices throughout Broward County and southern Palm Beach County.
The Wellington location, which has already broken ground, is located on State Road 7, north of Lake Worth Road and south of Forest Hill Blvd. The new specialty center is a 30,000-square-foot facility and will house board-certified pediatric specialists, an outpatient surgery center, pediatric rehabilitation services and comprehensive imaging services with state-of-the-art technology.
The Pediatric Specialty Center in Wellington will provide services such as pediatric otolaryngology/head and neck surgery (ENT), pediatric general surgery, pediatric orthopaedics and U18 sports medicine, pediatric pulmonology, pediatric endocrinology and pediatric neurology. In addition, there will be pediatric rehabilitation services, including pediatric physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy and sports physical therapy as part of the U18 sports medicine program.
The Pediatric Specialty Center was designed to foster collaboration with area pediatricians, as well as other healthcare providers, by extending the hospital’s highly specialized pediatric services closer to home for patients and their families in the Palm Beaches. This will be the third pediatric specialty location in Palm Beach County for Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital, with the other two located in Boca Raton.
“We are excited to expand our services into Wellington and meet the growing and diverse needs of Palm Beach County,” Vice President of Palm Beach Operations Dawn Quaranta said. “Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital understands the importance of becoming a community partner. Our specialists provide high quality comprehensive care for children in the region.”
Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital, part of the Memorial Healthcare System, is a freestanding, four-story, 226-bed facility. The hospital showcases an overall “Power of Play” philosophy with each floor displaying themes of sports, arts, games and dreams. Patients, families and visitors experience a whimsical world in which treatment and healing intertwine with medical expertise to provide an experience like no other in the Florida healthcare landscape. This patient and family-centered care culture will be incorporated into the Pediatric Specialty Center in Wellington.
“Since opening our doors, our culture of patient-centered and family-centered care has been consistent. It means that families and healthcare professionals are true partners, working together to serve in the best interest of the patient,” said Chantal Leconte, administrator and chief executive officer of Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital.
This practice has earned the hospital a world-wide recognition as a “Planetree Designated Person-Centered Organization.” It was the first children’s hospital in the world to receive this accreditation. This provides the hospital and its facilities a unique commendation for the compassion and care provided to patients beyond the clinical treatment, and places them in a distinguished network of only 86 other healthcare organizations worldwide with the same designation.
On the clinical front, the hospital has more than 650 physicians on staff, the region’s largest diversity of board-certified pediatric specialists. It has developed into a premier, specialized, quaternary care facility qualified to treat some of the most complex and critical medical conditions. Hence, it has been ranked nationally by U.S. News & World Report among the best children’s hospitals in the nation for five consecutive years.
“From its beginnings, Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital was designed to stand out as a strong advocate for children’s health and wellness,” Leconte said. “As we extend our services to areas where patients need us, we look forward to further developing our partnerships with pediatricians in the Palm Beach community.”
Through the years, its clinical expertise has grown to offer programs from rehabilitation to dialysis, as well as oncology, cardiac surgery, intensive and emergency care, to name a few. In 2010, the hospital received federal approval from the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) to launch a pediatric heart transplant program, clearing the path for the first heart transplant in the hospital’s history. Since then, the cardiac surgery team has performed 45 pediatric heart transplants. The hospital is now preparing to launch a pediatric kidney transplant program.
Established in 1992, Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital combines advanced technology and the expertise of the largest, most diverse group of board-certified pediatric specialists in the region. With its 2011 expansion, the hospital now has 226 beds and is South Florida’s newest freestanding children’s hospital. It is part of Memorial Healthcare System, one of the largest public healthcare systems in the country. The hospital has pediatric specialty practices in Boca Raton, Coral Springs, Miramar, Weston and Hollywood.
For more information about the Memorial Healthcare System, visit www.mhs.net. For additional information about Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital, visit www.jdch.com.
