MEDIA CONTACT: Kristine M. McGrath
561-297-1168, kmcgrath@fau.edu or
Stacey Packer
561-955-3588, spacker@brch.com
FAU and Boca Raton Community Hospital Reach Historic Agreement to Establish Teaching Hospital on University Campus
BOCA RATON, FL (June 28, 2006) – In separate meetings today, Florida Atlantic University’s Board of Trustees and Boca Raton Community Hospital’s Board unanimously approved an agreement between the two institutions to implement a land lease for the development and operation of a community-university affiliated teaching hospital. The hospital will serve as the primary teaching hospital for the regional campus of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine at FAU. Facility construction is expected to begin in 2008 with completion by 2011.
“This historic agreement between FAU and Boca Raton Community Hospital will allow for academic endeavors that will move this university towards even greater prominence,” said FAU President Frank T. Brogan. “Not only will this benefit the university’s faculty, staff and students, but this agreement will provide important programs and services for the general community we serve.”
Approximately 38 acres of FAU land, located on the southeast corner of FAU’s Boca Raton campus, will host the infrastructure for the teaching hospital. The private room, 530-bed hospital will provide FAU facilities and resources to support undergraduate and graduate medical education programs customary to primary teaching hospitals within major academic medical centers. The facilities will include resident/student conference rooms, a conference center with teleconferencing capabilities including an auditorium and small group conference rooms, resident sleeping quarters with lockers, resident dining facilities, a resident lounge, a medical library with state-of-the-art IT systems and increased square footage in other areas of the hospital to accommodate students and residents.
The hospital will provide a number of benefits to students, faculty and staff, including a site for education, the ability for FAU scientists to obtain extra-mural research funding, new residency training programs and a state-of-the-art site for physicians to practice.
“Boca Raton Community Hospital aspires to become the safest teaching hospital in America. Our patients, physicians, employees, and community will greatly benefit from our relationship with the University of Miami’s Miller School of Medicine and FAU,” said Gary Strack, president and CEO of Boca Raton Community Hospital.
The teaching hospital is being designed to be one of the safest hospitals in America and will incorporate design elements to help staffers perform their jobs more precisely and reduce error. John Reiling, a nationally renowned expert in building hospitals to the highest safety standards, recently joined BRCH as project manager to oversee the planning, design and construction of the new facilities.
Unlike other medical schools planned in Florida, the public-private partnership between Boca Raton Community Hospital, FAU and the University of Miami will not rely on state funding to fund the new hospital and teaching facilities which are estimated at $638 million. Instead, Boca Raton Community Hospital plans to utilize existing assets, operational funds and community contributions.
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About FAU:
Florida Atlantic University opened its doors in 1964 as the fifth public university in Florida. Today, the university serves 26,000 undergraduate and graduate students on seven campuses strategically located along 150 miles of Florida's southeastern coastline. Building on its rich tradition as a teaching and research university, with a world-class faculty, FAU hosts eight colleges - the Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts & Letters, the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, the Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing, the Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College, and the Colleges of Business, Education, Engineering & Computer Science, and Architecture, Urban & Public Affairs.
About Boca Raton Community Hospital:
Serving the community since 1967, Boca Raton Community Hospital (www.brch.com) has 394 beds and more than 750 primary and specialty physicians with privileges. Centers of excellence include emergency services; oncology; clinical research; cardiology; women’s health; maternity/pediatrics/NICU; radiology; orthopedics; neuroscience; wound care/hyperbarics; cardio-pulmonary and out-patient rehabilitation; minimally invasive surgery and home health.
The Christine E. Lynn Cardiovascular Institute will open this fall.
The Lynn Regional Cancer Center at Boca Raton Community Hospital has been in operation for 28 years and has developed into of the largest comprehensive cancer centers in Florida. A new 90,000 square-foot cancer center facility is planned to open in 2008.
