Media Relations
Press Release:
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.
