ALLIANCE OF DELRAY MTG SUMMARY 1-2-19
Meeting Summary April 5, 2017
Jared Smith, the Chief Operations Officer of the Delray Medical Center told us construction of that facility will be complete by July of this year. Improvements include a 352 space parking garage, the addition 96 private rooms, the conversion of 96 semi-private rooms to private rooms and a rooftop heliport with a dedicated elevator which will cut time off getting a patient from the helicopter to treatment.
Dr. Joseph Ricotta, the Regional Medical Director Vascular Surgery and Endovascular Therapy was the featured speaker. Endovascular Robotics deals with operations on blood vessels. In the past this was major surgery resulting in large incisions. With this new technique the patient has a half-inch incision and usually gets discharged from the hospital in a matter of hours versus the weeks that was necessary under the old system. Other benefits are very little or no vessel trauma, reduced radiation exposure to the patient and operating room staff, more precision and control by the doctor who actually works in three dimensions and arrival at the problem area in minutes versus hours. There are only ten robotics in the world with one at the Delray Medical Center. Good news is that although an expensive procedure Medicare is covering it.
There are currently two Level One Trauma Hospitals in Palm Beach County with the Delray Medical Center being one of them. This has resulted in the highest chance of survival in Florida for the most critically injured. However to be a Level One Trauma Center the hospital must treat 1350 trauma patients a year. Combined, the current two hospitals see over 3000 patients every year. However, a third trauma center has been proposed for Palm Beach County. This could dilute the volume of patients at each trauma unit and lower the quality of care Palm Beach County residents can now access. With three units in Palm Beach County none of the hospitals offering trauma care would have enough patients to qualify as a Level One unit. For information on what you can do to protect Level One Trauma Care in Palm Beach County either go to info@saving livespbc.com or call 561-629-2352.
The next meeting of the Delray Alliance will be on Wednesday, May 3, 2017. The featured speaker will be Delray City Mayor Cary Glickstein who will tell us about the State of the City. In addition to this interesting and informative subject there will be status reports from County Administrators and elected officials as well as other information vital to communities. Doors open at 9:00 AM when refreshments are served. The meetings begin at 9:30AM and are always concluded by 11:30AM The public is invited and welcome.
Stan Goodman – Vice President and Acting Recording Secretary