MIAMI (Dec. 4, 2007) – Miami-Dade County commissioners today voted to approve $10 million for an ambulatory care facility at Florida International University’s College of Medicine.
The $10 million comes from the Building Better Communities General Obligation Bonds (GOB), approved by voters to construct and improve healthcare facilities to promote accessibility to quality health care services. The money will help build an ambulatory care center, part of the new College of Medicine at FIU-University Park. The center will consist of an ambulatory surgery center and an outpatient diagnostic center, open to the entire community for diagnosis, treatment and care.
“The ambulatory care center will be an important component of what will be the only public medical school in South Florida, a new type of medical school, dedicated to training a new generation of doctors with a commitment to serving the community,” said Dr. John Rock, dean of the College of Medicine. “We commend the commissioners, particularly Commissioners Joe Martinez and Jose “Pepe” Díaz who sponsored the resolution in support of this measure, for seeing the benefit of investing public funds to help raise the level of health care available to Miami-Dade residents.”
Today’s commission vote augments the College of Medicine’s latest community partnership. In recent weeks, the College of Medicine has signed affiliation and operational agreements with Jackson Health System and Mount Sinai Medical Center; other partnerships with local hospitals will be announced soon. In addition, the Florida Department of Health has agreed to move its Miami-Dade headquarters to University Park in 2010.
Another community component of the College of Medicine will be a first of its kind neighborhood Medicine and Society program, which will send medical students and their counterparts in social work, nursing and public health into targeted neighborhoods.
The county’s funds represent critical economic development support for the FIU College of Medicine. Once fully established, the College of Medicine is expected to contribute millions to the State coffers every year and have a billion-dollar economic impact on Miami-Dade County, bringing thousands of new jobs to the area.
For more information about the FIU College of Medicine visit http://medicine.fiu.edu/
—FIU—
Media Contact:
Madeline Baró, 305-348-2234 or mbaro@fiu.edu
|