WEST PALM BEACH, FL—Palm Healthcare Foundation, Inc., Palm Beach County’s leading public healthcare foundation, will unveil plans for the new Palm Healthcare Pavilion and Mollie Wilmot Children’s Center at its five-year anniversary celebration on December 14, 2006 at the Cohen Pavilion at the Raymond F. Kravis Center.  Three hundred foundation supporters and healthcare partners will be on hand to learn about the state-of-the-art $12.5 million project designed to improve the health and quality of life for children with special healthcare needs and provide innovative training and support services for their families through partnerships with the region’s leading academic medical institutions.

The inspiration for the Pavilion began with a bequest from the late Palm Beach resident Mollie Wilmot.  Palm Healthcare Foundation conducted extensive research and collaborated with a multitude of healthcare professionals and organizations in Palm Beach County to develop the plans for what will become the Palm Healthcare Pavilion and the home of the Mollie Wilmot Children’s Center.

“Mollie entrusted our organization to do our due diligence and determine where her gift could be used to improve access to healthcare for the underserved of our community,” said Suzette W. Wexner, Palm Healthcare Foundation President.  “Through careful research and cooperation with healthcare professionals throughout Palm Beach County, we learned that the need for out-patient treatment for the estimated 5,000 children in our community with chronic health conditions such as juvenile diabetes, severe hearing loss, cystic fibrosis, muscular dystrophy, cerebral palsy, kidney disorders, sickle cell disease, and asthma is much greater than the services that are currently available.  The entire first floor of the Palm Healthcare Pavilion will be the Mollie Wilmot Children’s Center, which will provide leading-edge services to children and families struggling with these health issues.”

With the Wilmot gift, Palm Healthcare Foundation purchased a two-story, 18,400 square-foot office building on Greenwood Avenue in West Palm Beach.  The Foundation is embarking on a $12.5 million capital campaign to expand, renovate, furnish and equip the building; purchase and equip a mobile simulation unit; and create an endowment to ensure an ongoing source of revenue for educational programming and support services at the Pavilion.  

Through a strong collaborative effort with the leading academic medical institutions and healthcare organizations in South Florida, Palm Healthcare Foundation has developed an innovative plan to create four distinct medical and educational support services for special needs children within the Palm Healthcare Pavilion that will offer real solutions for current healthcare challenges. 

1.  A New Home for Children’s Medical Services

The Mollie Wilmot Children’s Center will provide a much-needed new clinical home and greatly expanded resources for Children’s Medical Services (CMS), a State-funded program for the uninsured and underserved, to handle the growing demand for its services for children with special health conditions, including cystic fibrosis, muscular dystrophy, juvenile diabetes, cerebral palsy, kidney disorders, sickle cell disease and asthma.  Through a partnership with the State of Florida, children and families of middle and upper income levels will also have access to these specialized services.

2.  Diabetes Prevention, Education, Management and Research Center

The Mollie Wilmot Children’s Center will also be the home of the Diabetes Prevention, Education, Management and Research Center, which will be developed and co-managed by the Community Wellness Center program of Florida Atlantic University Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing and the Gregory School of Pharmacy at Palm Beach Atlantic University.  The Center will be staffed by certified diabetes educators, nutritionists, outreach workers and researchers to provide family-centered preventive and therapeutic interventions for children with diabetes and those at risk for the disease, and conduct grant-funded research on intervention strategies.  Educational support will be offered for juvenile diabetics and their families to learn more about diet, glucose monitoring, insulin injections, understanding symptoms, and recognizing and responding to a crisis. 

3.  Patient Safety Center and Mobile Sim-Lab Unit

The Palm Healthcare Pavilion will also be the home of the state-of-the-art Patient Safety Center where caregivers can simulate patient interaction using full-body computerized patient simulators which react in real time to clinical interventions and drug therapy.  Healthcare workers, family members, daycare workers, school personnel and others who care for special needs children will learn how to intervene and communicate in ways that reduce preventable error and improve quality of life without risk to an actual patient.  The Foundation will also fund a Mobile Sim-Lab unit to take training to locations throughout Palm Beach County.  Palm Healthcare will partner with the University of Miami and Palm Beach County Community College to develop the simulation-lab services.

4.  High Tech Telemedicine and Conference Facilities for Healthcare Workers

State-of-the-art audiovisual equipment including telemedicine and video conferencing technologies will be housed at the Palm Healthcare Pavilion.  Conference and meeting rooms will accommodate seminars, conferences, continuing medical education programs for physicians and other healthcare professionals throughout the community, and training for members of the Foundation’s grantee family. 

In addition to government, college and university partners, Palm Healthcare Foundation is collaborating with private pediatric sub-specialists, School District of Palm Beach County, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

“The Palm Healthcare Pavilion is a testament to the value we place on collaboration and innovation to find new solutions for our community’s greatest healthcare challenges,” said Bob Jaffe, Palm Healthcare Foundation Board Chair.  “We have brought together the region’s most highly respected healthcare organizations to create a full spectrum of services that will provide care and support to special needs children and their families throughout our community.”

The Palm Healthcare Pavilion building project will be a local leader in green building design.  The project will adhere to the LEED^® (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) Green Building Rating System, the nationally accepted standard for green buildings developed by the U.S. Green Building Council.  “In every way, we are making environmentally sound decisions,” said Jaffe.  “From purchasing products close to the site to reduce transportation effects on the environment, to recycling the building’s contents by donating what we don’t need to local charities, including Hospice by the Sea and Habitat for Humanity, we are trying to demonstrate that you can take a standard office building and reconstruct it in an environmentally responsible way,” said Jaffe.  Working toward LEED^® certification, Palm Healthcare Foundation will maximize water and energy efficiencies, conserve materials and resources and protect indoor environmental quality. 

“We have looked at the building of the Palm Healthcare Pavilion from every angle—from the circulation of air, to telemedicine services that will allow access to healthcare professionals worldwide—to offer the greatest resources, ideas and innovations to a very special group of children within our community,” said David Robb, founding board chair of Palm Healthcare Foundation.  “It is our hope that together we—with the support of donors in our community—will have a life-changing effect on these children and their families.”

For more information about the Palm Healthcare Pavilion, including naming opportunities, please call Suzette Wexner at 561-833-6333.

About Palm Healthcare Foundation, Inc.
Palm Healthcare Foundation, Inc. was chartered in 2001 as an independent community healthcare foundation. Believing that “Together We Can Do More,” the foundation’s mission is to transform healthcare challenges by bringing together the talents and resources of the community to create innovative solutions that deliver high-impact results. The Foundation’s funding priorities—access to healthcare, healthcare quality and safety, healthcare technology, healthcare policy and healthcare workforce—are designed to empower non-profit healthcare organizations and healthcare professionals to create programs and services that improve the quality of life for Palm Beach County’s underserved citizens.  Since 2001, the Foundation has distributed more than $14 million to over 70 non-profit organizations in Palm Beach Countyoperating over 130 programs that met its funding goals.  To learn more about Palm Healthcare Foundation, please visit www.palmhealthcare.org.