FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Palm Healthcare Pavilion and Mollie Wilmot Children’s Center Launch Event  to Unveil Multiple “First-of-its-Kind” Initiatives

What:     Palm Healthcare Foundation will announce its innovative, “first-of-its-kind” initiatives for the state-of-the-art $12.5 million Palm Healthcare Pavilion and Mollie Wilmot Children’s Center on April 12, 2007 at 11:00 a.m. at the future home of the Pavilion in West Palm Beach.

  The project is the first to bring together, under one roof, the leading academic medical institutions and healthcare organizations in South Florida to improve the health and quality of life for children with special healthcare needs and their families.  The Pavilion is designed to meet the unmet demand for services for children with special healthcare needs, including juvenile diabetes, severe hearing loss, cystic fibrosis, muscular dystrophy, cerebral palsy, kidney disorders, sickle cell disease, and asthma.

   Pavilion partners include:  University of Miami and Palm Beach Community College who will partner to develop the Pavilion’s Patient Safety Center and Mobile Sim-Lab Unit; Florida Atlantic University Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing and the Gregory School of Pharmacy at Palm Beach Atlantic University who will co-manage the Diabetes Center for Prevention, Education, Management and Research; Children’s Medical Services, State of Florida Department of Health, who for the first time will provide access to children of all income levels; School District of Palm Beach County; Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation; and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

The Pavilion is also a leader in the green building design, seeking to become the first building in Florida to achieve LEED^® (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) certification status for renovation of an existing building.

Who:      Keynote speaker is Dr. Claude Earl Fox, the director of the Florida Public Health Institute and a research professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, one of four leading South Florida academic institutions who will partner to offer comprehensive services to children with special healthcare needs at the future Palm Healthcare Pavilion.  Dr. Fox is a public health physician who has headed federal, state and local agencies in a nearly three-decade career dedicated to equal access to health care, will talk about the uniqueness and importance of the Pavilion’s academic and healthcare partners coming together to provide special needs children and their families state-of-the-art care. 

   Also on the program and available for interviews are: 

·         Dr. Bret Baynham, a leading pediatric orthopedic surgeon

·         A parent with a special needs child who will benefit from the Pavilion’s services

·         Palm Healthcare Foundation senior leadership

Where:   At the home of the future Palm Healthcare Pavilion, 5205 Greenwood Ave, WPB, FL  33401 (adjacent to St. Mary’s Hospital)

When:    Thursday, April 12, 2007, 11:00 am (program begins at 11:30 am)

Contact:  Melanie Otero, The Waters Pelton Organization

                Office:  561-626-0026. ext. 11

                Cell:  305-321-6447

                Jennifer Martinez, The Waters Pelton Organization

                Office:  561-626-0026, ext. 19

                Cell:  561-301-4998

Note:  Claude Earl Fox will replace Donna Shalala as keynote speaker as previously scheduled.

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 County operating over 130 programs that met its funding goals.  To learn more about Palm Healthcare Foundation, please visit www.palmhealthcare.org.