Martin County residents near Jonathan Dickinson State Park in Hobe Sound may have seen or smelled smoke on Sunday, according to Martin County Fire Rescue.

The U.S. Department of Forestry started a 550-acre controlled burn in the morning in the northwest corner of the park. Officials are monitoring the burn of the area, which is all scrub and bush and not near homes, until the fire dies.

FORT PIERCE — Minutes after realizing his wife had a successful surgery, Dr. Wiwle Jean-Pierre sat emotionless on a hospital bed at Lawnwood Regional Medical Center & Heart Institute on Thursday as he took note of the destruction at his home and office in Port-au-Prince. (more…)

Martin Memorial Health Systems opened a fitness center last week at the Port St. Lucie Community Center, replacing another in that location run by its rival, HCA Inc.

The center, which is located at 2195 S.E. Airoso Blvd, opened Thursday.

HCA, a national corporation with two hospitals in St. Lucie County, ran a fitness center in the city-owned building for years, but told city officials in November that it would be closed because of budget cuts. They reversed course after Martin Memorial made a pitch to move into the site.

The city council voted to accept Martin Memorial’s proposal. (more…)

At Stuart’s Volunteers in Medicine Clinic, doctors have seen first-hand the effects of a bad economy.

More patients. More repeat visits. The top two maladies treated at the nonprofit clinic are depression/anxiety and high-blood pressure. Diabetes is third.

“This year, we’ve just seen a lot more patients because of the economy,” said Tanya Spain, the clinic’s spokeswoman. (more…)

PORT ST. LUCIE — St. Lucie Medical Center has received the highest designation for excellence in nursing from The American Nurses Credentialing Center.

The HCA Inc.-owned hospital is the first on the Treasure Coast to get the prestigious Magnet Designation and the 23rd in the state.

The ANCC, of Silver Spring, Md., gives the designation to health care organizations that demonstrate the highest quality in nursing practices and adherence to national standards. (more…)

PORT ST. LUCIE — The battle for hospital supremacy on the Treasure Coast continues.

HCA Inc., which owns two hospitals in St. Lucie County, filed an appeal this week with the 1st District Court of Appeal in Tallahassee to stop Martin Memorial Health Systems from building a new hospital in Port St. Lucie’s Tradition community.

HCA exhausted its state appeals last month. (more…)

Martin Memorial Health Systems, which owns two hospitals in Martin County, has been recertified as a primary stroke center.

The non-profit health organization first received its certification two years ago from The Joint Commission, a Washington D.C.-based non-profit organization that ensures hospitals meet national standards and performance measures.

The certification applies to both hospitals and an emergency clinic in St. Lucie West.

The commission’s certification program was developed with the help of the American Stroke Association.

FORT PIERCE — A 58-year-old St. Lucie County man who died last week at Lawnwood Regional Medical Center & Heart Institute is the seventh H1N1-related death in the county, health department officials announced Tuesday.

The man had underlying health problems, said Lawnwood spokeswoman Jana Eschbach. The hospital and health department could not release more details because of privacy laws.

Health problems often lead to complications from swine flu, which is mild in most cases. Children and young adults are most likely to catch the unique flu strain first identified in April and now widespread through Florida and the United States. However, adults with medical problems that weaken their immune systems have experienced some of the most severe cases.
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PORT ST. LUCIE — In years of legal battles, Martin Memorial Health Systems has jumped every hurdle standing in the way of its plan to build an 80-bed hospital in Tradition.

This month, it cleared a critical one.

Hospital officials announced today that the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration accepted the recommendation of an administrative law judge to allow the $100 million project to move forward over the objections of HCA Inc., which owns St. Lucie County’s two existing hospitals.

“We feel that this is really a major step,” said Mark Robitaille, Martin Memorial’s president and chief executive officer.

HCA, which has run out of options with the state, now will have to pursue its case through the court system. HCA officials said today that they were disappointed with the decision, but hadn’t decided whether to appeal.

An appeal could take at least a year to resolve. (more…)

PHILADELPHIA, PA — A school counselor suffering an apparent heart attack died in a Philadelphia emergency room after waiting nearly 80 minutes for help — and a trio of homeless drug addicts nearby stole his watch instead of seeking aid, police said.

Joaquin Rivera, 63, died before seeing a triage nurse at Atria Health’s Frankford Campus over the weekend, police said.

Rivera, a musician and activist in the city’s Latino community, had spent more than 30 years working as a bilingual counselor at an inner-city high school.
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