The medical business continues to boom on the Treasure Coast.

Lawnwood Regional Medical Center & Heart Institute in Fort Pierce announced last week that it plans to expand its intensive care unit.

The $16.8 million project will bring the hospital’s total bed count in intensive care to 54, making it the largest intensive care unit on the Treasure Coast. There are about 40 beds in intensive care now, said Jana Eschbach, a hospital spokeswoman.

The announcement comes just months after HCA Inc.-owned Lawnwood opened a
trauma center. The center, which has seen about 375 patients since opening in May, is the only one between West Palm Beach and Melbourne. (more…)

MARTIN COUNTY — Emergency call centers in Martin County have been readied for a high-tech future that will improve reliability, streamline operations and soon enable whole new ways to communicate, officials said.

A new call response computer platform is shared by the county’s three 911 dispatch centers, according to Joe Laviano, Emergency 911 dispatch manager for the Martin County Sheriff’s Office. It cost nearly $1 million, which came from state grants. (more…)

PORT ST. LUCIE — Prevention, not treatment, of swine flu is what people should be thinking about now, according to the health officials and doctors who spoke Thursday at a town hall meeting about the H1N1 virus.

A couple dozen people showed up at Port St. Lucie’s Civic Center, most with questions and many armed with antibacterial sanitizing gels. Concerns about the severity of the H1N1 virus as well as side effects of the vaccine expected to be distributed beginning next month dominated the question and answer session. (more…)

The medical clinic business is booming.

An emergency care clinic in St. Lucie West owned by Martin Memorial Health Systems saw 380 patients in its first week. The clinic, which opened Sept. 1, had an average of 48 patients per day, said Scott Samples, a hospital spokesman.

Located at the health system’s existing facility at 1095 N.W. St. Lucie West Blvd., the clinic is about 9,100 square feet with 12 beds. It is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. (more…)

PORT ST. LUCIE — Patients wanting to try out Martin Memorial’s freestanding emergency department in St. Lucie West should find their own ride.

St. Lucie County fire and rescue crews are bypassing the freestanding facility in favor of emergency departments at hospitals such as St. Lucie Medical Center and Lawnwood Regional Medical Center & Heart Institute.

“We’re evaluating what type of patients we will transport to that facility,” St. Lucie County Fire Chief Ron Parrish said. “We want to make sure the citizens of the community are going to get the best care in the most timely manner.”
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A woman who jumped out of a car and ran away from her husband after he tried to admit her to a mental health center this morning was found dead a few hours later, according to the St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office.

Sheriff’s investigators do not suspect foul play in the death of Elizabeth A. Pollack, 36, of Port St. Lucie, according to a sheriff’s report.

Construction workers found her body shortly after 9 a.m. under a pine tree at a construction site near the New Horizons community mental health center off Midway Road in St. Lucie County.

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Martin Memorial Health Systems continued its push to serve the sprawling communities of western St. Lucie County by opening a new emergency care center last week in St. Lucie West.

The center is just 3 miles from the spot in Tradition where the non-profit healthcare organization wants to build a new hospital.

Martin Memorial officials have long seen a need in western St. Lucie County for expanded medical services. The area’s rapid-fire growth four years ago propelled Port St. Lucie into the nation’s top spot for fastest growing cities, and the western sprawl has put residents farther away from the county’s main hospitals — HCA Inc.-owned Lawnwood Regional Medical Center & Heart Institute in Fort Pierce and St. Lucie Medical Center in eastern Port St. Lucie. (more…)

Three people in St. Lucie County have died of swine flu, marking the first confirmed H1N1 fatalities on the Treasure Coast, health officials confirmed Friday.

Jason Schenck, a 23-year-old asthmathic from Port St. Lucie, died Tuesday at St. Lucie Medical Center. Two other men, one 51 and the other 52, also died from H1N1. More information about the older men was not available Friday.

For most people, swine flu passes, causing only mild illness. But for others, such as pregnant women, diabetics and asthmatics like Schenck, it can cause life-threatening complications.

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A young adult has become the first person confirmed to have died from the H1N1 swine flu virus in St. Lucie County, according to county health department officials.

The department did not release any information about the age, gender, location or date of death of the victim except to say that it was a young adult with underlying health problems, said health department public information officer Arlease Hall.

More information will be released after the family has been given a chance to grieve, she said.

So far five people have died from the swine flu virus in Palm Beach County.

TREASURE COAST — The number of Treasure Coast medical equipment suppliers for Blue Cross/Blue Shield patients will dwindle to three starting Nov. 1.

The cutbacks follow a competitive bidding process by regional suppliers who provide products from diabetes testing strips to oxygen machines statewide to remain in the Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Florida network.

Liberty Medical Supply and Physician’s Choice Respiratory Services, Inc., both in Port St. Lucie, and Rotech Oxygen & Medical Equipment in Stuart remain as the lone Treasure Coast suppliers after the bidding, according to a Blue Cross/Blue Shield list sent to Oxygen Plus in Vero Beach.
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