STUART — MecaFresh Café has opened for business at 4203 SE Federal Highway in Stuart, offering what the restaurant calls “a globally inspired” café menu.

MecaFresh will be hosting a ribbon cutting event with the Stuart Chamber of Commerce today at noon.

Customers may choose from handcrafted panini, salads, gourmet wraps, noodles and homemade soups, along with espresso creations, and beer and wine. MecaFresh offers eat-in, takeout and catering. The restaurant is open Monday through Saturday 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Sunday 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
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For Martin County’s largest employer, the seventh time is the charm.
Martin Memorial Health Systems learned last week that after seven years of trying it has been given a prestigious national title: Employer of Choice.

“This is a tremendous achievement,” said Dr. George Rittersbach Jr., chairman of the board of directors for Martin Memorial Health Systems, which owns two hospitals and numerous clinics on the Treasure Coast.

Martin Memorial is one of four Florida health care organizations to earn the designation. The others are Orlando Health, Lee Memorial Health System in Cape Coral and Baptist Health Care in Pensacola.
Martin Memorial got the award last week during a ceremony with about 90 employees at the Robert and Carol Weissman Cancer Center in Stuart. (more…)

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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