November 30, 2007

Dear Colleagues:

At midnight on Friday the 30th of November, 2007, a huge page in the history of Florida medicine and for the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine will be turned.  Cedars Medical Center will be owned by the University of Miami and become the University of Miami Hospital.  Today, Friday, we are completing the purchase of Cedars from private, for-profit owner HCA and tomorrow, the 1st of December, 2007, Cedars will become the University of Miami Hospital, a 560-private-room, acute care, academic, non-for-profit hospital: the first multi-disciplinary university hospital in the history of South Florida.  This giant step was taken to ensure that South Florida will become a medical destination for Floridians and beyond.  The University of Miami and its Miller School of Medicine welcome the physicians, nurses, and staff who have provided excellent care at Cedars, and we are delighted they will continue to work side by side with the University of Miami doctors.

Dr. William O’Neill, Executive Dean for Clinical Affairs at the Miller School of Medicine, has worked feverishly over the past month with his team to make sure that the medical staff transition will take place seamlessly and that the care of patients will continue uninterrupted, safe, and superb from Cedars to the University of Miami Hospital.  Michele Chulick, Associate Vice President and Director of Hospital Operations, has organized the management team, recruiting Tony Degina, current CEO of Cedars, as the new CEO of the University of Miami Hospital, and Silvia Stradi, Chief Nursing Officer (CNO) of Cedars as the CNO of the University of Miami Hospital.  The key members of the Degina and Stradi teams have also been recruited to serve in their positions for the new hospital.  William Donelan, Vice President for Medical Affairs and Chief Operating and Strategy Officer, has finalized the negotiation of the purchase agreement, an arrangement that includes not only the hospital and its facilities and land, but also key services such as purchasing and information technology.

We, as faculty and staff of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, are grateful to our President and our Board of Trustees who have provided us with the opportunity to acquire our first full-scale, multi-disciplinary hospital.  With this hospital we will be able to showcase the extraordinary quality of University of Miami medicine.  We will also continue our longstanding, invaluable and successful affiliations with Jackson Memorial Hospital and the Miami Veterans Affairs Medical Center.  For years patients have flown to distant cities to access the level of academic medicine that was not available in South Florida.  No longer will that be necessary as the best doctors, nurses and other health professionals will be available right here in the Miami Health District for our wonderful patients and citizens.

I thank all of our faculty and staff for making this dream possible and the physicians, staff and leadership of Cedars for helping us take this giant medical step.

Warm Regards,

Pascal J. Goldschmidt, M.D., F.A.C.C.
Senior Vice President for Medical Affairs and Dean
University of Miami Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine