Health Care District of Palm Beach County : News & Public Information : Lakeside Medical Center delivers quality care as Palm Beach County's newest hospital

News Review

Lakeside Medical Center delivers quality care as Palm Beach County's newest hospital

Posted Date: 7/14/2010

The article below appears in the July 2010 issue of South Florida Hospital News.

Lakeside Medical Center with Trauma Hawk

The exterior of the hospital with the Health Care District’s Trauma Hawk Aeromedical ambulance in flight above. Photo courtesy John Ricksen Photography.

When Lakeside Medical Center opened its doors on October 15, 2009, high-quality hospital care became more accessible for nearly 40,000 residents in the rural, agricultural communities of western Palm Beach County. The new 70-bed, all-private room hospital, owned and operated by the Health Care District of Palm Beach County, sits on a 50-acre medical campus at the intersection of State Road 80 and US 441 in Belle Glade, FL. Lakeside Medical Center was completed four months ahead of schedule and $10 million dollars below budget.

Today, just eight months after it opened, Lakeside Medical Center is flourishing as residents embrace the new hospital, the new physicians who have joined the staff and the state-of-the art services. From fall of 2009 to this April, inpatient admissions are up and the number of Emergency Room visits has grown by more than 10%. Total surgery has risen 8% and outpatient surgery has increased more than 19%.

“In just the few months we’ve been operating at Lakeside Medical Center, we’ve received a terrific welcome,” said Brian P. Gibbons, Jr., Hospital Administrator. “It was exciting to move into our brand-new facility and we are pleased that the community is utilizing its new hospital and our new physicians.”

“The construction of this hospital is a dream come true,” said Effie C. Grear, EdD, Secretary/Treasurer of the Glades Rural Area Support Board, which governs the hospital. “Now we see patients staying close to home and no longer traveling to receive the quality care and healing that they need to stay healthy. It is rewarding that every day more residents are calling Lakeside Medical Center their medical home.”

Nikerson Geneve, DO

In January Nikerson Geneve, D.O., a family medicine physician and primary care practitioner, joined the hospital’s growing medical staff. Dr. Geneve, who speaks English, Creole, Spanish and French, has held health lectures in the new hospital’s community meeting rooms, met with area civic groups and attended community events to learn more about residents and how his practice can serve their health needs. By focusing on preventive care, Dr. Geneve will serve residents who may delay seeing a doctor until their symptoms require visiting the hospital’s emergency room.

“Good health care is not just about when you’re sick. It starts when you’re healthy,” said Dr. Geneve. “I want my patients to take real ownership of their health, to not just manage a disease but prevent it in the first place. That’s where I can help.”

Because of the new, more modern facility, Lakeside Medical Center has been able to secure funding for initiatives that will address the area’s primary care physician shortage and go a long way toward improving the health of the community. A recent grant from the State of Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration under Disproportionate Share funding will bring $900,000 to the hospital for a graduate resident training program. Under the leadership of Dr. Geneve, the program will allow the hospital to train 15 family medicine residents over the next four years.

With the support of the Lake Okeechobee Rural Health Network (LORHN) and the Everglades Area Health Education Center, Lakeside Medical Center recently received a $237,000 grant from the Florida Department of Health to offer tobacco-cessation services to the community. The grant will allow the hospital to develop a comprehensive tobacco-cessation program, including in-house classes, counseling and staff to implement the program.

As part of its focus on Women’s Health Services, Lakeside Medical Center offers technologically-advanced digital mammography screenings. This year, a $16,000 grant awarded by the South Florida Affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure allows the hospital to provide free, potentially life-saving mammograms to underinsured and uninsured Palm Beach County residents who qualify.

In March, Lakeside Medical Center earned a successful accreditation from The Joint Commission. The effort required months of preparation in advance of the Commission’s survey, much of it occurring right after the move into the new facility in October 2009.

“We are proud of the quality of care that is delivered at Lakeside Medical Center,” said Dwight D. Chenette, MBA, MPH, Chief Executive Officer of the Health Care District of Palm Beach County. “By operating Palm Beach County’s only public hospital, the Health Care District advances its mission of enhancing the health care delivery system for all county residents.”

Earlier this year, four local community leaders were appointed to the eight-member Glades Rural Area Support Board, which governs Lakeside Medical Center. Donia A. Roberts, Esq., Angela K. Pope, Gilbert Alvarez and Janet D. Moreland, ARNP, MSN, M.Ed. join Board Chair James T. Howell, M.D., MPH, Chair, Department of Rural Medicine and Professor of Public Health at Nova Southeastern University’s College of Osteopathic Medicine; Board Vice-Chair Juan C. Cocuy, CPA and partner at Cocuy, Burns & Co., PA; Board Secretary/Treasurer Effie C. Grear, EdD, former educator and retired principal at Glades Central High School; Rahat Abbas, M.D., internist at Metcare of Everglades in Belle Glade; and Stephen Coffman, general manager of TKM Bengard Farms in Belle Glade.

“We are pleased to welcome such dynamic community leaders to our Board,” said James T. Howell, M.D., MPH, newly-elected Glades Rural Area Support Board Chair. “Their experience and ties to the community will be invaluable as we work together to support the success of Lakeside Medical Center.”