Village Mayor Ray Riggins said the integrated facility will provide important medical services to Royal Palm Beach residents.
Valentina Palm
Valentina Palm
Valentina Palm, Palm Beach Post
ROYAL PALM BEACH — Baptist Health, a faith-based, nonprofit hospital network, plans to open its first emergency room in the village.
It’s unclear when the 35,000-square-foot facility will open, but it will house a 20-bed emergency room and medical office space on the site of a former Toys R Us store on State Route 7.
Village Mayor Ray Riggins said the integrated facility will provide important medical services to Royal Palm Beach residents.
“I had never been in a hospital before,” Riggins said.
On Thursday, Feb. 15, the Village Council gave first reading and unanimously approved Baptist Health’s request for a special exception to allow a medical facility to be located within the village’s commercial district.
“We are growing,” City Councilman Jeff Hamara said during the meeting. “And some of us plan to stay for a while.”
He added: “Unfortunately, this means we’re going to be spending more time in places like emergency rooms and emergency rooms.”
The council is scheduled for a second and final vote on the special exception next month. A site plan for the 35,000-square-foot facility also requires council approval.
Baptist Health opens first ER in Royal Palm Beach
Miami-based South Florida Baptist Health submitted a request to the village earlier this year to establish a comprehensive health center within the village’s general business district.
Baptist Health representatives said the hospital network already operates a similar facility in Wellington and has eight others in development.
Bradford O’Brien, the village’s director of planning and zoning, said the project is designed to be a comprehensive center where residents can also go for medical appointments, rather than just a stand-alone ER facility, as Baptist Health has proposed in the past. He said he recommended.
“This is the place you go to get treatment in case of an emergency,” O’Brien said. “And so that he always has access to his regular care in one place.”
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Councilwoman Selena Samios asked what would make Baptist Health’s medical center different from the urgent care facility that already exists in the village.
Ken Tuma, principal of Urban Design Studio, which was hired by Baptist Health to design the project, told the City Council that the main difference is that EDs do not have a doctor on-site 24/7. He said this is what is required. In contrast, urgent care facilities close at 11 p.m. and do not require a doctor to be on-site, he said.
“This 24-hour difference is a game-changer,” Tuma said. “In this case, you have a licensed physician there all day, every day. Christmas, Easter, Hanukkah, whatever it is, you can go there.”
What will the new Baptist Health Center for Integrative Medicine include?
Tuma said the ER will have 20 beds and will be able to treat emergencies such as broken bones, but not heart attacks or strokes. It will operate as an off-campus emergency department from Baptist Health Bethesda in Boynton Beach.
Additional clinic space will be used for:
- Physician and practitioner offices
- Clinic and outpatient surgery
- Diagnostic imaging
- Experimental equipment
- physical therapy
- Outpatient treatment
Tuma said that according to regulations set by the state Department of Health Services, patients are not allowed to stay in the ER for more than 23 hours.
How does it work? Where will patients in critical condition be taken?
Mayor Fred Pinto said at the Feb. 15 meeting that residents voiced concerns about being sent from the planned Baptist ER to Baptist Health Bethesda West Hospital in Boynton Beach.
“They didn’t want to be admitted to a hospital 24 miles away,” Pinto said.
Especially if HCA Palms West and Wellington Regional are nearby.
Representatives from Baptist Health told the council that patients who are conscious but need further treatment can choose which hospital to send them to. In the case of an unconscious patient, paramedics and paramedics will send the patient to the closest and most specialized facility for the condition.
Representatives said the medical office space will also be leased to doctors and nurse practitioners not affiliated with the Baptist Health organization.
Councilor Richard Valtas said the project would benefit all village residents as it would increase the number of hospital beds in the village.
“If COVID-19 has taught us anything, I think it’s that we need more hospital capacity, not less,” Valtas said.
Valentina Palm covers Royal Palm Beach, Wellington, Greenacres, Palm Springs and other western Palm Beach County communities for the Palm Beach Post.Please email her at vpalm@pbpost.com Follow @ValenPalmB on the X Platform, formerly known as Twitter. Support local journalism. Subscribe now.
