(Photo credit: Jenny Abreu Photography)
Hundreds of community leaders, University of Miami trustees and administrators, donors and other dignitaries recently helped dedicate the Lennar Foundation Medical Center on the Coral Gables campus ushering in a new world of health care imagined and realized by the University of Miami Health System.
“This is a monumental day for the University of Miami,” said Steven M. Altschuler, MD, senior vice president for Health Affairs and CEO of the University of Miami Health System. “It is truly a transformational moment in the history of the University of Miami Health System, and it’s also the start of a new vision for healthcare in South Florida. This is a facility, this is a concept, that really thinks about the patient first.”
In this new vision for healthcare, the patient experience is transformed into a journey of being well.
“We will know you personally, care for you individually, and guide you uniquely,” chief administrative officer Benjamin J. Riestra said in a video Altschuler showed guests at the event. “This is not just about a new building. More importantly, it’s a new destination, a new experience, a new way of being well.”
University of Miami president Julio Frenk paid special tribute to Sue Miller, who died earlier this month. She was an extraordinary philanthropist, the widow of Lennar founder and former chair of the UM Board of Trustees Leonard M. Miller.
“While we all miss her warm and enthusiastic presence, we are uplifted by the very tangible evidence all around us of her kindness, generosity, and selfless devotion to others,” Frenk said. “Stuart, Leslie, and Jeffrey, on behalf of the University of Miami family, thank you for your friendship and for building on the legacy of both your parents.”
Frenk also thanked the Lennar Foundation for the $50 million gift that made the center possible.
“Today is about the building of legacies, the building of communities, and the building of futures, and we cannot expect to find better builders anywhere than Lennar,” Frenk said. “In giving back to the community where Lennar had its beginnings in 1954, the Lennar Foundation embodies one of the highest ideals of philanthropy, which is to build better futures by building healthier lives.”
Frenk described the university’s model of academic, patient-centered care. Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, the University of Miami Health System Sports Medicine Institute, men’s and women’s health, urology, neurology and other exceptional specialties will serve south Miami-Dade patients in a single convenient location.
“This is the future of healthcare,” he said, “and it’s the reality today at the University of Miami.”
The guests toured the Lennar Center after the ribbon cutting.
The Lennar Foundation Medical Center opened its doors to patients on Monday, Dec. 5.
