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In the 1970’s, minorities in South Dade were facing desperate times. Access to healthcare was difficult. Many died trying to get to Jackson Memorial and the local hospital in Homestead would not care for minorities. But a determined, community activist and farmworker named Doris Ison had enough. She watched her mother hemorrhage from an intestinal flu as she waited for a doctor to drive from Homestead to their home in Florida City.
“I always felt my mother could have been saved if only I had a hospital to take her to,” she told the Miami News decades ago.
But this, and so many other deaths were the catalyst for Ison to form the beginnings of Community Health of South Florida, Inc. (CHI), formerly known as Community Health of South Dade. Ison convinced a group of doctors to volunteer their time and work out of two doublewide trailers on SW 216 Street. From that humble beginning, compassion and advocacy grew the organization into more of a health system today with 11 health centers, 35 school-based health suites in Miami Dade Public Schools, a mobile dental trailer and mobile medical van.
“Ison’s story still serves as a reminder and inspiration for the work that we do today,” said Brodes H. Hartley, Jr., CEO of CHI. “She has demonstrated that nothing is insurmountable and that we all need to be good stewards and advocates for healthcare for all.”
In 1974, Ison testified before the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging about problems experienced by the elderly due to lack of transportation. She addressed the legislators as “my colleagues.”
Early on, Ison and the team at CHI began to focus on some of the most vulnerable populations, the migrant community, homeless, low income and more. True to its mission, CHI has always cared for everyone regardless of economic or insurance status or race. The non-profit does accept insurance, but also offers a sliding fee payment scale based on a person’s income.
Ison understood the plight of the migrant community. Both poor, black and brown plights had long been ignored by local and federal governments. Together with Rodolfo “Rudy” Juarez, the founder of Organized Migrants in Community Action (OMICA) they pushed to name the Homestead facility the Martin Luther King Jr. Clinica Campesina Health Center. It was a show of unity during tumultuous times to create the first federally funded health center created to serve migrant farmworkers in South Dade.
Hurricane Andrew also served as a turning point for CHI. In 1992, when category 5 winds ravaged South Florida, CHI was the first to open its doors to care for the community. In between caring for patients, doctors and nurses would sweep up broken glass and other debris left behind, working to get the health center back in order.
“We sometimes refer to it as Saint Andrew,” Hartley said. “Because of the hurricane we were able to get federal funding to expand.”
Within six years, the healthcare system had built four new centers: The Everglades Health Center in Florida City, the South Dade Health Center in Homestead, the West Perrine Health Center and the Naranja Health Center.
The next 20 years showed extraordinary growth under the leadership of Hartley. But growth was not enough, service excellence was also key. He implemented a training program called Journey to Excellence that continues to today for the organization’s leaders.
In 1998, CHI received Joint Commission accreditation. This recognized the organization on a national level as a symbol for healthcare quality and excellent performance.
Then in 2015 CHI became the first community health center to win the Florida Governor’s Sterling Award, once again recognizing excellence.
Just a year prior, CHI opened the Brodes H. Hartley, Jr. Teaching health center to address a growing shortage of doctors nationwide. Since its inception the program has graduated 25 doctors. The program is fully accredited by the Accreditation Council for Medical Education (ACGME).
“This increases CHI’s visibility in the healthcare community and improves our ability to recruit primary care and psychiatry clinicians into the future,” said Dr. Saint Anthony Amofah, Senior VP, Chief Medical Officer, Chief Academic Officer at CHI.
Over the years CHI continued its growth with more centers added in Coconut Grove, South Miami, West Kendall and Tavernier. This summer it expects to open its Southernmost health center in Key West.
By the end of this year, the organization expects to open its Children’s Crisis Center at the Doris Ison campus on SW 216 St. The crisis center will be a safe haven for children with severe mental health issues. It will be a place that they can receive the intensive overnight in-patient treatment that is critical.
This comes on the heels of a major boost to the CHI behavioral health department in the past couple years with the recruitment of about 7 psychiatrists and ARNPS.
Similarly, the OB/GYN department received a boost to its team that now has five midwives, one Advanced Registered Nurse Practitioner specializing in women’s health and five physicians in the women’s services department to meet demand and needs. This team delivers 530 babies a year and performs about 50 surgeries including robotic hysterectomies, laparoscopic, myomectomies and surgical management of fibroids.
“We are always going to study the landscape and strategize on what our communities need,” said Blake Hall, President. “We have to take care of South Florida, its why we exist.”
