Nicklaus Children’s and Broward Health team up for care. What it means for patients
Kids will soon be able to get treated by specialists in cardiology, neurology and orthopedics from Nicklaus Children’s Health System through Broward Health to bolster care for children in central and northern Broward.
Nicklaus Children’s Health System is set to become the pediatric provider of Broward Health’s Salah Foundation Children’s Hospital next year as part of a recently approved affiliation agreement. The children’s hospital is part of the Broward Health Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale and also offers services through Broward Health Coral Springs.
“This is is all about access to high quality pediatric health care close to home,” said Matthew Love, president and CEO of Nicklaus Children’s Health System.
Nicklaus Children’s provides care to nearly half a million pediatric patients a year, many of whose families rely on Medicaid, the federal-state medical insurance program for low-income families. It runs one of the top pediatric hospitals in Florida with more than a dozen outpatient and urgent care centers across the region.
Broward Health is one of the 10 largest public health systems in the country with five hospitals and more than 50 health centers and physician practices in the county.
The CEOs for Broward Health and Nicklaus Children’s, in a joint interview with the Miami Herald, explained that one of the initiative’s key missions is to improve access to primary and specialty care for kids in Broward, the second most populous county in Florida.
“We’re changing the healthcare landscape for the better of our patients and these children here around the community,” said Shane Strum, president and CEO of Broward Health and interim CEO of Memorial Healthcare System, the county’s other public safety net hospital system.
What the Broward Health-Nicklaus Children’s collab means for patients
More than 1.9 million people live in Broward County and nearly 21% of the population are kids under 18, census data shows.
While there are several hospitals in the county, only two provide specialized care to children. One is the children’s hospital at Broward Health, the public hospital network that covers central and northern Broward. The other is Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital in Hollywood, part of Memorial Regional Healthcare System, the public hospital network for southern Broward.
Broward Healthsays about 16% of pediatric patients must leave the county to seek specialized care. Miami-Dade County has Nicklaus Children’s Hospital, Baptist Children’s Hospital and Holtz Children’s Hospital, which is one of the largest children’s hospitals in the Southeast United States and part of Miami-Dade’s public hospital system, Jackson Health System.
“No kid should ever have to leave Broward County or Miami-Dade County” or Florida for care, Love said.
By late 2025, Nicklaus specialists will care for children at Broward Health Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale, which provides medical services to adults and children and is considered to have one of the busiest ERs in the country. Nicklaus doctors will also be moving into Broward Health Coral Springs, which caters to a growing population of children and young families in surrounding neighborhoods.
The affiliation will also make it easier for doctors to share information between the two hospital systems, according to the hospital executives. A Broward child might undergo surgery at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital near South Miami, for example, and be able to see their Nicklaus doctor for follow-up appointments at one of the Broward Health locations. Similarly, it will be easier for doctors at both hospital systems to review and manage a patient’s treatment.
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Broward Health served more than 70,000 pediatric patients during the 2024 fiscal year, which ended in June. The affiliation is also expected to create more jobs, research and graduate medical education opportunities, which could help attract more doctors, nurses and other medical staff during a time when the country is facing a healthcare worker shortage and fewer doctors are studying pediatrics.
Nicklaus Children’s, which runs the only freestanding pediatric hospital in South Florida, also collaborates with Baptist Health South Florida. Nicklaus specialists provide pediatric emergency care at Baptist Hospital and at Homestead Hospital in Miami-Dade County.
In the Nicklaus-Broward Health collaboration, the boards of both hospital systems approved the affiliation agreement in November, with the transition expected to begin in early 2025 and be completed by end of year.
“We changed the direction of pediatric health care in South Florida in a way that has not been done in the past,” said Love, the Nicklaus CEO.
