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Health-care Partnership Makes PBC a Winner

By Commissioner Jeff Koons

I was very pleased to attend a news conference recently on the campus of A.G. Holley Hospital in Lantana to announce the establishment of the Florida Public Health Institute. I won’t be surprised to see this new nonprofit agency do for our public health-care system what The Scripps Research Institute is expected to do for biotechnology.

The Florida Public Health Institute (FPHI) will work to bring government, academic and professional organizations together to improve the quality of local health-care. Among the institute’s goals are to help keep locally trained medical professionals working in Palm Beach County; form long-term teaching partnerships with local colleges and universities; increase access to preventive health-care outreach programs; and reduce workforce health-care costs.

FPHI is headed by Claude Earl Fox, M.D., M.P.H., who is currently a professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Miller School of Medicine at the University of Miami. Partners include the Palm Beach County Public Health Department, the Quantum Foundation, the Town of Lantana, Florida Atlantic University, Nova Southeastern University, the University of Miami, and the South Florida School of Public Health. To help get the new agency up and running, the Quantum Foundation donated $1 million.

For the past 20 years, A.G. Holley Hospital has primarily been a place where tuberculosis patients were treated. FPHI’s presence will enable it to address other public health threats, such as anthrax and avian flu.

One thing FPHI has already done is organize a class in public health-care administration for area nurses. The institute intends to help establish more federally-qualified health centers which treat patients with and without insurance. These facilities provide access to lower-priced prescription drugs and malpractice coverage for health professionals, and are staffed by doctors and dentists affiliated with the National Health Services Corps.

FPHI is working hand in hand with FAU's public health care masters program to improve local medical field training and will team with the Palm Beach County Health Care Alliance to develop a plan to ensure that everyone eligible for any type of public health care assistance such as Medicaid, receives it.

Another initial activity is to create a “think tank” to locate and apply existing health policy research by in-state groups. An example would be a study done by the Winter Park Foundation to analyze Medicaid waiver implications for Florida residents. Data uncovered by this think tank can be effectively translated and disseminated to local advocacy groups and governmental and non-governmental organizations. A benefit is that this could influence expenditures by the PBC Healthcare District, possibly resulting in increased state funding for prevention and primary care.

As always, I welcome your comments and suggestions. Please feel free to contact me or my staff at 355-2202.