Baptist Health South Florida

The relationship between Florida International University Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine (HWCOM) and Baptist Health South Florida is important, strategic and community centered. Scores of Baptist physicians not only serve as community faculty at our medical school but also as leaders, with many serving as the chair of different departments within the school. Last year, the FIU Family Medicine Residency Program at West Kendall Baptist Hospital graduated its first cohort kicking off both organizations’ long-standing commitment to develop home-grown clinicians to address the shortage of primary care physicians in South Florida.

As this special relationship grew, Baptist Health South Florida saw a unique opportunity to impact the South Miami community adjacent to its South Miami Hospital by partnering with HWCOM’s signature Green Family Foundation Neighborhood Health Education Learning Program. Also known as NeighborhoodHELP, this award-winning initiative educates future physicians and other health professionals on how to provide care that not only treats the individual but also analyzes the social determinants of health as they relate to the quality of life in specific neighborhoods or communities.

Together HWCOM and Baptist Health South Florida designed the South Miami program to offer measurable outcomes to gauge how value-based medicine really works in order to effectively impact the community and develop processes for sustainable change. “FIU has been welcoming and open and encouraging of innovative concepts and ideas,” says Wayne Brackin, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Baptist Health South Florida. In addition to the combined efforts supporting the NeighborhoodHELP program, Baptist turned to its HWCOM partnership to assist in recruiting luminary leaders in cancer surgery, genetics and genomics, radiation oncology and cancer research when developing their renowned Miami Cancer Institute. Brackin has described the partnership between FIU and Baptist as “unparalleled.”

As efforts continue in the South Florida community, both organizations are optimistic that NeighborhoodHELP will lead to a model that can consistently be replicated in other communities of need. “FIU is our academic partner,” says Brackin. FIU and Baptist Health South Florida are at the cusp of an innovative approach that will transform medical education, impact how health care is delivered, and unquestionably improve quality of life in South Florida and beyond. And as these two institutions move forward together, it is inevitable that great things will continue to come for health care in our community.