Page 8 - May 2017

Michel Credits Leadership, Staff for

Continued Growth of Larkin Programs, Facilities

Charter School latest addition to hospital’s holdings

BY VANESSA ORR Sciences and College of they graduate, they will continue to work added, noting that minorities make up 80
Health Sciences. This together.” percent of this population.
When Jack Michel, M.D., past August, the hospi- While educating medical professionals In addition to Larkin’s educational pro-
joined Larkin Community tal opened its College is a priority, it is also important to encour- grams, the hospital expanded its medical
Hospital in South Miami in of Pharmacy, the first of age younger students to enter the medical facilities as well. Larkin holdings now
1998, his first few years its kind in Miami, and field. To this end, the hospital was recently include Larkin Community Hospital, with
were spent streamlining the only one offering a approved by the Miami Dade County campuses in South Miami and Palm
operations to ensure quality three-year PharmD pro- Public School Board for the Larkin Middle Springs/Hialeah; the 50-bed Larkin
of care in the 112-bed med- gram in Florida. It is School for the Health Sciences, a charter Behavioral Health Services in Hollywood;
ical/surgical/psychiatric now recruiting for its school for sixth- to eighth-graders that will Floridian Gardens assisted living facility;
facility. Once that was second class. These prepare them for degrees in health sci- the Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood
accomplished, the president schools are part of the ences and offer mentorships in the field. Hills; five imaging centers in Miami-Dade
and chairman of the board new Larkin University, The school, which will open this August, County, and Larkin Home Health Services
turned his attention toward Dr. Jack Michel a not-for-profit affiliate will be tuition-free for Miami-Dade with two locations in Miami-Dade and
providing services that were recently approved by County residents. Broward counties.
missing in the market—something that the Commission for Indepen dent “We saw a big education deficit in terms “When we identify a gap in care, we
still drives him today. Education of the Florida Department of of reaching middle and high school stu- make it a part of our mission,” said Dr.
“In order to compete in this industry, Education. dents in public schools who were interest- Michel, crediting Larkin’s growth to
you need to look for things that aren’t “One of the reasons behind this invest- ed in healthcare, but who didn’t have the human resources and leadership. “If you
provided by other hospitals, and post- ment in education is that we believe that means to go to private schools to get don’t have people in key places in the C-
graduate medical education was one of working in silos is one of the primary exposed to health careers and mentoring,” suite, this type of growth won’t happen;
those things,” he explained. “That led us causes of hospital errors,” said Dr. said Dr. Michel. “Statistics show that our you need leadership that understands the
to starting residency programs, and we’ve Michel. “We bury a population the size of workforce doesn’t represent the popula- vision and executes it.
since become the third largest statutory Miami every year because of these errors, tion here; Hispanics and African- “We also have 2,000 employees, each as
teaching hospital in Florida, ranking which are the result of a lack of communi- Americans are underrepresented. That important as the other, who are all ambas-
only behind UF Health Shands in cation among healthcare providers. means that we’re not doing a good job of sadors of Larkin and continually think of
Gainesville and Jackson Health System in “By offering interprofessional education, getting these students involved in health- ways to grow and provide more services,”
our number of residents and training where medical residents, pharmacy stu- care careers. he added. “Not all of our projects are
programs.” dents and nursing students all work “Our pharmacy students, nursing stu- money-making, but as long as we can be
Following that success, Larkin contin- together to help patients, we move away dents and medical residents are a very fiscally responsible, we will continue to
ued to expand, establishing the Larkin from this silo mentality,” he continued. diverse group, who will serve as great role grow to meet the changing healthcare
School of Nursing, College of Biomedical “When students are trained that way, after models to our charter school students,” he needs of our community.”

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8 May 2017 southfloridahospitalnews.com South Florida Hospital News