Public Hospitals
Halifax Health is the area’s largest healthcare provider with a tertiary and community hospital with 944 licensed beds and more than 500 physicians on its medical staff, representing 46 medical specialties. Halifax Health offers the area’s only Level II trauma center, comprehensive stroke center, neonatal and pediatric intensive care units, child and adolescent behavioral services, and kidney transplant program. It also provides psychiatric services, a regional cancer program with four outreach centers, the area’s largest hospice organization, and a preferred provider organization.
Halifax Health serves the residents of East Central Florida with a wide range of diagnostic and treatment capabilities. It has consistently ranked in the top five percent of all hospitals in the nation in clinical outcomes in areas such as cardiology, orthopedics, neurosciences, oncology and trauma care, and holds numerous disease-specific certifications including heart attack, heart failure, stroke and diabetes.
Halifax Health is a legislatively chartered taxing healthcare organization governed by a Board of Commissioners appointed by the Governor.
Open since 1916, Lee Health is one of the top five largest public health systems in the United States and the largest community-owned health system in Southwest Florida. The 2,165 bed system is made up of four acute-care hospitals, two specialty hospitals, two skilled nursing units as well as outpatient centers, walk-in medical centers and primary care physician offices. Lee Health serves the community as the only children’s hospital and Level II Trauma Center between Tampa and Miami. Lee Health accounts for about 95 percent of the county’s acute-care hospital beds. The system delivers all of the babies born in Lee County and many from surrounding counties, including many high-risk babies.
Governed by a 10-member Board of Directors elected publicly, Lee Health manages over 2 million patient contacts annually with a workforce exceeding 14,000 employees, supported by more than 4,000 volunteers and auxilians. The medical staff comprises over 2,500 professionals, including 950+ primary and specialty care physicians and advanced practitioners spread across 100+ practice locations throughout Southwest Florida.
At 1,978 beds, Memorial Healthcare System is among the nation’s largest public healthcare systems. The system consists of a majorquaternary care hospital, a freestanding children’s hospital, nine primary care centers, four community hospitals, a nursing home, two urgent care centers, a large freestanding 24/7 care center and a home health agency.
Memorial Regional Hospital, located in Hollywood, is the flagship of the system and one of the largest hospitals in Florida. It offers extensive and diverse services that include Memorial Transplant Institute, Memorial Cardiac and Vascular Institute, Memorial Cancer Institute and Memorial Neuroscience Institute.
Memorial Regional Hospital South is also located in Hollywood and offers medical and surgical services and houses Memorial Rehabilitation Institute, an 89-bed, inpatient comprehensive rehabilitation hospital.
Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital is the leading children’s hospital in Broward and Palm Beach counties with major services in pediatric cardiology, including surgery and transplantation, oncology, orthopedics and neurosciences.
Memorial Hospital Miramar and Memorial Hospital Pembroke serve western Broward county as community hospitals. Memorial Hospital West, which houses Memorial Cancer Institute and Moffitt Malignant Hematology & Cellular Therapy at Memorial Healthcare System, Memorial Manor nursing home, and a variety of ancillary healthcare facilities round out the system. The System is governed by a seven-member Board of Commissioners appointed by the Governor.
Sarasota Memorial Health Care System has 1,075 beds across 2 hospital campuses — SMH-Sarasota and SMH-Venice — employs more than 10,000 staff, and offers the region’s greatest depth and breadth of care.
Founded in 1925, Sarasota Memorial provides specialized expertise in cardiac, vascular, oncology, maternity and neuroscience services, as well as a complete continuum of care, with a network of outpatient and urgent care centers, physician practices, behavioral health, rehabilitation and skilled nursing among its many programs.
The region’s only public health system, Sarasota Memorial is governed by the Sarasota County Public Hospital Board, made up of nine unpaid citizens elected by local voters. It is the only health system in Sarasota County offering trauma services, obstetrical care, pediatrics, neonatal intensive care and psychiatric services for patients of all ages. Sarasota Memorial also operates a Community Medical Clinic, which provides specialty care for uninsured and underinsured residents.
SMH-Sarasota has been consistently recognized as one of the nation’s best. Sarasota Memorial is one of only 17 hospitals in the U.S. to earn the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ highest five-star quality rating in every reporting period since the federal program began in 2016. The organization also has received Magnet Nursing Recognition five times, an achievement attained by less than 1 percent of all hospitals.