Special to UM News

CORAL GABLES, Fla. (December 5, 2016)—The first patients — nearly 150 of them — walked through the front door of The Lennar Foundation Medical Center last week, entering a spectacular new facility and a spectacular new world of health care.

The many months of preparation and the extraordinary support of The Lennar Foundation began paying off as the University of Miami Health System opened this model for future health care delivery — a conveniently located facility where patients are treated as individuals with a superior patient experience and transformational medical care.

Coral Gables campus faculty and staff, students, and residents from throughout south Miami-Dade County will find a wide range of the most advanced services — from Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, the University of Miami Health System Sports Medicine Institute, and many other academic medical specialties — under one roof.

“Today in Coral Gables, we show the world what the most convenient, compassionate, comprehensive care looks like — and will look like across the region, as we extend our vision in the coming months and years,” said Steven M. Altschuler, M.D., senior vice president for health affairs and chief executive officer of the University of Miami Health System.

“Physicians and staff will enjoy an unmatched work experience, in an unmatched setting, as they treat patients and advance translational research in ways only an academic medical center can,” said Ben Riestra, chief administrative officer at The Lennar Foundation Medical Center.

Hundreds of community leaders, University of Miami trustees and administrators, donors and other dignitaries helped dedicate The Lennar Foundation Medical Center on the Coral Gables campus on November 18, ushering in a new world of health care imagined and realized by the University of Miami Health System.

“This is a monumental day for the University of Miami,” Altschuler told those who had gathered for the event. “It is truly a transformational moment in the history of the University of Miami Health System, and it’s also the start of a new vision for health care in South Florida. This is a facility, this is a concept, that really thinks about the patient first.”

In this new vision for health care, the patient experience is transformed into a journey of being well.

“We will know you personally, care for you individually, and guide you uniquely,” Riestra says in a video Altschuler showed guests at the event. “This is not just about a new building. More important, it’s a new destination, a new experience, a new way of being well.”

The building was made possible by a $50 million gift from The Lennar Foundation. More information about the Lennar Center can be found here.