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There is a “slot” for one additional trauma center in Miami-Dade approved and partly funded by the Department of Health, which determined last year that Miami-Dade’s population needs three trauma centers to cover it and Monroe County. There are already two. Jackson Hospital’s renowned Ryder 
Trauma Center and Kendal Regional Hospital, which built a helipad and got conditional approval in 2011 and got permanent approval for a trauma center in 2013.
Broward and Palm Beach counties, which each have lower populations than Miami-Dade, have three and two trauma centers, respectively.
“It’s not even debatable that an additional trauma center is needed,” Tachmes said. “It’s a health issue. It’s about the well being of the people of Broward and Miami-Dade counties.”
Soroka said that the public would get an opportunity to comment about it Tuesday’s meeting, but that there had been not one single call to his office from anybody concerned. In fact, the city did get a letter of support from the Palm Garden nursing home directly behind the hospital, he added. Of course, this may be the first time the general public gets any wind of it. The manager said it would be the first time the issue is brought to the commission. The hospital did send a letter of support from the Palm Garden nursing home directly behind the hospital, he added.
Development Director Joanne Carr told Ladra that there had been no concerns raised but one request for information. That request came from Donald Wolfe, who used to work for a county commissioner but is now the government affairs liaison (or something like that) for Carlos Migoya at Jackson Health, which stands to lose a lot from the expansion of for-profit trauma centers.
Can’t help but wonder if Migoya is behind the campaign/government PR people who contacted Ladra over the holidays and weekend about it. They said they were representing a group of concerned residents but, remember, Soroka said he had not gotten a single concerned resident call about it.
More likely, the “opposition” is from Jackson or the two Broward County trauma centers that would also be forced to compete if Aventura had one of its own. Jackson has also filed a letter of intent to apply for the single trauma center slot allotted to Miami-Dade by the Department of Health. If Aventura Hospital does not get a helipad approved before the deadline April 1st, it would not be in the running.
Tachmes said the application did not appear out of nowhere. He has had architects and traffic consultants and noise consultants working on it for months and they met with city staff about it in October.
Commissioners on Tuesday will also get to review those drawings and reports well as a noise study that puts the helicopter sound 
somewhere almost even with routine suburbia noises, but apparently that was done by the hospital’s people.
“It was done by a hospital consultant and was reviewed by the city consultant, who agreed with the report,” Carr said.
Soroka’s recommendation also states that approval of the helipad would be consistent with the master plan and FAA regulations.
The county’s fire department, which provides services to Aventura, has not chimed in.
Little research seems to have been done on whether or not another trauma center is needed in Aventura, of all places — the northeasternmost corner of our county. There are two trauma centers in Broward, six and 12 miles away. Jackson is 15 miles away — which is quick by helicopter. Where would patients be coming from that is not maybe even closer to another facility? This seems to be a business decision. And that is good and fine.
Except there is a concern that Jackson Memorial Hospital, which is a non profit that relies heavily on it’s trauma center service fees to function, would not be able to survive if every hospital owned by our millionaire guv were to suddenly sprout helipads. Already, Kendall Regional Hospital, which is also HCA-owned, has become the second adult trauma center, after Ryder at Jackson, with their helipad, which got preliminary approval in 2011 and long-term approval in 2013.
Last month, fundraising guru Brian Goldmeier hosted “the inaugural meeting of the 
Florida Public Health Fund, an innovative new organization that’s working to protect the future of hospital systems like Jackson.” Dozens of electeds were invited to a fundraiser Dec. 3 at the Biltmore Hotel for this new PAC effort. Migoya was the keynote spekaer.
“Today we are fortunate to live in a community with elected officials who understand Jackson’s unique and important role in Miami-Dade County, but we all know how hard it is for any one voice to rise above the noise in Tallahassee and Washington,” Goldmeier wrote in his email to the would-be donors. “Healthcare is becoming more highly regulated and more heavily politicized every year. We can’t afford to let world-class academic institutions like Jackson be shut out of the conversation simply because they aren’t private, for-profit organizations.”
So maybe this is the Florida Public Health Fund trying to block the helipad at Aventura Hospital. Because without the helipad, the trauma center cannot be approved.
Read related story in the Tampa Bay Times: How HCA turned trauma into a money-maker
What we do know for almost 100% certain is that Aventura Hospital, a for-profit HCA hospital, will most likely charge patients a higher transportation fee and trauma fee than Jackson. According to a report from the Tampa Bay Times, HCA Hospitals charge on average between $23,000 – $34,000 to trauma patients compared to $1,100 – $4,700 for the same services at other local hospitals.
The newspaper analyzed different HCA hospitals across the state and compared them to nearby hospitals that offered the same services and found that “HCA is capitalizing on a marketplace that is unchecked by politicians or regulators. That has allowed one of the nation’s largest for-profit hospital chains to bill injured patients record fees, the Times has found.’
Well, rather than unchecked by politicians, Ladra might well say this process has been aided by politicians — even if by their abstention.
But that’s a whole ‘nother story. As Ladra says, more on that later.
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