FIU medical school to partner with Baptist —what it means for patients, doctors, students
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The medical school at Florida International University chose Baptist Health South Florida as its clinical partner Thursday, ushering in a new era for doctors and patients in South Florida, and unlocking a milestone that could propel FIU to a higher level.
“It will be a transformative partnership for us — for the college of medicine, for FIU, for Baptist and really, for the community,” said Dr. Juan Cendan, the dean of the Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine, after he broke the news during an FIU Board of Trustees meeting.
FIU students in the Wertheim medical school and in other FIU health programs such as nursing will get more research and training opportunities.
Baptist patients will get more access to medical professionals, facilities and clinical trials.
Bo Boulenger, the president and chief executive of Baptist Health South Florida, said he’s “proud and honored” of teaming up with FIU. Although Baptist isn’t yet a certified teaching hospital, Bounlenger said they’re working toward that.
Teaching hospitals work with medical schools and other academic medical programs to train doctors, nurses and others through residencies, internships, fellowships and post-doctoral programs. There are more than 1,000 U.S. teaching hospitals, according to the American Hospital Association.
The University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, for example, works with Jackson Memorial Hospital, a teaching hospital, to train its physicians, with UM doctors treating patients at Jackson. Jackson Health System is the Miami-Dade County-owned public hospital network, funded through hundreds of millions in taxpayer dollars.
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Boulenger said Baptist and the university will build a clinic on the FIU main campus in West Miami-Dade. And he doesn’t expect patients to see a rise in their bills because of the partnership.
Boulenger also pointed out that physicians who do their residencies and other training in a community are more likely to stay in that community after graduating, which will help South Florida’s rapidly growing population. During the pandemic, South Florida hospitals dealt with staff shortages, particularly among nurses, stemming from COVID absences and workers leaving the field due to burnout.
“This is a net positive for the two organizations and for the community,” Boulenger said.
What happens next?
Cendan said FIU proposed the affiliation to seven organizations, narrowed down that number to four then two, and then landed on Baptist. The process took about a year.
For the next 90 days, FIU and Baptist representatives will negotiate financial details and how the two organizations will work under an operating agreement, similar to a prenup.
“We’ll be creating the framework for how we will interact with each other,” he said. “We’re taking these two very large institutions and creating this kind of marriage.”
In the partnership between Jackson Health System and the University of Miami, Jackson pays the private university a total of $71.3 million for medical services, per the current Annual Operating Agreement ending May 31. UM provides most of Jackson’s doctors.
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Ultimately, the alliance could help FIU accomplish its goal of reaching the list of the Top 50 public universities, as ranked by US News & World Report. In 2022, FIU placed No. 72 among public universities (the lower the number — No. 1 is tops — the better).
“We think this ties very well with that goal. It ties in with the reputation, with the research components, with student activities,” said Kenneth Jessell, FIU’s president. “We’re very, very excited.”
FIU to keep working with other hospitals
Without an official partner, FIU’s medical school, since its founding in 2006, has worked with many hospitals networks in the area, including Broward Health, Cleveland Clinic Weston and Memorial Healthcare System in Broward, and Jackson Health System, Mount Sinai Medical Center and Baptist, among others in Miami-Dade.
Currently, about 30 percent of FIU medical student clinical experiences occur at Baptist. Baptist Health South Florida has 12 hospitals, including Baptist Hospital in Kendall, South Miami Hospital, Doctors Hospital in Coral Gables, Homestead Hospital, and two hospitals in the Florida Keys: Mariner’s Hospital in Tavernier and Fishermen’s Community Hospital in Marathon.
Over time, the percentage of medical student clinical programs at Baptist will likely rise, but Cendan said he hopes FIU will maintain relationships with the other South Florida hospitals as well.
“We have thousands of health science students at FIU across the nursing program, public health, social work. Many students who need many, many sites,” he said. “Baptist will supply and help us arrange clinical experience teaching for many students, but it might not be enough.”
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Cendan arrived to FIU in March 2021 as a professor of surgery and the vice dean and executive associate dean for student affairs at the medical school. In September 2021, he became interim dean. In July 2022, he was named the medical school’s third dean. At the time, he said he wanted to expand the “clinical footprint” of the medical school.
Beating UM and Jackson?
FIU’s partnership with Baptist will likely operate in a similar fashion to the UM/Jackson agreement.
At the trustees’ meeting Thursday, Trustee Marc Sarnoff, a Miami attorney and a former Miami city commissioner, said he wants FIU and Baptist to become “the very best delivery system in all of South Florida.”
“In 25 to 30 years from now, it’s going to be a given that we’re the delivery system for everyone in South Florida. We’re going to be bigger than UM. We’re going to be bigger than Jackson. And we’re going to deliver better medicine than them,” Sarnoff said.
Cendan raised his brows and smiled when Sarnoff said that. After the meeting, he said it’s “fun” to have a little competition, but he wants to help the millions who live in South Florida.
“In my mind, there isn’t a ‘beat’ another medical school,” Cendan said afterwards. “In my mind, elevation of health care delivery in the region is what we’re after.”
The University of Miami medical school did not immediately respond to the Herald’s request for comment.
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