Last week’s program was presented by Rotarian Tom Sparkman.  Tom’s guest speaker was Karen Kerr, President of South Florida Baptist Hospital.  South Florida Baptist Hospital is a full-service 147-bed community hospital that offers all of the high-tech services of an acute care hospital, but in a small, warm and friendly environment designed for personal attention and compassionate care. In 2003, South Florida Baptist Hospital reached its 50-year milestone.  The commitment of the Plant City community to support South Florida Baptist Hospital has been one of outstanding generosity that began with its founding. The development of the hospital in the 1940s is the story of a noteworthy partnership between many generous, civic-minded citizens of Plant City and the dedicated financial support of the Florida Baptist Church Convention. The entire Plant City community rallied behind the idea of building the city's first hospital in the post WWII years.  SFBH was a founding member of the Bay Care group of hospitals in 1997.  Bay Care is currently comprised of 13 hospitals, 284 access points and 3,419 beds.  Bay Care has over 3,100 Physicians on staff with over 544,000 ER visits.  All are non-profit and all are part of the communities that they serve.  South Florida Baptist Hospital has 147 beds with over 9,000 admissions and 600+ births last year.  726 “team members” make up SFBH including 249 Physicians and 136 volunteers that provide more than $13.26 million in charity care in our community.  SFBH continues to excel as a hospital winning many industry awards and achievements.  Among them is the prestigious “Truven top 100” listing among medium size hospitals in the country.  SFBH “centers of excellence” include their Emergency Center, Surgical Center, Family Child Birth Center, Diagnostic Imaging Center, Heart and Vascular Center, and Robotics surgery department that is one of the top facilities in the area.  The magnification and precision of the Robotic surgery makes it more efficient and safe for all patients.  SFBH is currently undergoing construction of a new ICU department with over 13,400 sq ft, and 17 critical care centers it will one of the best.  The ICU should be completed by April of 2016 at a cost of $6.1 million.

Submitted by Mike Arndt