PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE MARCH 2019

How’s your golf swing? It doesn’t have to be outstanding to join us at our annual Glen Rice Celebrity Golf Tournament at the Shula’s Golf Club in Miami Lakes on April 12th. In fact, some people just like to come and enjoy the food, drinks and the greens. Whether you’re golfing or not I hope you will join us for this fun-filled event and pledge a sponsorship. It helps push us closer to our goal of building a Children’s Crisis Center for abused children and kids with severe behavioral health issues. The crisis center will be an in-patient 24-hour facility with integrated care for children. Currently, we have a crisis unit for adults but it is not suitable for kids. That means when children are baker acted here or brought in by their parents we need to process them and transfer them to another facility miles away. Oftentimes most of the local children’s crisis centers are full. These families can’t wait any longer for help. We need to be their lifeline and you can help us do that.

March is colorectal cancer awareness month. It is the second leading cause of death from cancers that affects both men and women. If you are 50 years and older you need to get regular screenings. Talk to your doctor here at CHI about getting tested. Six out of 10 deaths from this cancer could have been prevented according to the Centers for Disease Control.

Last, but certainly not least, I want to ask you all to wish your doctor a Happy Doctor’s Day on March 30th. CHI is so fortunate to have a talented, knowledgeable, devoted, compassionate team of physicians. Our doctors work beyond the hurdles presented to ensure that everyone has access to high quality healthcare, regardless of economic background, insurance status or ethnicity. They believe in the work that they do and many of them are helping to groom the next generation of doctors by teaching the residents in our Teaching Health Center. I want our doctors to know that we are so grateful for all that they do and sincerely proud of their dedication to our patients.

Yours Truly,

Brodes H. Hartley Jr.