Nicklaus kicks off children's hospital

By Phil Galewitz Courtesy of the Palm Beach Post

WEST PALM BEACH -- Using sand wedges rather than traditional shovels, golfing legend Jack Nicklaus and other dignitaries on Thursday broke ground for the $6 million Nicklaus Children's Hospital at St. Mary's Medical Center.

When opened late next year, the four-story, 81-bed pavilion will be the only children's hospital between Orlando and Hollywood.

"This is very special," said Nicklaus, after hitting a golf ball from a specially designed sand trap on the northwest side of the hospital campus. Eleven of the Nicklaus' 15 grandchildren were born at St. Mary's.

Tenet Healthcare Corp., which owns St. Mary's and four other Palm Beach County hospitals, is paying for the new children's center that will centralize pediatric care at the West Palm Beach hospital.

The Nicklaus family, longtime residents of North Palm Beach, is establishing a nonprofit foundation to support the children's hospital and pediatric care in the area. The Honda Classic golf tournament, which moved to Palm Beach Gardens this spring, will be one of the foundation's big contributors.

Hospital officials say the Nicklaus name will help attract attention to the hospital and recruit talent to work there. Nicklaus joins fellow golfing legend Arnold Palmer and the late baseball great Joe DiMaggio to have Florida children's hospitals named for them. Palmer's name is connected with Orlando Regional Healthcare. DiMaggio's name is on a children's hospital in the Memorial Health System in Hollywood.

"It is very flattering to me," Nicklaus said. "If the name helps one child, that would be great."

Nicklaus said St. Mary's is the logical place to build a children's hospital because it's already the leader in providing pediatric services in the region.

Nicklaus and St. Mary's administrators came together on the idea after mutual friends talked about the possibility while playing golf on a Nicklaus course in Jupiter. The children's hospital will include: two general pediatric units; a 13-bed pediatric intensive care unit; relocation and renovation of the pediatric cancer service; and a separate entrance for children's services.

The Nicklaus foundation will be run by family members and community leaders. It hopes to help indigent children get care as well as pay for new equipment and recruit new pediatric specialists to the area.

The nonprofit foundation will have to walk a fine line in how it operates with the hospital because St. Mary's is a for-profit institution. In effect, the foundation will be able to support services that help patients but not the hospital's bottom line, said Hank Raatama, a Miami tax attorney. "It's a fuzzy, gray line," Raatama said.

Nicklaus and hospital officials say they are confident they will be able to meet IRS guidelines so the foundation can maintain tax-exempt status.