Photos by Jim Mandeville.

Jack & Barbara Nicklaus Formally Open $6 Million, 45,000-square-foot Facility

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - (Nov. 1, 2004) - A new page in South Florida pediatric care was written today in West Palm Beach with the dedication of the Nicklaus Children's Hospital at St. Mary's Medical Center. Its authors, Jack Nicklaus and his wife Barbara, along with numerous members of the Nicklaus family, were on hand Monday to cut the ribbon and formally open the $6 million, four-story, 45,000-square-foot facility on the St. Mary's Medical Center campus (901 45th Street, West Palm Beach).

The dedication and ribbon-cutting took place at the entrance to the Nicklaus Children's Hospital, followed by a tour of the facility.

Joining the Nicklauses for the celebration were Don S. Steigman, senior vice president of Tenet South Florida; St. Mary's COO Jeff Rosenberg; hospital CNO Sharon Hayes; and Bishop Gerald Barbarito of the Diocese of Palm Beach, who blessed the hospital.

"This is another great day for the children of South Florida," said Steigman. "In partnership with Jack, Barbara and the entire Nicklaus family, we have constructed this hospital so all children will have an opportunity to receive the highest quality medical care without having to leave Palm Beach County." Both Jack and Barbara Nicklaus, seated in front of their children, provided speeches that focused on family, children's health and welfare, and the long overdue need for a Children's

Hospital in and around Palm Beach County. Barbara emphasized how every contribution, no matter how great or small, to the making the Nicklaus Children's Hospital a reality will make a difference in the lives of children in the area.

"To the world, you may be one person," she reminded the hundreds gathered, "but to one person, you may be the world."

Ground was broken for the Nicklaus Children's Hospital at St. Mary's Medical Center in June 2003. Now completed, it provides a wide array of children's services consolidated in an 81-bed pavilion. The facility includes two general pediatric units, a 13-bed Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU), a Pediatric Progressive Care Unit, relocation and renovation of the Pediatric Hematology/Oncology service and a separate entrance and separate Admissions Department exclusively for children's services. Future plans include the relocation and expansion of the hospital's current Pediatric Emergency Department to the Nicklaus Children's Hospital.

"This beautiful facility was developed with children in mind," said Barbara Nicklaus, president and chairman of the board for the Nicklaus Children's Health Care Foundation, the non-profit foundation established to provide appropriate educational, programmatic and research support, as well as state-of-the-art equipment, for pediatric specialty clinics affiliated with the Nicklaus Children's Hospital. "Not only is it friendly and inviting, its doctors and staff are committed to delivering the best medical care available to pediatric patients and their families in a five-county area."

St. Mary's Medical Center is one of 15 facilities operated by Tenet South Florida. Founded in 1938, St. Mary's is a 460-bed, acute care hospital providing medical, surgical, obstetrical, oncology, pediatric, trauma and emergency services. St. Mary's has more than 1,500 employees and is affiliated with more than 600 primary care, specialist, and sub-specialist physicians. In addition to the new Nicklaus Children's Hospital at St. Mary's Medical Center, the facility also recently expanded its neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) by 10 Level III beds.