Aventura Hospital and Medical Center’s Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Leonard Brenner and Heather J. Rohan, C.E.O. announced the appointment of Charles P. Shenker, M.D., as the facility’s Chief of Staff.

Dr. Shenker has been practicing Pulmonary Medicine for over 25 years and has been a member of Aventura Hospital’s medical staff since 1979. Dr. Shenker completed both undergraduate and medical school at the University of Miami, completing his Internship and Residency at the University of Alabama. He then obtained his Fellowship in Pulmonary Medicine at the University of Miami Hospitals in 1979.



Pamela Santucci, Injury Prevention Program Manager at the Broward County Health Department, was recently awarded the 2008 Joseph Y. Porter, M.D. Award. The award is given annually by the Health Promotions Section of the Florida Public Health Association (FPHA) to a health educator to recognize outstanding contributions to the health promotion profession.

An employee at the Broward County Health Department for over 16 years, Santucci spearheads several local and state special projects, including coordination of evidenced based research on drowning prevention methods and the development of a drowning prevention awareness campaign that includes mass transit and print advertising and distribution of community education tools. She is active in such community organizations as Broward Safe Kids Coalition and the SWIMS Foundation.



HFMA has elected Robert L. Broadway, FHFMA, to serve as the organization’s voluntary Chairman of the Board of Directors for 2008-09. Broadway is Vice President of Corporate Strategy at the Bethesda Healthcare System.

A member of HFMA since 1978, Broadway has served HFMA in many roles on the national and chapter levels. He was Chapter Liaison Representative and a member of the Nominating Committee, the Chapter Advancement Team, the Development Advisory Group, the National Matrix, the Managed Care Forum Advisory Council, the National Advisory Councils, and the Davis Chapter Management System Task Force.

Broadway is a member of the Board of Directors and the Board’s Executive Committee, and he has been chairman of the Board’s Audit and Finance Committee and Strategic Planning Committee.



The National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) honored the Miami-Dade County Health Department for implementing a program that demonstrates exemplary and replicable qualities in response to a local public health need. Miami-Dade County Health Department’s Healthy Stories is one of 25 local public health programs selected from across the nation to receive NACCHO’s Model Practice Award.

Morton Laitner, Esq., Chief Legal Counsel, Miami-Dade County Health Department.

Healthy Stories is a compilation of vignettes concerning the promotion of public health, the protection of our citizenry and prevention of the spread of deadly disease – set mostly in an urban health department in South Florida. The subject matter relates to a broad range of public health issues: Chronic disease, cancer, sexually transmitted disease, HIV/AIDS, communicable diseases, tobacco and alcohol cessation, public health preparedness, environmental health and veterinary medicine. But the tales cover such timeless themes as love to mystery, and tragedy to farce. Healthy stories recounts experiences of Health Department employees and, in effect, memorializes the organization’s institutional memory. Healthy Stories further serves to inspire and invigorate the public health workforce by showing that they make a difference everyday in their fields.



Promise Healthcare, Inc. has selected Boca Raton-based Kaufman Lynn, Inc. General Contractors to build Promise’s first hospital in Florida at The Villages in Sumter County. The announcement was made by Promise Healthcare, Inc. Chairman and CEO Peter R. Baronoff.

According to Baronoff, Kaufman Lynn’s proven track record, healthcare construction experience, value engineering applications, and cost and quality control practices, along with Michael Kaufman’s “hands-on” leadership collectively secured Promise’s selection of KLI as general contractor. Construction began this summer with completion expected to take 12-14 months.

The $22.5 million all private room, 40-bed, 56,000-square-foot state-of-the-art Promise hospital will specialize in high acuity long-term patient care.

“We are very pleased to be selected to build Promise Healthcare’s first hospital in Florida,” noted Michael Kaufman, president of Kaufman Lynn, Inc. General Contractors. “By incorporating our healthcare-specific construction strategies and technologies overseen by our seasoned healthcare management professionals, we look forward to delivering the highest quality construction, on time and on budget, for this extremely complex medical facility.”