The fortunetellers were in full swing and guests in full regalia, as supporters of “An Enchanted Evening at Frantasy” raised more than $5,000 for the new Ronald McDonald House of Fort Lauderdale. More than 150 people attended the event held recently at Frantasy Salon, Spa and Boutique.

(l to r) Soraya Rivera-Moya, executive director of Ronald McDonald House of Fort Lauderdale; Sandy Black, owner of Frantasy Salon and Spa; and Event Chair Ben Olive. Photography by Andre Rowe

One hundred percent of the proceeds from An Enchanted Evening benefit the more than 200 families who rely on the Ronald McDonald House of Fort Lauderdale each year to provide housing when a child is facing a severe illness.

John Day, owner of Mangos on Las Olas, provided delicious food samplings from his restaurant, while Southern Wine and Spirits donated wine and Coca-Cola donated soft drinks.

“We are so grateful to Sandy Black and her staff and customers at Frantasy who so generously supported this first-time event,” said Soraya Rivera-Moya, executive director of Ronald McDonald House of Fort Lauderdale. “We were thrilled with the results and hope to make this an annual event.”



The DaVinci Diagnostic Imaging Center located in Atlantis, FL, is an outpatient diagnostic facility containing sophisticated Siemens medical testing equipment. Included in the medical facility are an MRI, CT scanner, PET scan, Ultrasound testing and Mammography Testing.

The state of the art facility was designed with patient comfort as a specific design goal. The interior design included ceiling light boxes for patients’ viewing during testing, waiting and sub waiting areas, a curvilinear design to soften the appearance of waiting areas and multiple colors and textures used throughout on the walls, floors, and ceiling. The distinctive renaissance design allows the building to be a landmark and easily identifiable to the public. Anderson-Moore Construction Corp. was the general contractor for the project.



These are exciting times for the diagnosis and treatment of heart disease. It has been noted over the last decade that the number of people going through surgery for heart disease has fallen dramatically. This is due to the number of advancements that have made great gains in the treatment of heart disease.

A major gain is the testing of cholesterol and other blood fats through advanced lipid analysis. These tests, which can be done in any doctor’s office with a simple blood test, allow us to pick up other factors in someone’s bloodstream that could have otherwise gone undiagnosed, and could be the cause of their heart problems. This is especially important in families as these factors are often hereditary.

The second major advance has been coronary calcium scoring. While this has been around for decades, it has finally come into its own. A high coronary calcium score in a man over 40 years of age or a woman of 50 is highly predictive of whether or not they have atherosclerosis (fatty buildup in their arteries). This is such a powerful test that if your calcium score is zero when you are a certain age, then it means you do not have the disease process in the arteries to your heart regardless of your cholesterol level.

This is very important because we have known for years that it is not just what your cholesterol is, but what your body does with it. In other words, there are individuals who have cholesterol levels that are astronomical yet do not have fatty buildup in their arteries. Likewise, there are people who have normal or even low cholesterol, but have already had heart attacks, angioplasty or bypass surgery.

The combination of coronary calcium scoring and advanced lipid testing is the future of Cardiovascular Health Screening.

One of the most exciting and innovative diagnostic tools is the CTA or CAT Scan Angiography. There is a new generation of ultrafast CAT scanners that will be available in this area in the very near future (meaning the next several months). This scanner will be able to do angiograms (dye pictures of the arteries) utilizing a simple injection through the forearm. The procedure will be able to be performed as an outpatient and will save at least 20% to 30% of people who have, otherwise, no known blockages from an invasive procedure called the coronary angiogram.

The CTA can also detect which patients have mild-to-moderate or severe blockages, so that they can be treated more aggressively with cholesterol lowering medicines.

The mainstay of treatment for atherosclerosis is still the lowering of cholesterol; and the primary groups of medicines used for this purpose are the statins (Zocor, Mevacor, Lipitor, Crestor, Pravachol, Etc.). While most people have heard many things about these drugs, they are in fact proven to be safe for the great majority of patients. These drugs are responsible for a 30% to 35% reduction of heart attacks, and an even greater reduction in stroke rates in these individuals.

There are helpful new drugs on the forefront that will affect cholesterol in different ways from the statins. We hope that the combination of the statins and these new medicines, along with early diagnosis of the disease process, will eventually lead to fewer and fewer procedures to relieve blockages and a significant decrease in death from heart attack and stroke.



Hurricane Wilma was the sixth major hurricane and the twenty-first named storm of the 2005 Atlantic Hurricane Season. Damage from these storms was extensive throughout the state of Florida. Included in the damage were buildings of essential services and hospitals.

The damage to hospital buildings which fell within the hurricane impact zones was significant. In cases where buildings were twenty, thirty or forty years old and constructed under less stringent, pre-hurricane Andrew Codes, the structures were vulnerable to roofs blowing off, windows blowing out, doors, louvers, satellite dishes and numerous other building components failing.

The resulting hurricane damage to hospitals put patient care in jeopardy as patient rooms and sometimes entire floors were evacuated during the storms. In addition, losses of power with only partial back up power available with limited fuel supplies, hindered hospital activities and certainly non critical patient treatment.

The construction industry is able to respond to the need. It is feasible to “harden” an existing facility regardless of age, by recladding or encapsulating an existing hospital while it remains in operation.

Superior synthetic stucco systems have been developed which contain heavy layers of mesh which can withstand winds of up to two hundred miles per hour. These systems can be attached over partially reinforced masonry structures or older metal stud structures. In those cases, additional stud strengthening is required. All windows within a hospital should be replaced to meet the large missile impact standard. In fact, it is currently being discussed to increase the glass requirement for essential services buildings to a Level E missile impact (80 ft/sec) and have the existing 50 ft/sec protection standard applied to windows 30 ft. and higher above grade. As of this date, no glass has been tested to achieve the higher impact resistance.

Hospital administrators have to best decide how to expend significant amounts if money on non revenue producing projects. Unfortunately, under the threat of upcoming active hurricane seasons, the magnitude of costs associated with the cost of substantial hurricane repair work, the replacement of lost furnishings, equipment and supplies, and the loss of revenue will greatly outweigh the expenses of preemptive hurricane hardening projects.



Thomas B Kernan, Senior Vice President for Marsh Healthcare in Florida, is actively soliciting participants for the Florida Patient Safety Corporation’s (FPSC) Near Miss reporting program. The FPSC issued a contract to the JMH/UM Center for Patient Safety, CS Stars, Marsh, and Marsh Risk Consulting Group to develop a web-based system and process analysis for Near Misses submitted by healthcare facilities. Currently there are several openings for hospital participants. Ambulatory Surgical and Birthing Center slots are filled until the next phase of the study.

Over the past 5 months, the system has been built, tested, and is now in use throughout the State of Florida. Several issues have delayed some facilities from joining. On one hand, many hospitals in Florida have or are implementing their own Near Miss system. In these cases it may be possible to avoid dual reporting through the use of technology. This is being currently reviewed. An additional reason is concern about Amendment 7 and its impact on the privacy of hospital data in general. However many hospitals determined that by studying this Near Miss data they will be in better position to avoid a risk from the start.

Those participating to date have found the system to be user friendly. It takes a reporter about 2 minutes to answer 8 questions. Once a reporter enters the answers and hits the “submit” button, the information is sent to the hospital in house to review and determine if data are to be sent on to the Center for Patient Safety at JMH/UM. That decision is left to the hospital. An automatic de-identification of data system is activated 72 hours after the hospital submits the data to Dr. David Birnbach, the Centers Director.

It is important to note that the Florida Statute defines a Near Miss as “any potentially harmful event, that could have had an adverse result, but, through chance or intervention, harm was prevented.” We are reporting a non-harmful event in order to study, ahead of the incident and claims curve, what interventions could have prevented even a nonevent.

Governor Bush’ Task Force on the Medical Malpractice Crises in 2002 led to the establishment of the Florida Patient Safety Corporation in his 2005-6 budgets. “I applaud the healthcare professionals and institutions that embrace this initiative and demonstrate their leadership and commitment to continued quality improvement.”