More than 400 community leaders, neighborhood residents, physicians and employees recently gathered on the east campus of Baptist Hospital for a groundbreaking ceremony to mark the start of construction of the Victor E. Clarke Emergency Pavilion.

“Since opening in 1960, Baptist Hospital has undergone several expansions to try and keep up with the continuous growth in our community,” Baptist Hospital CEO Lee Huntley told the audience gathered at the site of the new ER. “This project is the culmination of many years of intensive planning and design in which our Board members, physicians, employees and the community worked together to design a state-of-the-art facility.”

Baptist Health representatives and community leaders marked the construction of the Victor E. Clarke Emergency Pavilion at a groundbreaking ceremony on July 19. Pictured left to right are: Henry Tie Shue, vice chairman and chair-elect, Baptist Health Foundation; Victor E. Clarke, local philanthropist and honorary Baptist Health Foundation Board member; Eugene Eisner, M.D., president of Baptist Hospital medical staff; Wendell R. Beard, member of the Board of Trustees of Baptist Health; George E. Cadman, III, chairman of the Board, Baptist Health; Miami-Dade County Commissioner Katy Sorenson; Lee Huntley, Baptist Hospital CEO; Brian Keeley, president and CEO of Baptist Health; and Calvin Babcock, chairman of the Board, Baptist Hospital.

Calvin Babcock, chairman of Baptist Hospital Board of Directors, talked briefly about some of the changes that have taken place on the campus of Baptist Hospital since it was originally built in 1960, when Kendall Drive was considered the “road to nowhere.” Ambulances avoided Baptist Hospital because the dirt roads were too hard on patients, he said. “Times have certainly changed. Now every ambulance wants to come here.”

Dr. Eugene Eisner, president of the Baptist Hospital medical staff, said that Baptist Hospital is responding to the crisis faced by emergency rooms throughout the nation by building a new ER and expanding its patient capacity from 577 to 673 beds. He added that when this project is complete “patients in the ER will no longer have to wait for a bed to become available.”

Baptist Health Foundation Chair-elect Henry Tie Shue, introduced local philanthropist and honorary Foundation Board member Victor E. Clarke, for whom the facility is named. Clarke’s gift of $10 million leads off the Foundation’s $25 million gift campaign. Describing Clarke as a “long-time Board member and renaissance man,” Tie Shue thanked Clarke for his generosity and commitment to the community. “I am honored to have this opportunity to join the many people here at Baptist Hospital to support this important project,” Clarke said. “This project will provide state-of-the art medical facilities, unprecedented accommodations for the patient as well as the patient’s family, a dramatic increase in capacity… and, most important, expeditious and excellent patient care.”

The new emergency center will be double the size of the current ER with 100 exam rooms, six of which will be equipped with sophisticated technology to manage the most severe injuries. It is part of the largest expansion ever on the campus of Baptist Hospital. The project also includes a patient bed tower with 96 inpatient beds, a new energy center and a seven-story parking garage that will open later this year.