Boca Raton Regional Hospital Selects Baptist Health South Florida as Potential Strategic Partner

Officials at Boca Raton Regional Hospital today announced that its Board of Trustees has selected Baptist Health South Florida as its recommendation for further strategic partnership discussions. The move culminates with an initiative that began over one year ago to accelerate and elevate the Hospital’s position as a preeminent academic tertiary referral center in South Florida.

“We are pleased with the Board’s decision to move forward with Baptist,” said Jerry Fedele, President and CEO of Boca Raton Regional Hospital. “While this was a most difficult choice, one that was between two of the finest healthcare providers in the country, our Trustees believe Baptist is the best fit for Boca Regional.”

The process to secure a strategic partner for Boca Regional was spearheaded by the Ad Hoc Partnership Steering Committee and was comprised of community and medical staff leaders, trustees and volunteers. Chaired by Dick Schmidt, former Boca Regional Board Chair and noted civic leader and philanthropist, it was responsible for vetting 12 potential partner proposals, winnowing down the list of suitors based on stringent criteria and advancing recommendations to the Boca Regional Board for final discussion and decision.

Assessment of partner candidates included site visits between the respective organizations and robust dialogue and meetings between medical staff leadership, senior executives, Board members and volunteers.

According to Schmidt, the Committee found great synergy with Baptist from a programmatic perspective and strategic approach to the delivery of care in South Florida. “We are most confident we can reach a final agreement and that our inclusion in the Baptist System will make the whole of the new organization greater than the sum of its parts,” he said.

Next steps in the initiative will include completion of due diligence and the negotiation of a letter of intent that would frame the completion of definitive agreements prior to Boca Regional joining the Baptist organization.

“We stand on the cusp of making a monumental transformation for Boca Raton Regional Hospital, a transformation that will serve to secure and cement our role as a top-tier healthcare provider for our community and our region,” said Christine E. Lynn, Boca Regional Board Chair. “I thank our Steering Committee for the critically important role they played in the partnership process and our Board for its thoughtful stewardship of the Hospital.”