Phase One Of Jupiter Medical Center's $50 Million Transformation Complete

RASO EDUCATION CENTER and CLARKE AUDITORIUM MARK WHOLE NEW LEVEL IN
HEALTHCARE EDUCATION AND RESEARCH

JUPITER, Fla., May 29, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- "An absolutely transformational place for a whole new level of world class health care education," was Jupiter Medical Center Chairman of the Board Joe Taddeo's description of the brand new Raso Education Center and Clarke Auditorium dedicated May 3rd on the Jupiter campus.

The Center and Auditorium mark the initial phase of Jupiter Medical Center's ongoing $50 million expansion, and now provide Jupiter's medical team and other area researchers and clinicians with some of the world's most advanced facilities and equipment. 

"This has been a long time coming, and well worth the wait," said John Couris, Jupiter Medical Center President and CEO.  "This is so important to the hospital because we can train our staff in a world class facility.  Our doctors, for example, now have the ability to videoconference groundbreaking medical operations from JMC's operating suites to the Raso Education Center or anywhere in the world, and learn from any hospital. It's more than just a building. The Raso Education Center represents the first completed phase of Jupiter Medical Center's $50 million, three-phase expansion. But more importantly, it's our next step in delivering world-class, patient-centered clinical care with an ongoing focus on academic and research excellence."

Mrs. Shirley C. Raso and her late husband Dominick F. Raso, provided the lead donation for the new education center. Mrs. Margaret Clarke and her late husband, John H. Clarke, provide the lead donation for the auditorium.

The newly constructed Raso building at Jupiter Medical Center features some of the most leading-edge technology available today.

The John H. & Margaret Clarke Auditorium offers a place to host physician lectures from top academic medical centers. The room is able to receive and send television video conferencing using a LifeSize© video conferencing system and two high-definition pan-tilt-zoom cameras. This allows physicians, nurses and allied health professionals to attend continuing medical education conferences broadcast from any facility, whether an academic or research setting, in an interactive environment. Physician experts in their fields provide programs on a wide variety of topics from neurological evaluations to integrative medicine and oncology.

In the near future, the building will have the ability to view live surgeries from one of the operating rooms in the main hospital in the Physician & Team Member Training & Educational Rooms. These two rooms offer two-way communication between the operating room and the Raso Education Center while a surgeon performs a procedure.

The Lawrence J. & Florence A. De George Board Room's video technology allows trustees out of town to participate in the meetings. The board room table has imbedded charging stations and several PC, laptop and tablet inputs.

The Innovation Room is designed to enable JMC process experts to encourage, facilitate and deliver new and improved medical processes to our community. The room utilizes the most advanced integrated media, communication and knowledge capture technology available today to both increase the velocity and reduce the cost of medical process research and design.

A 174-inch-wide intuitive, multi-touch and gesture-driven SMART board system digitally captures new process ideas. A social media-ready and interactive, video-enabled Apple-Television system offers virtual research and conferencing with medical experts worldwide.

The Kathryn W. Davis Computer Training Lab has sixteen PCs for team member training on Jupiter Medical Center applications with an interactive SMART board system.

The Internet Cafe has three iMac workstations along the north glass wall, an iPad docking location and a large flat panel LCD monitor for display of content as well as CATV.

"Thanks to our generous donors, the Raso, Clarke, Davis and De George families, we can now offer the very best technology in this building to others to promote innovation and learning. We look forward to engaging the community, offering world-class education and research studies," said John Couris.

ABOUT JUPITER MEDICAL CENTER
A not-for-profit 283-bed community medical center consisting of 163 private acute care hospital beds and 120 long-term care, sub-acute rehabilitation and Hospice beds, Jupiter Medical Center provides a broad range of services with specialty concentrations in orthopedics and spine, geriatrics, minimally invasive surgical procedures including robotic surgery, emergency services, cardiac services, obstetrics, cancer care and advanced diagnostics. Founded in 1979, Jupiter Medical Center is top ranked in Palm Beach County by U.S. News & World Report, and was recognized as "high performing" in five specialty areas, including cancer, ear, nose and throat, gynecology, kidney disorders, and neurology and neurosurgery. The Medical Center has approximately 1,500 team members, 520 physicians and 700 volunteers. For more information on the Raso Education Center or Jupiter Medical Center, please call 561-263-2234 or visit the website at www.jupitermed.com.

Corrie Edwards
Communications Specialist
561-263-2893 / [email protected]

SOURCE Jupiter Medical Center