Jackson Memorial Hospital

Jackson Memorial Hospital (also known as "Jackson" or abbreviated "JMH") is a non-profit, tertiary care teaching hospital and the major teaching hospital of the University of Miami Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine in Miami, Florida. It is located in the Miami neighborhood of the Civic Center and is owned and operated by Miami-Dade County through the Public Health Trust, and is supported by Miami-Dade County residents through a half-cent sales tax. In fiscal 2014 the Public Health Trust received $364,431 million in unrestricted funds from Miami-Dade County. In 2013 Miami-Dade voters approved a separate $830 million bonds program for major upgrades to the facility.

Jackson Memorial Hospital is directly served by the Metrorail rapid transit system at the Civic Center Station.

Located in the Civic Center, in the Northwest quadrant of the intersection of I-95 and SR 836, the hospital is the center of a thriving medical center that includes the Miami VA Medical Center, the University of Miami Hospital (formerly Cedars of Lebanon Medical Center), and the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, with its numerous research affiliates and laboratories - including the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, the UM/Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute and Anne Bates Leach Eye Hospital, the Diabetes Research Foundation and the National Parkinson Foundation. The Miami-Dade Justice Center and Miami-Dade County Jail are also within a few blocks of the hospital. It is readily accessible via the Civic Center Station of the Miami MetroRail.

It is the third-largest public hospital and third-largest teaching hospital in the United States. With more than 1,550 beds, it is a referral center, a magnet for research and home to the Ryder Trauma Center - the only Level 1 Adult and Pediatric trauma center in Miami-Dade. Jackson Memorial is the centerpiece of the Jackson Health System, operated by the Miami-Dade County Public Health Trust.

Rankings and awards

In 2007, four University of Miami specialties Jackson Memorial Hospital were ranked among the best in the country by U.S. News & World Report. The University of Miami Bascom Palmer Eye Institute was ranked as the best Ophtalmologic center in the U.S. Jackson Memorial's Ear, Nose and Throat was ranked 17th, while the digestive disorders and kidney disease programs were ranked 32nd.^[1] JMH is home to Holtz Children's Hospital, which has 254 licensed beds and cares for children—newborn to 21 years old—with everything from common ailments to multi-organ transplants. Holtz was ranked among the top hospitals in treating child kidney disorders.^[2]

The UM/Jackson Memorial Burn Center is a regional referral center.

Denial of partner access

In 2007,^[3] Jackson denied a lesbian, Janice Langbehn, access to her partner of 17 years as she was dying of an aneurism.^[4] Langbehn also claimed that Jackson refused to take medical information about her partner from Langbehn, and ignored a power of attorney sent via fax to the hospital's trauma center.^[5]

A lawsuit was filed against the hospital as a result. Jackson stated that, "it has no obligation to allow their patients' visitors nor any obligation whatsoever to their patients’ families, healthcare surrogates, and visitors."^[6] The presiding judge, Adalberto Jordan, dismissed the case, stating that Langbehn had no relief under Florida law.^[5][7] Jordan found that Langbehn had not been "denied the right to make any medical decision on behalf of" her partner.^[5]

Two days after Jackson's announcement, in part as a result of Langbehn's story, President Barack Obama issued a memorandum ordering hospitals receiving Medicare and Medicaid funding to allow patients to decide who can visit them and prohibit discrimination, including sexual orientation and gender identity.^[3][8] President Obama also called Ms. Langbehn on the same day, expressing his sorrow for the events.^[9] The rule went into effect on January 2011.^[10] According to Langbehn, the hospital has not apologized for the denial of visitation.^[3][9]

Other notability

• Kazi Mobin-Uddin, MD (Inventor of first inferior vena cava filter) who trained at Jackson Memorial.
• While Bob Marley was flying home from Germany to Jamaica, his vital functions worsened. After landing in Miami, Florida, he was taken to the hospital for immediate medical attention. Marley died on 11 May 1981 at Cedars of Lebanon Hospital in Miami (now University of Miami Hospital) at the age of 36. The spread of melanoma to his lungs and brain caused his death. His final words to his son Ziggy were "Money can't buy life." Marley received a state funeral in Jamaica on 21 May 1981, which combined elements of Ethiopian Orthodoxy and Rastafari tradition. He was buried in a chapel near his birthplace with his red Gibson Les Paul (some accounts say it was a Fender Stratocaster).
• On February 8, 1997, professional motorcycle stunt rider Corey Scott was pronounced dead at Jackson Memorial Hospital, after his motorcycle stunt went horribly wrong at the Orange Bowl stadium. The fatal accident was witnessed by a crowd of thousands and was all captured on camera.^[11]
• On July 15, 1997, fashion icon Gianni Versace was declared dead at Jackson Memorial Hospital, following a shooting in front of his Ocean Drive mansion, the Casa Casuarina, in Miami Beach.
• The owner of two Subway franchises located inside Jackson Memorial Hospital came up with selling foot-long subs for a lower price at his two stores on the weekends in 2004, to help spur business. It eventually led to the Subway $5 footlong promotion, which was launched nationally in 2008 and became Subway's most successful promotion ever, influencing other businesses.^[12]
• On November 27, 2007, former University of Miami and Washington Redskins football star Sean Taylor was declared dead at Jackson Memorial Hospital, following a shooting of Taylor in his Miami-area home.
• On 29 May 2011 the singer Sean Kingston was taken to the Jackson Memorial Hospital after being involved in a Jet Ski accident with a female passenger. He was discharged on the 24th of June.^[13]
• On June 7, 2012, 16-year-old Yasser Lopez made national news when he successfully underwent a delicate 3-hour neurosurgical operation to remove a spear that a speargun had fired into his skull when it was accidentally discharged during a fishing trip; 3 feet of the spear protruded from the wound above his eye socket, and that part had to be specially cut off so he could get a brain CT scan. Miraculously, no major blood vessels were harmed and the only impairments thus far are amnesia for the period during and around the event, which is somewhat normal, and some sluggishness in a hand.^[14][15]
• The hospital appeared in fictional form in the Jeffrey Archer short story, "Where There's a Will" published in And Thereby Hangs a Tale (2010).

References

Coordinates: 25°47′29.49″N 80°12′45.27″W / 25.7915250°N 80.2125750°W / 25.7915250; -80.2125750