Hospital for Special Surgery is following the herds south.
The Upper East Side-based orthopedic health system is expanding its footprint in Florida to try to grab a bigger market in one of the fastest-growing states. The system is partnering with the University of Miami Health System to open a musculoskeletal program within the university’s new $1.2 billion hospital in North Miami.
Dubbed UHealth SoLé Mia, the new facility will sit on 184 acres of mixed-use development near Bal Harbor and is expected to be the area’s largest ambulatory facility when it opens later this year. Hospital for Special Surgery will co-lead an orthopedic program with the University of Miami, which will offer physician practices, outpatient surgery and imaging and rehabilitation services. While University of Miami doctors will provide direct patient care, Hospital for Special Surgery will help recruit physicians, including from its extensive network of alumni trained at its facilities, said Tara McCoy, chief executive officer at HSS Florida. The program will also adopt a number of surgical protocols that the health system has honed in areas like joint replacement and sports medicine.
Hospital for Special Surgery has most of its facilities in the city, New Jersey, Connecticut and Long Island. In recent years, the health system ventured outside the tristate area into Florida, opening a 60,000-square-foot hospital in West Palm Beach in 2020, followed by outposts in Wellington and Naples, Florida. The new facility in Miami will be 370,000 square feet and seven stories tall, of which a portion will be dedicated to the orthopedic partnership.
The new partnership brings Hospital for Special Surgery into the Sunshine State’s biggest population center, and one of the biggest recipients of New Yorkers since the pandemic. From 2020 to 2022, net migration from New York to Miami grew more than any other metro-to-metro path compared to pre-pandemic figures, according to a Brookings Institute analysis of tax filings.
“It’s better to grow with multiple sites in one location so that you can really teach the community about your care delivery and your brand than it would be to do it in places that are all separate,” McCoy said.
The cross-pollination means Hospital for Special Surgery can provide more continuous care for its New York patients who spend part of the year in Florida or who have moved there entirely, McCoy said. The systems will share electronic medical records between the two poles to further smooth the process. The partnership will also allow the hospital to treat a larger aging population in Florida, where musculoskeletal disorders are particularly prevalent, she said.
