Ocean Reef Donations Help Fund Baptist Hospital Helipad

Baptist Hospital Rooftop Helipad is a significant breakthrough for Ocean Reef Club urgent care; providing access to world-class cardiac and stroke care, when minutes can mean the difference between life and death.

In the recent past, when it was necessary or warranted to airlift patients from Ocean Reef for medical emergencies, the patients would often be diverted by the Dade County airlift service to other facilities that had rooftop helipads because they could be directly transferred from the helicopter to the treatment area. When Baptist Hospital’s Emergency Department was expanded, the existing helipad already located on the campus was too far from the new building.

Baptist Health and Ocean Reef have a long-standing, special and close relationship. One of the important elements of the relationship is that Baptist Health oversees our own ORCA-run EMS services.
Baptist Health and Ocean Reef recognized the need to have a rooftop landing facility at Baptist Hospital and embarked on a four-year joint project to fund and build it. That way, our community would have access to the best in healthcare at Miami Cardiac & Vascular Institute, and Miami Neuroscience Institute. Miami Cardiac & Vascular Institute is the largest and most comprehensive cardiovascular facility in the region, and Miami Neuroscience Institute is accredited by the Joint Commission as a Comprehensive Stroke Center—the highest level of specialized stroke care.

The Ocean Reef Medical Center Foundation, the Ocean Reef Community Foundation (All Charities), and 80 individual donors raised a significant portion of the $9M to cover the Baptist Hospital Rooftop Helipad. This is the largest single financial investment that has ever been made in the ORCA-run EMS services.
As a mission-driven, not-for-profit organization, Baptist Health is increasingly relying on philanthropy to deliver the difference between what they can do and what they must do to achieve preeminence and meet the needs of our community.

Many thanks to Baptist Health and our Ocean Reef donors for your enormous generosity in supporting this major step forward in life-saving services. It would not have happened without your philanthropic investment.