South Florida pediatric care entered a new era with the regional expansion of Miami-based Nicklaus Children’s Health.
Nicklaus has aggressively developed its footprint in Broward County, opening two new children’s hospitals and a large specialty care center. The move gives many Broward families closer access to high-level pediatric emergency care and highly specialized experts, while shaking up a local healthcare market long dominated by Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital in Hollywood.
Since March 1, Nicklaus has operated dedicated pediatric hospitals within Broward Health’s adult facilities in Fort Lauderdale and Coral Springs. Under the new partnership, Nicklaus pediatric specialists manage inpatient care at both hospitals and see patients at nearby medical offices.
The move reflects Nicklaus’ growth strategy in South Florida’s suburbs over the last few years. Beyond its inpatient hospitals and urgent care centers, the health system now operates primary and specialty-care clinics across four counties, spanning Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Collier.
“We’re the only freestanding children’s health system in South Florida, and I think we’re positioned well for the future,” said Yair Katz, chief operating officer of Nicklaus Children’s Health System, the private nonprofit hospital organization that serves all children regardless of ability to pay.
Yair Katz, the new chief operating officer of Nicklaus Children’s Health System, is seen at Nicklaus’ Dan Marino Outpatient Center in Weston. (Carline Jean/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
That rapid, quiet expansion puts Nicklaus well on its way to building a regional network.
Through similar co-location partnerships, Nicklaus already operates children’s hospitals within adult healthcare systems in Jupiter and Naples, anchoring its position as the dominant pediatric provider across South and Southwest Florida.
“It’s a model that has not been as prevalent in Florida, but nationally it’s been used, and there are successful cases,” Katz said.
More choices for families, competition in Broward
Historically, Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital — part of the Memorial Healthcare System — was the main provider of complex pediatric emergency and specialty care in Broward County, with more than 600 physicians.
That near-total market share is now being challenged.
By taking over pediatric services at Broward Health’s Fort Lauderdale and Coral Springs campuses, Nicklaus has introduced hundreds of its own pediatric clinicians directly into Joe DiMaggio’s service area. Nicklaus, a nonprofit powerhouse in fundraising, is larger overall, with both a higher total physician count and a deeper roster of subspecialists, totaling about 900 clinicians.
Broward Health CEO Shane Strum has said that in early 2024, he had approached Memorial about having DiMaggio replace Broward Health’s Salah Foundation Children’s Hospital in Fort Lauderdale and Coral Springs, rather than Nicklaus.
After discussing a potential partnership with DiMaggio, Memorial, “chose not to pursue an affiliation at that time, so Broward Health identified Nicklaus Children’s as the partner ready and aligned to help build out a broader pediatric care network within our public health system,” Broward Health said in a written statement provided to the South Florida Sun Sentinel last week.
Strum spearheaded the partnership with Nicklaus, DiMaggio’s competitor, and after he became interim CEO of Memorial Healthcare System in September 2024, publicly advocated for the eventual creation of a single, massive “Children’s Hospital of Florida.” While that would require significant governmental and administrative approval and could take years, Nicklaus appears well on its way to building a regional network on its own.
The announcement in November 2024 of Nicklaus’ partnership and expansion into Broward County did not sit well with some Joe DiMaggio’s doctors, and led to an initial flurry of anonymous letters of concern to Memorial’s board.
Memorial Healthcare System provided a statement to the Sun Sentinel last week saying, “Nicklaus Children’s expansion in Broward County, including its partnership with Broward Health, has not affected Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital’s ability to serve children and families or our physician recruitment efforts. Our volumes, access, and specialty services have remained stable, and we continue to see strong demand from families who rely on Joe DiMaggio for comprehensive pediatric care.”
In Broward, Nicklaus’ arrival offers families with Blue Cross insurance plans a new and significant option. It is in-network with Blue Cross Blue Shield, the state’s largest insurer — the only children’s hospital in Broward County that now accepts the insurance. Broward Health and Memorial Healthcare hospitals have reached an impasse in contract negotiations with Blue Cross and are out-of-network at all hospitals in those health systems, including Joe DiMaggio. That had forced families with Florida Blue plans to leave the county for inpatient care before Nicklaus took over pediatric care at Broward Health in March.
When asked about competition with Joe DiMaggio, Katz said, “The community needs pediatric resources. So, I think we’re complementing each other at the moment.”
Memorial Healthcare System provided a similar perspective in a statement: “We recognize that additional pediatric resources in Broward can be positive for the community. Families benefit when more children’s providers are focused on expanding access to specialized care, and we remain committed to playing a leading role in that broader ecosystem.”
To serve Broward, Nicklaus doctors at Broward Health draw on their experts, regardless of their home base. In April, early in the partnership, the chief of cardiovascular medicine at Nicklaus in Miami, Dr. Shyam Sathanandam, performed a unique cardiac procedure in Fort Lauderdale within a baby’s own infant bed.
“Instead of transferring the baby to a higher-level facility, the team came from Miami, and we were able to bring that expertise to the Broward community,” Katz said.
Signage for Nicklaus Children’s Hospital is seen at the Broward Health Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale. (Carline Jean/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
How the Nicklaus/Broward Health partnership works
The 25-year contract between Nicklaus and Broward Health, a public, taxpayer-funded health system, can be terminated by either party without cause after 10 years, with one year’s notice. The contract also establishes a joint oversight committee and requires both to provide charity care when needed. Each health system has its own foundation that raises millions of dollars annually, and the contract allows each to continue to do so independently.
The financial agreement has three components: Nicklaus pays rent for 149 pediatric beds and 80 neonatal intensive care unit beds in the Fort Lauderdale and Coral Springs hospitals; it contracts with Broward Health for services such as pharmacy, imaging, and dietary; and Nicklaus shares profits with Broward Health from pediatric care at the Fort Lauderdale and Coral Springs hospitals, according to Katz.
The taxpayer-funded Broward Health provided its contract with Nicklaus to the Sun Sentinel with the financial details of the partnership redacted. Because of the redactions, the exact profit split between Broward Health and Nicklaus is unknown, as is the amount of the rental payments Broward Health receives from Nicklaus. Broward Health asserts that the financial information is protected under Florida law and exempt from disclosure.
In the transition, all the pediatric nurses working for Broward Health became Nicklaus employees, as did all the physicians who worked exclusively in pediatrics. Nicklaus contracted with a physicians’ group to provide emergency care and gave 174 community physicians privileges at the children’s hospital, Katz said.
Katz said in specialties where Nicklaus saw a gap in Broward, such as rheumatology, neonatology and cardiology, it brought in physicians from its main campus in Miami-Dade.
“We’re building programs that previously didn’t exist in the Broward market,” Katz said, adding that Nicklaus has an advantage in recruitment over others in South Florida because it is a standalone children’s hospital with a national reputation among specialists.
Broward Health said Nicklaus’ recruitment will reduce patient transfers to other hospitals.
“As the partnership continues to grow, Broward Health and Nicklaus Children’s remain focused on bringing more specialists and subspecialists into the community, expanding services, and further improving the patient experience for children and their families,” Broward Health’s written statement said
Bigger expansion plans
Outside of the hospital setting, Nicklaus’ expansion has brought specialists in key areas to patients in Broward and Palm Beach counties. In Davie, Nicklaus opened a clinic in mid-2025 that focuses on cardiology, orthopedics, gastroenterology, neurology, plastic surgery and pediatric radiology.
“Over the next one to three years is really when we see this large influx of new physicians essentially building a stronger multi-specialty group in Broward to provide better access to kids. We’re going to keep growing,” Katz said.
In Boca Raton, Nicklaus opened a specialty care center in May that focuses on pediatric cardiology, including congenital heart defects and heart disease.
Rather than requiring patients to drive to a central hospital location, Nicklaus’ goal is to extend subspecialty care into communities across the region. For families navigating conditions such as cancer, congenital heart defects or orthopedic disorders, travel adds a layer of inconvenience to their medical treatment.
“Families should not have to travel for care,” Nicklaus CEO Matt Love has repeatedly said when addressing his organization’s expansion.
“Our regional structure model will allow us to be more nimble and responsive to the evolving needs of the communities we serve.”
A parent’s perspective
Mike O’Hanlon, father of a 9-year-old son who has had two medical emergencies that landed him in what is now Nicklaus Children’s Coral Springs, said he appreciates having more pediatric surgeons and more specialists in his community. O’Hanlon, a Parkland resident, has Blue Cross Blue Shield and said he would have had to leave the county for an in-network gastrointestinal follow-up care after his son’s appendix was removed and he experienced bowel issues.
“We have always had Joe DiMaggio in Broward, but it’s nice to have more specialists in the area as opposed to relying on one hospital,” O’Hanlon said.
For Broward and Palm Beach County families, the benefits of Nicklaus’ push north include local access to pediatricians and specialists they previously had to travel to Miami to see, as well as shorter wait times for in-demand specialists, which were previously limited in number.
Dr. Chad Perlyn, a pediatric plastic surgeon, practices part-time in Davie and serves as dean of the College of Allopathic Medicine at Nova Southeastern University. He treats children with cleft lip and palate and babies born with hand or finger deformities or birthmarks. Perlyn says the drive to Miami had become a burden for parents seeking specialized care. “So bringing the care to the Broward community makes a tremendous difference,” he said.
Rather than competing with Joe DiMaggio, Perlyn said Nicklaus gives parents more options.
“There are so many children with so many complex problems in South Florida and beyond, and the more we can have direct care in the community, the better we can provide the best level of service to families of that community,” he said.
Perlyn said from Nicklaus’ specialty care center in Davie, he can tap any specialist affiliated with the hospital in Miami. “We may see a patient who needs another level of service and can then say, ‘Listen, let me get my colleague on the phone,’ or ‘Let’s set up a telemedicine appointment,’” he said.
Perlyn also noted that Nicklaus’ status as the region’s largest pediatric teaching hospital gives it an edge in recruitment, a big benefit to Broward families.
“Top physicians today want to be a part of an academic medical center. They want to be involved in teaching. They want to be involved in research, but not everyone may want to live in Miami,” Perlyn said. “So by having these extensions of the health system across Southern Florida, I do think it’s a powerful recruiting tool.”
The future for Nicklaus
Katz was tapped from California to come to South Florida to become president of Nicklaus’ Broward market just as the Miami children’s health system was taking over Broward Health’s pediatric units in Fort Lauderdale and Coral Springs. Now, promoted to a new role as chief operating officer of Nicklaus Children’s Health System, Katz will oversee the entire system’s growth.
“Our organization has advanced pretty rapidly over the last few years,” Katz said. “What I am navigating now is that when a patient comes into a Broward Hospital or a Miami-based hospital, the expectation should be the same. It may look and feel a little bit different, but from a patient experience standpoint, from a quality standpoint, from the ability to provide care, there’s a Nicklaus brand, and that should be consistent across all the sites that we operate.”
Nicklaus Children’s will continue to build its presence in the markets where it now operates, Katz said.
“We’re just going to continue to support the community and build the services up. We’re going to continue to build an ambulatory network. We’re going to continue to focus on building more centers to promote access,” Katz said. “I see just continuing to grow, adding a higher level of specialization than existed before. I think that’s what being successful looks like for us.”
Cindy Goodman is the health reporter for the South Florida Sun Sentinel. Reach out to her with comments, ideas or tips at cgoodman@sunsentinel.com.
More about Nicklaus, county by county
Palm Beach County
Boca Raton: Cardiology and Heart Diagnostics
Boynton Beach: Cardiology, Clinical Genetics & Metabolism, Endocrinology, Gastroenterology, Nephrology, Orthopedics, Nutritional Consultations, Neurosurgery, Plastic Surgery, Rheumatology
Wellington: Cardiology, Heart Diagnostics, Gastroenterology
Palm Beach Gardens: Diagnostics & Testing, Rehap Services, Cardiology, Clinical Genetics & Metabolism, Endo, Gastro, Neuro, Nephrology, Ortho, Nutritional Consultation, Psychology, Scoliosis & Spine
Affiliation with Jupiter Medical Center: NICU and the pediatric ED
Broward County
Nicklaus Children’s Hospital at Broward Health Fort Lauderdale
Fort Lauderdale: Outpatient Specialty Offices to manage follow-ups for chronic conditions like diabetes and Crohn’s disease.
Nicklaus Children’s Hospital at Broward Health Coral Springs
Coral Springs: Outpatient Specialty Offices to manage follow-ups for chronic conditions like diabetes and Crohn’s disease.
Eight outpatient clinics in Broward County, including Nicklaus Children’s Dan Marino Outpatient Center in Weston
Davie Specialty Care Center
Miramar urgent care
Miami-Dade County
Nicklaus Children’s Main Campus: a 307-bed hospital and the five-story Kenneth C. Griffin Surgical Tower
Baptist Health South Florida: Pediatric EDs in Homestead and Kendall.
Eight Urgent Cares
Four Primary Cares
Six Outpatient Diagnostic Centers
Six Specialty Care centers
Ambulatory Surgery Center at Florida International University
Collier County
Behavioral health services for children ( funded by a $1M grant from Naples Children & Education Foundation)
Naples Comprehensive Health: NICU, Pediatrics Unit (future plans as part of the Van Domelen Pavilion to bring more specialty care)