Mount Sinai Medical Center is taking early steps toward a major expansion in northern Miami-Dade County, where the nonprofit health system could convert its Aventura outpatient and emergency care campus into a full-service hospital.

The proposal involves Mount Sinai’s 4.2-acre property at 2845 Aventura Blvd., which is currently home to a two-story, 69,328-square-foot facility offering emergency services, diagnostic imaging and physician offices. The site operates as a free-standing emergency department and outpatient center.

Before any hospital plans can move forward, Mount Sinai is asking Aventura officials to amend local zoning rules to allow hospitals as a conditional use within the city’s community business district. The City Commission is expected to review the request on June 2.

No formal site plan has been filed yet, but early correspondence with the city’s planning department outlined a much larger medical campus. The concept described an 11-story, 434,000-square-foot hospital rising 182 feet, with 180 patient beds, 40 emergency bays, operating rooms, cardiovascular services, gastroenterology, diagnostic imaging, oncology, physician offices, rehabilitation space and a nine-story parking garage.

If developed, the project would give Aventura a second full hospital, joining HCA Florida Aventura Hospital. It would also mark Mount Sinai’s second full-service hospital campus, expanding its role beyond its Miami Beach flagship.

The health system has been broadening its footprint across Miami-Dade in recent years through outpatient facilities and free-standing emergency departments. Mount Sinai also recently completed the Braman Cancer Center on its main Miami Beach campus.

Mount Sinai reported $8 million in net income on $298.5 million in revenue during the first quarter, compared with $21 million in net income on $282.7 million in revenue during the same period the prior year, according to a bondholder report. Its existing hospital has 664 beds.

Source: SFBJ