Gridlocked traffic is the last place Jorge de Apodaca wants to be after his appointment to treat cancer. Dizziness and “fog brain” don’t work well with bumper-to-bumper traffic.
The 68-year-old commute has become a little easier since Miami University’s health system expanded to Doral, one of the state’s fastest-growing cities. De Apodaca and his wife still have to throw traffic, but the drive from Lake in Miami to Doral is shorter than the location of Kendall in Uhealth where he was treated.
According to UM alumni, staff members provide him with snacks and coffee every time he steps into Uhealth’s new medical center in downtown Doral. During his recent visit, he was given a free lymphatic massage to help his swollen feet. And he gets great views of the city while he is receiving treatment from the upper floors.
“It’s a healing environment,” he said. “It heals the soul, removes stress and clearly helps cancer.”
UM’s Health System, which shares its main campus with Jackson Memorial Hospital in the Miami Health District, is the latest health giant expanding its footprint to DORAL, offering cardiology, oncology, urology, cancer treatment and outpatient surgery. Patients are usually allowed to return home on the same day at the new center, 8375 NW 53rd Ter.
“I don’t like being in the hospital with anyone,” said Dr. Dipen Parekh, Uhealth’s Chief Operating Officer. “And because of medical advancements… we can provide some of the most complicated care without having to spend the night in the hospital.”
U’s expansion into Doral will advance the city’s position as South Florida’s latest medical hub. Growing Doral, with over 80,000 residents and over 17,000 businesses, is close to the highways and airports.
The West Movement is part of UHealth’s plan to bring care closer to patients, a strategy that not only improves access to care, but also attracts and retains patients and employees.
“It’s location, location, location,” reflects Manuel Pira, a city of Doral economic developer, who refrains from the familiar property for homes for sale in desirable neighborhoods. “The chance was here, the space was here, and the population growth was here.”
Once a city filled with vast fields of cows and warehouses, Doral is now full of homes, apartments, condominiums, restaurants, shops, hotels, schools and parks. And it is expected to continue growing as the city’s population is expected to expand to over 100,000 by 2030.
Baptist Health South Florida, the region’s largest health system, challenged Doral in 1990 after seeing an opportunity to provide care to a growing population of “medically unserved” people, according to Analopes Brackes, executive vice president and chief strategy officer at Baptist Health.
Spend your days with Hayes
Subscribe to our free Stephenly newsletter
Columnist Stephanie Hayes shares thoughts, feelings and funny business with you every Monday.
You’re all signed up!
Want more free weekly newsletters in your inbox? Let’s get started.
Check out all options
“Early, Doral had a recipe for success,” she said, noting that the presence of Baptists in the city “has grown over the years based on the needs of that community.”
In February, Baptists opened a standalone cancer centre that provides chemotherapy, infusions and radiation. Baptist also has hospitals, ERs and primary care centres in the city.
“Expanding cancer care services to doral is a critical step in providing high-quality treatment options and resources to more patients closer to their home,” said Dr. Michael Jinner, CEO and Executive Medical Director of Miami Cancer Institute and Baptist Health Scan Surcare, in a statement announcing the opening earlier this year. “For us, it’s not just about growing, but empowering our community to prioritize their health better.”
Doral’s rapid growth has attracted the attention of everyone, including families, real estate developers, businesses, and health industries.
Jackson Health, the public safety net hospital system in Miami-Dade, opened the 98-bed Jackson West Hospital four years ago. With outpatients and emergency care centres throughout the community, Nicklaus’s Children’s Health System has cared for thousands of patients since the opening of DORAL’s outpatient and emergency centres in 2008.
South Florida healthcare expands to nearby areas
Doral has seen an explosion of healthcare growth, but medical centers, outpatients, emergency care and standalone emergency rooms are also appearing in South Florida as hospitals compete for patients.
Uhealth will open a new seven-storey medical center in North Miami-Dade later this year, part of the residential tower mega development, serving Aventura, North Miami and surrounding areas. Mercy Hospital in Miami now has a Stand Lone ER in Kendall. Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach is planning to open a standalone emergency room in Westchester.
“All major systems are expanding. The entire area is hot right now,” but some locations are hot, including Doral, Aventera, North Miami and parts of Palm Beach counties. He is the operations manager for the Fort Lauderdale office of Robbins & Morton, a company specializing in healthcare-related construction.
The Alabama company that oversaw the construction of Uhealth Doral is working on several South Florida projects, including Uhealth at Solé Mia, North Miami-Dade, as well as several South Florida projects, including Baptist Health’s new rehabilitation hospital in South Miami.
It seems everyone wants a part of the South Florida market, including President Donald Trump. President Donald Trump plans to build a gorgeous condominium on the edge of Trump’s golf course resort in Doral.
Health Systems is also trying to keep up with South Florida’s growth, and according to Peavy, it is searching for “pockets” in communities where clusters of people don’t have medical services nearby. However, hospitals are also facing a challenging real estate market that restricts buildings with “prices passing through the roof.”
He hopes South Florida’s healthcare market will heat up from Homestead in South Miami-Dade to Martin County on Florida’s Treasure Coast.
For patients, expanding health services to their neighborhoods means it’s much easier to find care close to home. For the health system, pushing to the suburbs isn’t just about improving access to care. This is one of several factors that can affect a person’s health. It also gives you a chance to secure lifelong patients, reduce overcrowding in key locations, and prepare for the future.
Hospitals are concerned that they don’t just compete for patients, but nurses and doctors who are currently in the national shortage, which are predicted to worsen by 2030, when the youngest baby boomers born between 1946 and 1964, reaching 65, but they don’t have enough healthcare providers to meet the needs of the aging population.
Executives may bet on short work commutes (the benefits that come from opening medical centres nearby), which could help them maintain and improve employment.
And while many people have moved from South Florida due to rising costs, some in the area are seeing the arrival of young families. Once a popular retirement destination for seniors, Miami Beach now has young, fitness-friendly residents. Doral has more families. Sweetwater is trying to reform himself into a university town.
For some health giants, strategies to attract young patients and elderly people have seduced some across the county border.
Memorial Regional, one of two public hospital systems in Broward, opened its primary care center in northwest Miami-Dade, near Lakes in Hialea and Miami several years ago. Memorial opened the centre after seeing a great need for prevention and specialized care in a community with over half a million people inhabited.
Nick Laus Children’s, whose hospitals near South Miami are considered to be one of the state’s top children’s hospitals, has recently become the leading pediatric provider of the Public Hospital System Broward Health and Exclusive Pediatric Teaching Hospital at Florida International University School of Medicine.
Patients can find Baptist health in South Florida, FIU’s future teaching hospital. The latest location is an independent ER on Lake Miami, providing the same emergency care as a hospital ER, but usually with short waiting times and no physical connections to the hospital.
“It’s supply and demand,” said Parekh, an executive at Uhealth. Uhealth noticed that many of its patients lived in Doral and trekked across busy roads in South Florida to seek care at Gables centers in Miami and Coral.
“The constant feedback we received from our community was that we wanted Uhealth to be present in Doral,” Parekh said. Doral’s “culture of live, work and play is an integral part of this community… We decided it was time for the University of Miami health system to give us a truly important presence in our community.”
Why is Doral a hot market for health-related businesses?
It’s not just hospitals looking to gain status in Doral. Leon Medical Center will have the Vans running through town and the seniors will travel back and forth to Doral Center. Sanitas Medical Center, which houses the health insurance company Floridouble Center, as well as other doctor offices and medical centers, are scattered throughout the city. According to PILA, dentists, orthodontists, physiotherapists, plastic surgeons and plastic surgeons have moved.
Like other counties in Miami-Dade County, small businesses make up a large part of Doral’s commercial transactions, but you can also find chain restaurants, hotels and other large businesses scattered throughout the city, such as Walmart, Amazon, Carnival Corporation and Trump National Doral within the boundaries. The healthcare and social assistance sector, along with professional, scientific and technical services, is part of the city’s top industries for employment.
“Dal has a unique blend,” Peavy said. The centrally located city says it continues to grow in high-rise and multi-family markets, maintaining a robust market for manufacturing and other businesses.
Doral’s economy continues to grow in an industry that requires employees to have high levels of skill and knowledge, according to a 2024 economic analysis report prepared for cities in collaboration with the Jorge M. Perez Metropolitan Center at Florida International University. This includes the fields of science and healthcare. This is eager to attract the city because of high-paying jobs and other economic growth opportunities, the report says.
Doral’s proximity to Miami International Airport is the reason Biotish opened a production facility in the city in 2012 when he decided to leave Kendall and expand its business, said Michael Cornelius, the company’s chief financial officer.
Previously known as TissueTech, the biological island specializes in reusing umbil bones, placentas, ambitious fluids and other tissues that were traditionally discarded after birth. Birth tissue is commonly used in reconstructive procedures and is known to help reduce pain, inflammation and scar formation.
The survival rate of birth tissue is stored below freezing temperature to maintain survival and effectiveness, and is also shipped to special containers. So he said being close to the airport is key to operation.
“We have patients all over the country, so it’s really important for us to go from production to FedEx planes on a FedEx flight to Memphis overnight, then to various hospitals and doctors’ offices,” Cornelius said.
However, this is not the only challenge for Doral.
According to the FIU economic report, the city is “over-firing” by road congestion.
So one problem persists regardless of the medical center approaching people.
The traffic is a headache.
