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Boca Raton Regional gets $25 million grant for neuro center

By Palm Beach Business.com

BOCA RATON – Boca Raton Regional Hospital has received a $25 million grant from the Marcus Foundation to create the Marcus Neuroscience Institute. The grant is the largest the hospital has ever received.

The center will be located on the hospital’s main campus, and will provide care for neurologic and neurosurgical patients.

“We have long tried to help those involved in caring for individuals with neurological disease or impairment, on both a pediatric and adult basis,” said Bernie Marcus, the foundation’s chair and a former CEO of Home Depot. “Our plan at Boca Regional is to meld the best in physician skill with the finest technology and a marvelous facility to provide a center of excellence in the neurosciences that is unparalleled in Florida.”

Said Jerry Fedele, president and CEO at Boca Raton Regional Hospital: “This is a watershed day for the advancement of the neurosciences in Florida and beyond.”

Bernie Marcus and his wife, Billi, are Boca Raton residents. Both are noted as philanthropists, having donated to a number of causes in the Atlanta area, where Home Depot is headquartered. The causes they’ve supported include: Marcus Autism Center; the Grady Health System in Atlanta; the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta and the Marcus Community Bridge Program at the Sheppard Center in Atlanta to assist patients with spinal cord and brain.

           
The 52,000 square-foot facility will house a 22-bed neuro intensive care and step-down unit. The rooms, all of which are private, will be equipped with special monitoring equipment for neurological and cardiovascular functions. Each room will have an antechamber where family members can stay during the patient’s hospitalization.

The center will have two operating rooms, each with MRI and CT scanners that provide real-time scans during all stages of a procedure, ensuring greater accuracy and patient safety.

Other features include:

— A flash CT scanner that can provide high-speed images at low radiation exposures, critical in the recognizing and treating strokes and brain aneurysms. 

— A biplane angiography suite, which can provide detailed, three-dimensional images from two parts of the head.

The center will do clinical research in addition to patient care, and will work with scientists at nearby Florida Atlantic University.