Florida City annexation aids free medical care for kids

Half of a 10-acre Florida City annexation will include a 50,000-square-foot facility for children in need of critical medical care. The $15 million plus facility would be an expansion of Florida City’s Pediatric Alternative Treatment, Care, Housing & Evaluation Services Inc. (PATCHES). It would increase PATCHES’s capacity from 75 children to 100.

The annexation was unanimously approved by Miami-Dade commissioners Tuesday. The annexation includes the unincorporated area bounded on the north by Southwest Seventh Street, on the south by what would become Ninth Street, on the east by what would become Ninth Avenue, and on the west by Redland Road (Southwest 187th Avenue).

No mitigation – the amount the county determines it will lose in taxes and permit fees by relinquishing an annexed areas – is included in the ordinance, but as Florida City Planner Henry Iler told Miami Today, “It’s a very small area” and the ordinance calls for the county to continue collecting utility tax revenues as well as fees for residential garbage and refuse collection.

PATCHES was launched in 2002, said founder Kyle Smith. Its website, patchesvillage.org, notes that in the early 2000s Ms. Smith, a newly qualified registered nurse, “learned of a young mother living in deep South Dade who was dependent on ‘borrowing’ electricity from her neighbor to provide critical respiratory treatments for her severely asthmatic child. The mom fell out with her neighbor, who denied access to her power. The mom trudged in the heat of summer with her asthmatic baby in her arms to the nearest medical center for help. By the time she arrived the child had passed away.

“Kyle was devastated,” the website continues “and knew she had to find an answer.”

“I felt deeply that by walking away I would become part of the problem,” Ms. Smith said.

PATCHES was created, and legislation was passed by the State of Florida to create a dedicated not-for-profit facility for the care of children with chronic and severe illness. Like St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital, patients are treated at no cost.

The care facility provides “a comprehensive team of multiple health care professionals to monitor” a “child’s condition throughout the day.”

By providing early interventions, the organization says, it can prevent complications, emergency room care and lengthy hospitalizations. “We do this by recognizing the subtle signs and symptoms of deteriorating medical conditions.”

PATCHES owns the entire 10-acre parcel and may use the other half for residential use, Mr. Iler said.