Elia's family took her to the emergency room with a bad tummy ache. Her doctors at Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital determined Elia had a Wilms tumor in her right kidney.

It had spread dangerously close to her heart too.

"Her tumor was too big and vast to remove," said Hanif Iftikhar, MD, director of pediatric hematology oncology.

So Elia's care team started her on chemotherapy to shrink the tumor.

"Once it shrunk down, I was able to safely remove the tumor in addition to the kidney," said pediatric surgeon Jill Whitehouse, MD.

Elia spent months in additional treatment. Today, she's cancer-free.

"At first I felt scared, but there are friends all around here. They made me feel good," Elia said.

Her family is grateful for how the entire Joe DiMaggio team embraced them.

"They were just there to support us in good times and bad times," said Melanie, Elia's mom.

Dad Chris said: "That was essential — to have the trust, that team dynamic and how everyone felt like they were there for you."

The Board of Commissioners of the South Broward Hospital District, which oversees the operations for Memorial Healthcare System, voted on a new millage rate during its September board meeting.

The Board voted to adopt a millage rate of 0.1260.

This is the ninth year in a row that the Board has voted to lower the overall millage rate for the District with 0.1260 resulting in the lowest rate in the history of the South Broward Hospital District. The 0.1260 millage rate represents a 10.92 percent decrease from last year’s rate of 0.1414. The resulting gross tax revenues are estimated to reach $7.8 million.

“The South Broward Hospital District Board of Commissioners has had a long-standing philosophy of driving down the tax burden on the community, while continuing to deliver outstanding care to our patients and improving the overall health of the population we serve,” said Aurelio M. Fernandez, III, President and CEO, Memorial Healthcare System.

After accounting for early payment discounts and a certain percentage of uncollectible taxes, the anticipated tax payments this year of $7.5 million will provide the District enough revenue to cover its governmental obligations, which include paying Broward County’s Medicaid Match program and community redevelopment agencies in several municipalities in south Broward County, as well as tax collector commissions and property appraiser fees.

The newly adopted millage rate will leave no net tax revenue to fund uncompensated care. The District will use operating income to cover all uncompensated care costs for the entire Memorial Healthcare System, including its six hospitals and its eight Memorial Primary Care clinics. In fiscal year 2020, uncompensated care is projected to exceed $1.1 billion.

This historic reduction comes at a time when Memorial Healthcare System continues to move health forward, seeking ways to better improve the overall health of the population it serves. In addition, it continues to train the doctors and nurses of the future, having welcomed its first class of physician residents through its Graduate Medical Education Program, and its first class of nurse residents.

In fall of 2018, Memorial’s hospitals scored across-the-board A grades in patient safety from The Leapfrog Group, the national healthcare nonprofit organization that rates nearly 2,500 hospitals across the country in safety. And in December, Leapfrog named Memorial Hospital West and Memorial Hospital Miramar among its 2018 Top Hospitals.

On the technological front, Memorial enhanced its online scheduling capabilities and installed convenient on-site kiosks, added new tools to Memorial MyChart, and continues its successful “Your Right to Know” initiative – providing consumers with an Amazon-like experience in obtaining medical procedure pricing information.

Memorial also remains one of only a handful of public hospitals in the nation to achieve AA, Aa3 financial ratings by Standard and Poor’s and Moody’s, respectively.

Memorial Healthcare System’s Graduate Medical Education (GME) program presented its newest group of residents at a white coat ceremony in Pembroke Pines.

The offering of the lab coat signifies entry to the next phase of medical training and recipients also recited the Hippocratic oath, a traditional statement of a doctor’s obligations and conduct.

47 physicians joined the program and will train in seven different specialties (internal medicine, pediatrics, physical medicine and rehabilitation, podiatry, general surgery, neurology, and psychiatry).

•    Three specialties (general surgery, psychiatry, and neurology) specifically address areas where the State of Florida has identified a shortage of physicians
•    Memorial’s first class of surgical residents is comprised entirely of women, a rarity in a specialty traditionally populated by men

"There were more than 5,000 applicants for the 47 spots in this year’s class, so the quality of our residents is outstanding,” said Saima Chaudhry, MD, vice president for academic affairs and chief academic officer at Memorial Healthcare System. “There is great demand for our training and history shows many of our doctors will remain in South Florida after their residencies, meaning there will be additional specialists to care for a growing and aging population.”

Florida Lieutenant Governor Jeanette Nuñez, the highest-ranking Latina in the state’s political history, was one of the speakers at the ceremony, which was held on the campus of Memorial Hospital West. Chaudhry, Dr. Stanley Marks, Memorial Healthcare System’s senior vice president and chief medical officer, and Dr. David Battinelli also addressed the new physicians.

Since its transition to an academic medical center in 2016, Memorial’s programs have grown to train more than 80 residents, a number that is expected to increase to nearly 300 within three years. An anesthesia program is planned for next year, with OB/GYN likely to follow, pending certification by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education.