South FL hospitals to add organ transplant programs

In what appears to be the largest expansion in decades of available transplant services in South Florida, the state's Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) has cleared the way for heart transplants at Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood; kidney transplants at Broward Health Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale; and heart, liver and kidney transplants at Cleveland Clinic Florida in Weston. For decades, Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami has dominated the field of adult transplants in South Florida. Other than Broward Health's liver transplant program, added in 2004, and Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital's pediatric heart transplant program, added in 2010, Jackson is the closest facility for locals needing new organs.