DeLuca Foundation's gift for medical technology

Changing lives is not easy. But when you’re the largest institution of higher education in Palm Beach County, it’s your mission.

Palm Beach State College has been sending its medical students to area hospitals for required clinical training for years. However, our local healthcare facilities are not immune to current circumstances. Restrictions now prevent the College from placing students in community hospitals to complete their clinical hours. But a new partnership has brought solutions, enhancing Palm Beach State’s Health Sciences program and impacting healthcare throughout Palm Beach County.

Palm Beach State has partnered with the Federick A. DeLuca Foundation to expand its Center of Excellence in Medical Simulation. Created in 1997 by the late Frederick DeLuca, co-founder of the global SUBWAY® restaurant chain, the DeLuca Foundation supports health awareness, workforce development and artistic experiences through educational programs. A generous gift from the DeLuca Foundation is launching a 21st century facility with cutting-edge simulators, technology and equipment used in today’s medical industry. Located on the Lake Worth campus, the renovated Center replicates actual patient care environments, including emergency and intensive care units. During the current planning stage, the DeLuca Foundation recently connected Palm Beach State with the University of Florida and the Yale New Haven Health System, leading institutions in medical simulation to ensure best practice.

Essential medical procedures are recreated with human simulators, such as the SimMan 3G, a durable patient-manikin created for realistic scenarios and hands-on experience. An ambulance simulator allows students to engage in transfer of care while state-of-the-art innovation provides for real-world medical training. Expansion of the existing Center enables students to become licensed practitioners and increases the pipeline of highly-qualified medical professionals to serve the community’s healthcare needs.

David Rutherford, Vice President of Institutional Advancement and Executive Director of the Palm Beach State Foundation, has been instrumental in collaborating with the DeLuca Foundation. “By embracing this innovative movement in healthcare education, especially during this crucial time, we are diminishing barriers to job preparation, training and placement. We are incredibly thankful to partner with the DeLuca Foundation for this extraordinary initiative.”

Just as aviation and aerospace industries have been using simulation as an effective teaching and training tool for decades, simulators are doing the same for the medical industry. The College’s partnership with the Frederick A. DeLuca Foundation envisions Palm Beach State as a national leader in medical simulation and means better healthcare for those who call Palm Beach County home. Hopefully, we’ll never need these services. But if we do, the care we receive likely started with Palm Beach State College.