Miami Healthcare Guide: Jackson Health, Hospitals and Public Health

The Miami healthcare section has one deeper guide, on Jackson Memorial Hospital, and this hub answers the practical questions about hospitals, public health offices and help paying for care that City of Miami residents ask most.

This section reports institutions, addresses, ownership and programs from official and primary records; it does not rate hospitals or make medical claims. The facts come from Jackson Health System's own pages (Jackson Health System), federal hospital records (CMS Hospital General Information) and the Florida Department of Health in Miami-Dade County (DOH-Miami-Dade).

Last verified: October 18, 2026, against the Jackson Health System, CMS Provider Data Catalog and Florida Department of Health in Miami-Dade County websites.

Jackson Health System describes itself as a nonprofit academic medical system governed by the Public Health Trust, a team of citizen volunteers acting on behalf of the Miami-Dade Board of County Commissioners (About Jackson Health System).

Its centerpiece is Jackson Memorial Hospital. Jackson lists the rest of the system as Jackson South, Jackson North and Jackson West medical centers, Holtz Children's Hospital and The Women's Hospital at Jackson Memorial, a network of UHealth Jackson Urgent Care centers, Jackson Behavioral Health Hospital, primary and specialty care centers, two long-term care nursing facilities and the Christine E. Lynn Rehabilitation Center (Jackson Health System).

The roots are municipal. Jackson says its history began on June 25, 1918, when the new Miami City Hospital, now Jackson Memorial Hospital, opened its doors, which it counts as Miami's first hospital (Jackson history). The same timeline records that Miami-Dade County voters approved an extra half-penny sales tax to support Jackson Memorial, with trauma care named as one of three primary needs, and that the University of Miami School of Medicine, Florida's first medical school, opened on September 22, 1952 with 26 students. The Miami Jackson Memorial Hospital guide covers the campus and its history in depth.

Federal records list 20 hospitals in Miami-Dade County, and 10 of them give Miami as their city, though a Miami mailing city in the file is a postal label rather than a city limit (CMS Hospital General Information).

The Miami entries run from 1100 NW 95th St to 9555 SW 162 Ave, and the file records a mailing city, not whether an address lies inside City of Miami limits (CMS data). In the ownership column, Jackson is the only one in the Miami-Dade file classed as government owned by a hospital district or authority, and the VA center is run by the Veterans Health Administration. The CMS record for Jackson uses the system name and the Jackson Memorial address, 1611 NW 12th Ave, with the main phone (305) 585-1111.

Countywide, the same file lists Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach, Coral Gables Hospital and Doctors Hospital in Coral Gables, Hialeah Hospital and Palmetto General Hospital in Hialeah, HCA Florida Aventura Hospital and Homestead Hospital (CMS Hospital General Information). A star rating or quality score is not repeated here; CMS publishes those on its own site.

One name in the federal file differs from the sign on the building. CMS lists the Miami VA Medical Center, while the Department of Veterans Affairs names the same campus at 1201 Northwest 16th Street, Miami, FL 33125 the Bruce W. Carter Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center and lists its facility hours as 24/7 every day of the week (VA Miami Health Care). Veterans searching for it by either name reach the same Miami address.

Ryder Trauma Center at Jackson Memorial Hospital is the trauma center Jackson describes as verified as a Level I trauma center by the ACS Committee on Trauma, with a second location at Jackson South Medical Center (Ryder Trauma Center).

Jackson calls Ryder the centerpiece of Miami-Dade County's trauma care system, with two locations, staffed by Jackson trauma nurses and University of Miami Health System trauma surgeons (Jackson Health System). By Jackson's own count, Ryder treats 5,500 patients a year, and Jackson dates the Ryder Trauma Center at Jackson Memorial to 1992. Jackson also describes Ryder as the nation's only surgical training facility for the U.S. Army.

The City of Miami lists Fire Station 5 at 1200 NW 20th St and NW 12th Ave, near Jackson Memorial Hospital (City of Miami Fire Stations). Jackson's timeline adds that the half-penny sales tax approved by Miami-Dade County voters named trauma care as one of three primary needs (Jackson timeline).

An uninsured Miami-Dade resident seeking help with a Jackson bill applies under the Jackson Health System Financial Assistance Policy, which says every county resident receives a single, high standard of care regardless of ability to pay (Jackson Financial Assistance).

Jackson interviews unfunded patients for a possible funding source, whether federal, state, county or charity care, and uses the Federal Poverty Guidelines to qualify patients for charity (Jackson Health System). A Miami-Dade resident who may qualify must complete an interview and sign the Jackson Charity Care and Grant Programs application, with proof of county residence among the factors in the decision. Patient fee responsibility follows a sliding fee scale based on income and the current Federal Poverty Guidelines up to 300 percent.

Renewal has its own rule. Jackson says it no longer holds in-person or telephone interviews to renew Jackson Prime benefits; renewal is online only, and a complete application must be submitted at least 15 days before the card expires (Jackson Prime renewal). A cardholder who moves out of Miami-Dade County no longer qualifies. Jackson's main number is 305-585-1111.

The Florida Department of Health in Miami-Dade County handles public health services for City of Miami residents, from birth certificates to disease reporting, at 305-324-2400 (DOH-Miami-Dade).

Florida birth certificates from 1930 to the present are issued through the state Bureau of Vital Statistics and can be ordered online through VitalChek, by mail or in person at the Department of Health in Miami-Dade County (Florida Department of Health in Miami-Dade). Reportable diseases and conditions go to a separate line, 305-470-5660.

The department's Special Medical Needs Program provides evacuation assistance during an emergency for Miami-Dade residents with special medical needs, and its home page links to registration (Special Medical Needs Program). The department also posts beach water quality advisories and their lifting; on October 18, 2026, its home page news listed both an advisory and the lifting of an advisory for high bacterial levels at Crandon Park South in Key Biscayne.

Miami-Dade County runs a second, separate list. Its Emergency and Evacuation Assistance Program asks residents who may need medical monitoring, help with daily living or electricity-dependent life-saving equipment to register before an emergency, and pre-registered residents get priority when one arrives (Miami-Dade Emergency and Evacuation Assistance Program). The county Department of Emergency Management runs it from 9300 NW 41st Street in Doral, with a registrant hotline at 305-513-7700; residents of nursing homes, assisted living facilities and group homes are not eligible, because those facilities are required by law to develop an emergency plan.