Healthcare in West Palm Beach
West Palm Beach is home to two of Palm Beach County's major hospital systems -- Good Samaritan Medical Center and St. Mary's Medical Center, both part of the Palm Beach Health Network -- with St. Mary's serving as one of the county's two Level I trauma centers and the site of Palm Beach Children's Hospital, the region's only dedicated children's hospital between Fort Lauderdale and Orlando.
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Learn moreSt. Mary's Medical Center -- Level I Trauma and Palm Beach Children's Hospital
St. Mary's Medical Center, a 413-bed acute-care hospital in West Palm Beach, is a Level I Trauma Center and a state-designated Pediatric Trauma Referral Center -- one of only two Level I trauma centers in Palm Beach County and one of nine statewide, per Palm Beach Health Network and 211 Palm Beach/Treasure Coast's trauma-center directory. It treats more than 70,000 emergency and trauma patients annually. Pediatric care is delivered through Palm Beach Children's Hospital at St. Mary's, described by the health network as the only dedicated children's hospital between Fort Lauderdale and Orlando, with a Level III NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) -- a genuinely regional, not just local, resource.
Good Samaritan Medical Center -- U.S. News Recognitions
Good Samaritan Medical Center, also in West Palm Beach and part of the same Palm Beach Health Network, is rated High Performing by U.S. News & World Report in four specific adult procedures and conditions: back surgery (spinal fusion), diabetes, gynecological cancer surgery, and hip replacement. This research pass did not turn up a specific overall numeric U.S. News hospital ranking for Good Samaritan the way it did for these individual procedure-level ratings -- that gap is disclosed here rather than filled with an estimate.
Two Hospitals, One County-Level Trauma System
Because St. Mary's is one of only two Level I trauma centers serving the entire county, West Palm Beach residents have direct, in-city access to the county's highest tier of trauma and pediatric-trauma care -- a meaningfully better position than many smaller Florida cities that rely on a trauma center in a neighboring municipality. Good Samaritan and St. Mary's together give the city genuine depth on both routine specialty care (Good Samaritan's U.S. News-recognized procedures) and the most severe emergency and pediatric cases (St. Mary's Level I designation and children's hospital).
What Wasn't Confirmed
This research pass did not independently verify current CMS star ratings, specific insurance-network participation, or wait times for either hospital, nor did it identify the second Level I trauma center elsewhere in the county by name. Those figures vary by plan, provider, and are worth confirming directly -- especially insurance-network participation -- before relying on them for a relocation decision.
Key takeaways
- St. Mary's Medical Center is one of only two Level I Trauma Centers in Palm Beach County (one of nine statewide) and a state-designated Pediatric Trauma Referral Center, treating more than 70,000 emergency/trauma patients a year.
- Palm Beach Children's Hospital, based at St. Mary's, is described by Palm Beach Health Network as the only dedicated children's hospital between Fort Lauderdale and Orlando, with a Level III NICU.
- Good Samaritan Medical Center is rated High Performing by U.S. News in four specific procedures/conditions: spinal fusion, diabetes, gynecological cancer surgery, and hip replacement -- a specific overall numeric ranking was not confirmed in this research pass.
- Both hospitals are part of the same Palm Beach Health Network, giving West Palm Beach in-city access to both routine specialty recognition and the county's top trauma/pediatric-trauma tier.
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