JUPITER — Jupiter Medical Center is ending inpatient treatment for children who need to be hospitalized, a move the hospital said would allow it to offer care for the surging number of women choosing to give birth there.
The nonprofit medical center — the only one in northern Palm Beach County with inpatient pediatric beds — will continue to provide emergency care to children but would arrange for patients needing hospitalizations to be transferred to other area hospitals.
The closest children’s hospital to Jupiter is about 15 miles away, at Palm Beach Children’s Hospital at St. Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach. St. Mary’s is part of the for-profit Palm Beach Health Network, an affiliate of Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare…