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For Profit HCA Florida Beefing Up Competition In Southwest Florida To Publicly Run Lee Health

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HCA Healthcare is expanding its presence in Southwest Florida and competing with the dominant health system, the publicly operated Lee Health.

The ongoing expansion of the for-profit HCA will include a 100-bed hospital at 3851 Colonial Blvd. that is in planning stages and a freestanding emergency room under construction at 8919 College Pointe Court.

The increasing competition from HCA is among the reasons why Lee Health is considering converting from a public system to a private nonprofit one. The change would provide leverage to partner with other health care systems and would allow Lee Health to go outside of the county. Lee Health’s publicly elected board will make a decision by October on a conversion or not.

In 2006, HCA sold its two hospitals in Fort Myers to Lee Health; Southwest Florida Regional Medical Center that no longer exists and Gulf Coast Hospital that has been renamed Gulf Coast Medical Center at 13681 Doctors Way off Daniels Parkway.

What Does HCA Own In Southwest Florida?

HCA’s main presence in Lee is through ownership of eight MD Now Urgent Care locations, including one in Naples. The locations are in Fort Myers, Cape Coral, Harlem Heights, Lehigh Aces, Estero and Naples. HCA bought MD Now, which has 59 locations in the state, at the end of 2021.

The company is building a freestanding emergency room in Fort Myers at 8919 College Pointe Court with an estimated cost of $6.5 million, according to Lee County records.

“HCA Florida Fawcett Hospital, located in Port Charlotte, is involved in the project,”  spokeswoman Debra McKell said in an email. “This 10,820-square-foot facility will operate around the clock with full-service emergency services including laboratory, X-rays, CT scanning and ultrasound. We recently held a beam signing event at the location and are expecting it to open in fall 2024.”

HCA Fawcett Hospital opened a similar freestanding emergency room in Cape Coral in June 2022. The address is 322 SW Pine Island Road.

What’s The Status Of The New Hospital?

The hospital will be built at 3851 Colonial Blvd., which is just northeast of McGregor Baptist Church.

“The details are being finalized after the site had to be rezoned and some mitigation had to be done,” McKell said.

She did not immediately have a time when construction will start.

When HCA announced in 2021 plans for the hospital, officials said it would be four stories with 275,870 square feet and would include an emergency room, trauma care, labor and delivery, among other services.

The Fort Myers hospital is one of three planned as part of HCA’s market expansion in the state. The other two are a 90-bed hospital in Gainesville and a 60-bed hospital near the Villages. Statewide HCA Florida has 49 hospitals and 65 urgent care centers. It reports treating 7.4 million patients in the state each year.

Nationally HCA Healthcare reported $17 billion in revenue for the fourth quarter of last year ending Dec. 31, according to its financial report.

 

Source: News-Press

A Hospital Reborn: South Broward Public Health District Marks Significant Progress In $88M Renovation Of 70-Year-Old Memorial Regional Hospital

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Hospital associate administrator Jon Pickett says a birthplace expansion is 60% complete.

Renovations and expansion of the trauma center and emergency room likewise are progressing, he says.

The hospital devoted $68 million to expanding the birthing center, redesigning a full floor to include all private rooms, a family lounge, classrooms for new parent classes and a simulation lab. The hospital says it leads Broward County hospitals in the number of babies born.

The system is spending another $20 million upgrading its Level 1 Trauma Center and emergency room to enhance its ability to deal with critical cases and mass casualty events. The hospital says its 94,000 ER visits in 2022 are the second highest number in Florida.

“This investment reflects the hospital’s commitment to remaining at the forefront of medical advancements and reflects our unwavering dedication to the community we serve,” says Peter Powers, CEO, Memorial Regional Hospital.

Completion of birth center work is scheduled for late 2024. The trauma center work will be completed in early 2025.

Memorial opened with 100 beds in a one-story building in 1953. It’s now among the larger hospitals in the state with 863 beds.

  • Orlando Health is building a $160-million Children’s Pavilion focused on specialized children’s care with an opening planned for 2026. The six-story building will be across from Orlando Health Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children and will bring more than 30 pediatric specialties together, with a goal of streamlining care for kids and their parents.
  • HCA Florida Healthcare opened a freestanding HCA Florida Mount Dora Emergency center in Eustis. The 11,000-sq.-ft. facility features 11 treatment rooms and a suite of on-site diagnostic imaging tools and will operate 24 hours a day.
  • UF Health is converting a former CVS pharmacy at in Eustis into a free-standing 24-hour emergency room with an expected opening in March. The system is also looking to break ground on an emergency room in Clermont, with an opening in late 2024.

 

Source: Florida Trend

One Bankrupt Hospital, Eleven Freestanding Emergency Departments And Three Texas Hospitals: HCA’s Spending Spree

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Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA Healthcare, one of the country’s largest operators of ASCs, is on a spending spree – inking three deals in the last week.

Most recently, HCA Houston Healthcare purchased 11 freestanding emergency departments from SignatureCare Emergency Center. The deal brings HCA Houston’s freestanding ED portfolio to 26.

HCA Healthcare’s Medical City Healthcare in Dallas acquired Decatur, Texas-based Wise Health System, a formerly locally owned, nonprofit system, and its three inpatient hospitals.

Additionally, HCA will acquire Trinity Regional Hospital Sachse in Texas in a $41 million deal which is expected to close at the end of January. The 32-bed hospital, which opened two years ago, filed for bankruptcy in August after defaulting on around $70 million of municipal bonds.

In 2023, HCA has been focusing on outpatient care, ramping up its urgent care acquisitions. The health system operates about 2,300 ambulatory care facilities, including more than 150 ASCs, and continues to double down on developing outpatient facilities and increasing outpatient procedure migration.

In the third quarter of 2023, HCA reported a 37.4% jump in outpatient revenue, while its operating income was down 4.1% from the previous year.

 

Source: Becker’s ASC Review