Status quo for hospital services until 2009
Lee Memorial working on future plan
BY JEFF CULL jcull@florida-weekly.com

Green

Medical services in Lee County in 2009 - when Lee Memorial Health System opens it's Metro Parkway campus - won't look much different than today.

That's what the Lee Memorial board of directors endorsed at its monthly meeting on Thursday, April 12.

But, beyond that, there's no plan.

With the acquisition of Southwest Regional Medical Center from Hospital Corporation of America in August, all of Lee Memorial's long-range planning was scrapped.

So the hospital board cobbled together an interim plan to get it through the next few years when the new Metro campus comes on line.

That scheme means each hospital in the system - Lee Memorial near downtown Fort Myers, Cape Coral, HealthPark and Gulf Coast hospitals - will essentially keep its current programs.

For example, heart surgery will still only be performed at HealthPark and the new Gulf Coast; orthopedic and neurosurgery centers will continue at Lee Memorial; and obstetrics remain at the Cape, Gulf Coasts and HealthPark.

But what happens after 2009 hasn't been decided.

The administration is developing a plan to see the hospital system through 2017. It expects that to be completed by late summer, system President Jim Nathan said.

Yost

Some ideas under discussion include moving one of two open-heart surgery programs from a Fort Myers' campus to Cape Coral, expanding the Children's Hospital that is often at capacity, and shifting other medical disciplines to other hospitals.

Board members each had their own favorites.

Board Member James Green said he's concerned that with all the baby delivery services moving south, to HealthPark and Gulf Coast (Lehigh's private hospital recently stopped delivering babies) residents in East Lee County, Lehigh and Hendry County are illserved.

"I'd like to see some kind of presence in that region," Green said. "I'm not comfortable with those services being provided only in the south."

Adding heart surgery to the Cape was board member Jason Yost's concern. He said the time required to transport a patient from Cape Coral to the Fort Myers heart unit is too long.

"I wouldn't want to have a heart attack in Cape Coral right now," Yost said.

About 39 percent of heart cases come from Cape Coral and the surrounding areas of Pine Island and North Fort Myers, said Dr. C.B. Rebsamen, the system's chief medical officer.

Brown

Rebsamen's planning committee recommended against the Cape heart surgery program as being impossible to attain by 2009 because a certificate of need would be required, delaying any move.

Board Member Linda Brown voiced concern about the Children's Hospital and its expansion.

System President Jim Nathan, however, cautioned board members not to zero in on one issue but look at the overall system and its future.

"This discussion is absolutely necessary," Nathan told the board. "But if you just work on one item you do a disservice to the over-all plan especially when you consider our capital constraints and the phenomenal growth we're experiencing."

The hospital will hold a variety of community meetings over the next few months to get input from residents. The final longterm plan is expected in August. ¦

The downtown campus of the Lee Memorial Health System that includes hospitals in Cape Coral, south Fort Myers and at the corner of Metro and Daniels parkways in Spring, 2009.