[golfing eagles]

Originally Posted by MandoMan

That’s a difficult question because there are so many sorts of life-threatening emergencies. With some, the threat is seconds away, with others, it’s minutes, or an hour, or a day. Most ERs drop everything for a real life-threatening emergency, but some ERs having a full range of diagnostic equipment handy and some don’t. Some have doctors on duty at all times and some don’t. Some have good ratings and some don’t. Some can wheel you into surgery from the ER and do heart or brain surgery and some can’t. Some ERs are top level Trauma ERs and some aren’t. Some have facilities for putting a stent in your heart when you are having a heart attack and some don’t.

The closest A-rated hospital to The Villages is AdventHealth/Waterman in Taveres. I live five minutes from the intersection of Buena Vista and 466A. For me, the hospital is about a 45 minute drive. For some life threatening conditions, that’s too long. The hospital formerly called The Villages Hospital and now run by the University of Florida system is attractive, but its rating hasn’t been high. Will that come up? We don’t know yet. While I live in The Villages, it’s about a thirty minute drive. If you buy a house in the south of The Villages, it’s much farther. AdventHealth/Waterman is building a new ER with ten hospital rooms attached on 466A just past Colony shopping Plaza. For me that’s about ten minutes. I don’t know what the level of expertise will be, but they can get me to AdventHealth/Waterman from there. They know the way. If you live down at the SouthEast end of The Villages, you are 45 minutes away from AdventHealth/Orlando, which is the top-rated hospital in Florida and a high-level trauma center.

A lot of the ratings focus on things like the number of people who pick up infections in the hospital. Very few at AdventHealth/Waterman. A lot more here in The Villages. Also, how often do certain kinds of surgeons do certain difficult surgeries. One joint replacement I’ve had was done at AdventHealth/Waterman by a surgeon who does half a dozen of them a week. That leads to a higher rating than a surgeon who does one a month.

If you are from New York, Bob, you are used to having outstanding hospitals within a mile or two. However, you also know that there are times in New York when two traffic hardly moves. A mile here may mean two minutes. A mile in New York may mean a half hour.

The Villages is close to the size and shape of Manhattan. The Villages Hospital (once called) is up near Harlem, but most new construction is happening down near the Battery, so to speak. What answer fits one situation may not fit another. I chose a GP affiliated with AdventHealth/Waterman because he acts as a concierge who can get me in to see other specialists in the system, and if the local hospital isn’t good enough, he’ll send me to one that specializes in that surgery. Seeing him is harder than some doctor twenty minutes away, but it’s worth it for the easy access to specialists.

Thank you for one of the best medical posts on TOTV in years (except for my own). I can't find one thing to criticize, and kudos into your insight into how little some of these so-called rating really mean.