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Originally Posted by StarbuckSammy
It is interesting that our insider Russ says that the problem with the ER is not understaffing but overpopulation. But this has been a problem for the past several years and from my perspective The Villages Hospital has not solved the problem. What in the world happens when the next 20,000 or so residents move in? This is not the developer problem..it is the hospital. I don't know about you, but the thought of more possible patients the next few years makes me worry.
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The problem may be more the limitations of the physical plant, i.e., the number of rooms, rather than staff. There are plans to expand the hospital rather than build another facility near Brownwood. In my experience, it requires less time to expand an existing facility than to build a new one as far as getting through the local permitting process and the state and federal approvals. But it still takes years to accomplish this. The hospital has been expanded once before and will expand again. Hopefully this will help the wait times in the ER. It would appear the administration is taking some steps, but one may question whether they are projecting appropriately for the increased population.