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Originally Posted by Bizdoc
I share your frustration - I did 2 trips in 3 days with each parent. And I decided not to vent my reactions as I know that I will need to use them again. Let's just say it is the good, the bad, and the ugly and leave it at that.
Building hospital capacity is not as simple as it would appear. Before you can begin, you need a certificate of need, usually issued by a state agency. This is to prevent overbuilding of hospitals and situations where everyone goes bankrupt. The data for the certificate application is based on previous years, not on future projections. Thus, the applications for enlarging The Villages hospital were probably based on 10 year old population numbers.
Add to it that "neighboring" hospitals get to weigh in - and the hospitals in Ocala are very much aware that the population center is shifting here from Ocala (yes, the day is coming where they will be a suburb of The Villages). They are very unhappy about hospital beds down here, especially since they constantly lose money on Monroe Regional, which is owned by the county.
Reality? TVRH will not be a "major" hospital in our lifetimes. It is a generally OK place for its size. If you need "major league" services, it is worth the drive to one of the majors in Orlando. (For those of us who have lived in rural areas, the need to drive 1+ hours to a major hospital isn't as strange as it may be to city folks.)
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Bizdoc: Judging from your comments you are obviously somehow connected to the medical field.
I am a TV resident but employ the services of only those medical people involved in the Munroe HealthCare System.
I haven't noted a shortage of patients in that system and I haven't noticed that the population in Ocala is getting any less. As TV grows so do the outlaying areas. Finally Munroe Hospital has been nationally recognized more than once.