[Villages Kahuna]

I try to make it a point to stay up-to-date on the status of healthcare here in The Villages by asking my doctors or other healthcare providers.

Today I asked one of my doctors.about the status of the announced plan to make The Villages Regional Hospital a teaching hospital, training 24 new residents per year, beginning in 2024. It turns out that plan has been either tabled or scrapped altogether. UF Health has been unable to attract enough doctors and nurses to the area to operate the hospital, let alone train residents. They have had an ongoing national recruiting campaign for over a year, with almost no results. The responses to the recruiting campaign has been that younger doctors and those with school-age families don’t want to relocate to central Florida or The Villages.

But the biggest news from the docs was that UFHealth has withdrawn from the partnership with The Villages developer to build a larger teaching hospital in the south end of The Villages. It’s obvious that if the existing hospitals can’t be properly staffed, it would make little sense to build another even larger hospital in the same service area. The developer has begun to approach national chains to build the new hospital. But the national chains are likely to be aware of potential problems attracting enough doctors and nurses to staff a larger, new hospital.

I was left wondering, if UFHealth can’t properly staff The Villages Regional Hospital, how much longer will they remain committed to it’s ownership?

Don’t ever expect to read any of this in The Villages Daily Sun. Ask your doctors!

[Stu from NYC]

Originally Posted by Villages Kahuna

I try to make it a point to stay up-to-date on the status of healthcare here in The Villages by asking my doctors or other healthcare providers.

Today I asked one of my doctors.about the status of the announced plan to make The Villages Regional Hospital a teaching hospital, training 24 new residents per year, beginning in 2024. It turns out that plan has been either tabled or scrapped altogether. UF Health has been unable to attract enough doctors and nurses to the area to operate the hospital, let alone train residents. They have had an ongoing national recruiting campaign for over a year, with almost no results. The responses to the recruiting campaign has been that younger doctors and those with school-age families don’t want to relocate to central Florida or The Villages.

But the biggest news from the docs was that UFHealth has withdrawn from the partnership with The Villages developer to build a larger teaching hospital in the south end of The Villages. It’s obvious that if the existing hospitals can’t be properly staffed, it would make little sense to build another even larger hospital in the same service area. The developer has begun to approach national chains to build the new hospital. But the national chains are likely to be aware of potential problems attracting enough doctors and nurses to staff a larger, new hospital.

I was left wondering, if UFHealth can’t properly staff The Villages Regional Hospital, how much longer will they remained committed to it’s ownership?

Don’t ever expect to read any of this in The Villages Daily Sun. Ask your doctors!

Wow. Wonder when we will read about this in the Sun. As you said above never.

[Michael G.]

Another reason why I go to a real hospital when I need one.

[Keefelane66]

It was inevitable.

[rjm1cc]

I think the trend is a shortage in a lot of the professions.

[NotGolfer]

NOT just in Florida! Family members experienced a debacle (teaching hospital too) up north , yesterday. It was unspeakable what they went through with people dropping the ball and worse. It's not going to get better.

[NoMo50]

No need to throw shade at the developer, as this problem is occurring all over the country. Our daughter is a nurse practitioner, working at a large teaching hospital "up north." They have had staffing issues for years, and it's only getting worse. Covid sure didn't help. Plus, many young people today are rethinking the prospect of getting into the health provider profession. The prospect of going to school for 10 years, amassing huge amounts of debt, and entering a field where you are not in control over what your "product" is worth has cast a lot of doubt on their prospects for the future.

I recently had an outpatient procedure done on a knee at a local Orthopedics office. The bill for that procedure exceeded $4,000. With Medicare and secondary insurance payments all in, the doctor's net was less than 600 bucks. Again, this is something going on all over the country...not just here in the bubble.

[JGibson]

The Villages Health is also having trouble with getting doctors and the ones they get never seem to stay.
TVH is like a stepping stone for healthcare workers.

I know hospitals that closed up north because the number of people they were treating had no insurance or were not eligible for Medicaid.

Forgot the Daily Sun no media discusses the healthcare shortage we have in America.

[eeroger]

Originally Posted by JGibson

The Villages Health is also having trouble with getting doctors and the ones they get never seem to stay.
TVH is like a stepping stone for healthcare workers.

I know hospitals that closed up north because the number of people they were treating had no insurance or were not eligible for Medicaid.

Forgot the Daily Sun no media discusses the healthcare shortage we have in America.

My husband is with The Villages Health and he was recently assigned his 3rd primary care doc. The other two left or retired. The Sun has been running for several weeks large 1/2 or full page adds for docs.

[Debfrommaine]

Agree, not just The Villages, all over the country.

[mlmarr]

Hospital being built in the south end by the turnpike will be larger , plus housing near by.. teaching will come..but first America needs to educate the children to want to..
Better yet.. keep yourself healthy..

[Bridget Staunton]

I was told they are not allowing nurses from the Philippines to come to the US but people can walk across the Southern border. We could get nurses from Asia & they are great in their profession Why?

[spinner1001]

Originally Posted by Villages Kahuna

I try to make it a point to stay up-to-date on the status of healthcare here in The Villages by asking my doctors or other healthcare providers.

Today I asked one of my doctors.about the status of the announced plan to make The Villages Regional Hospital a teaching hospital, training 24 new residents per year, beginning in 2024. It turns out that plan has been either tabled or scrapped altogether. UF Health has been unable to attract enough doctors and nurses to the area to operate the hospital, let alone train residents. They have had an ongoing national recruiting campaign for over a year, with almost no results. The responses to the recruiting campaign has been that younger doctors and those with school-age families don’t want to relocate to central Florida or The Villages.

But the biggest news from the docs was that UFHealth has withdrawn from the partnership with The Villages developer to build a larger teaching hospital in the south end of The Villages. It’s obvious that if the existing hospitals can’t be properly staffed, it would make little sense to build another even larger hospital in the same service area. The developer has begun to approach national chains to build the new hospital. But the national chains are likely to be aware of potential problems attracting enough doctors and nurses to staff a larger, new hospital.

I was left wondering, if UFHealth can’t properly staff The Villages Regional Hospital, how much longer will they remained committed to it’s ownership?

Don’t ever expect to read any of this in The Villages Daily Sun. Ask your doctors!

Where did you hear that the UF hospital near Spanish Springs was going to be a teaching hospital?

[virtualcynthia]

I’ve also heard that Medicare doesn’t pay enough and their ratio of Medicare to private insurance is not good

So, with limited amenities for young families, lower income potential and jobs available in other parts of the country; the odds are against the Villages Health.

I have seen doctors who operate in Orlando opening up satellites in the villages that might be a business model Villages Health can support.

[DonnaNi4os]

Teaching hospitals are some of the best. Unfortunately a retirement community that has a population on Medicare will never attract doctors, especially young ones who have enormous debt from their years of medical school. Medicare simply does not pay what private insurances pay for the same services. It is no wonder that residents don’t want to land here to continue learning. It is no difference here than in areas like Naples, etc where most are insured by Medicare. Unless we as a nation work to give incentives to those people wanting to become physicians, the long waiting times for appointments and surgeries will continue..here and everywhere. IMHO