Not true, Leesburg is where you want to go for anything cardiac. Someone who had a heart attack this week was taken to Leesburg. Leesburg is known in central FL as they place to go for anything cardiac.

People should probably stop referring to that place as a Hospital, that’s giving it way more credit than it deserves.

After Medicare ambulance was $270. More than AmR charged. Leesburg treatment was excellent. People need to stop complaining about it

Shands, Leesburg, Villages are all owned by UF. The Shands family of hospitals do not own TV or Leesburg. Shands, Jacksonville and North Central Florida are the not for profit systems and the systems include 10 hospitals of which The Villages and Leesburg are two.

Lets just say you do not move to TV for the hospital care and that is probably the last thing you have on your mind when you see TV. If you are elderly, and you want to move to Florida, buy into a community around Jacksonville and you can access several very good hospitals with the best being Mayo Clinic.

I was referred to Mayo for kidney problems and was a patient there for three long years and the driving back and forth was a pain in the you know where. I could not be treated locally.

However, my husband had excellent treatment at The Village hospital for both cancer and heart. We were also very fortunate to have a very good GP and Cardiologist.

My understanding is that TV Hospitals are fine if you arrived there by ambulance. You are immediately admitted. No wait.

From our experience, this uis true. The Emergency Room is not a Critical Care Unit, there are plenty oif those available and most iof them are very good.


One thing that did surprise us was being billed for the ambulance. My husband's heart stopped in the ambulance, but the ride was still not considered "necessary" and I had to pay for the ambulance. The excellent EMT's saved his life, it was worth it.

Are there any hospitals in the area that are either Comprehensive STEMI centers or stroke centers? Please notice that I asked for comprehensive not primary. There’s a big difference in follow up care with a comprehensive center being better.

Because your experience was an anomaly?

So you don't live here?

It was explained in the Sun during the time that the changes in Ambulance providers was being proposed. One question asked was "Would any changes in provider, make a difference in the patient's desire to be taken to a particular hospital ?"

The answer was, the PROVIDER would not make any difference as there is a procedure that applies no matter the provider. The article gave the steps: 1. The patient can ask to be transported to a particular hospital and the provider MUST honor the patient's request. Then we got into the "exceptions". Those included when the medics at the scene determine it IS A LIFE THREATENING event, a stroke, heart attack, profuse bleeding, etc. any condition that is judged to be immediately life threatening. In that case the ambulance crew is legally bound to take the patient to the NEAREST FACILITY that HAS ROOM. The article went on to explain in detail all the possible exceptions to each of the steps. A patient might request to be take to a hospital, say in Orlando for instance, but a check by the crew may find that hospital, for one reason or another, is overwhelmed at the moment and not able to accept more critical emergencies (say there had just been a major explosion at a manufacturing facility in Orlando). In such cases, the patient may not be able to be transported to their first choice. Suffice to say, the article made it clear that even when a patient requests a particular hospital, and even though the request must be honored (if possible), the reality is, it's just not always possible. And, if a person is having a stroke, where a few seconds or minutes can mean recovery or permanent impairment, the ambulance crew is experienced in knowing seconds are crucial and the patient's preference is NOT honored of course. Life over personal preference !

If a local ER is so bad, how is it allowed to stay open? If an ambulance takes you to a hospital ER that's well known for poor service/ratings/rankings, could they be liable?

What kind of insurance do you have ?

Recently, a friend was experiencing heart issues and called EMS. They wanted to take her to Leesburg since they were diverting from The Villages but she insisted on TVH. Bad decision! It took four hours to get her into a cubicle and on a heart monitor. There were 63 patients waiting in the hallway and they actually have nurses whose permanent assignments are those beds. They finally admitted her and wanted to do a procedure but sent her home the next day because they needed her bed. Said doctor couldn't get and OR so no point in keeping her. She is a former ER nurse and was appalled by the way things are done here. She observed that in her former life, ERs treated ear infections, broken bones and accidents. In The Villages, the ER sees people who are seriously ill and need to be admitted. We don't have adequate facilities for our population.

no matter what you think about VillagesHospital, Leesburg is FAR WORSE. they have all the criteria you mentioned, patients on stretchers in the crowded hallways, no nurses in site & waiting for hours to be treated or even speak to a doctor. the whole system is down, hanging by a thread of dedicated but overworked hosp staff doing their best to hold it together. simple solution is don't get sick, & see your primary if you do. skip the whole er experience if you're not @ death's door.

I had the pleasure of experiencing Leesburg hospital a week ago Monday night. I came down with some nasty viral thing with a high fever and ended up pretty dehydrated. Drove to the Leesburg ED at about 10:30 PM. Very quiet. One person in front of me. I was in an exam room in about 30 minutes. Took another hour for a Doc to show up but I think that timeframe was based on waiting for the results of my Covid/Flu test. Both negative. Doc was kind of indifferent to my plight but I can't say that I blame him. By this time my fever was down. He ordered some basic blood work and IV fluids for me. The nurse who took my blood and administered the IV is in no danger of winning employee of the month but she did an adequate job. The lab wanted one of the draws to be redone but I declined. Took about 75 minutes to get the results of my blood work and by then the IV was done.

After the IV I was feeling better so I was happy to get out of there by 2:15 AM or so. There is a helipad right by the ED entrance so I assume it's a trauma center. The place was clean and modern and had a lab working at 2:00 AM on a Tuesday.

I've had less than ideal experiences at Mass General Hospital in Boston while I was an employee there. As they say, your mileage may vary in all of these hospitals but my experience at Leesburg was overall positive.

The helipad is there to pick up patients...... Leesburg is NOT a trauma center....

Comprehensive centers
 

Ocala Regional Medical Center is home to the new Comprehensive Stroke Center. My husband was transferred there in 2019 and they saved his life. I had no choice where he was transported. At that time, Sumter Co ambulance service was still operating and their protocol for patients exhibiting symptoms of stroke were transported directly to ORMC. I do not understand why more people are not aware of this center. I have posted many times of the quality of care provided. Hope this answers your question.

Ocala Regional Medical Center is now known as HCA Florida Ocala Hospital.

i'm glad things worked out for you, nothing is worse than feeling terrible & having to tolerate less than adequate care. hope you're doing much better