Quality of Health Care
 

Like great majority of benefits of Te Villages but health care seems to be below average. Had good treatment at LMRC but was warned wait times are normally quite long... hospital on out side was poorly lit... ratings of both hospitals were quite depressing.. staff advised me they desparately need a new hospital to handle volume but only get these ubiquitous urgent care centers... had to travel back to Cincinnati for heart surgery due to overall rating of hospitals. Will prevent me from ever considering full time here... correct assessment or not?

You have left a major mecca of heart surgery. The heart-lung machine was developed in the basement of Childrens Hospital and first used on a Cincinnati firefighter with burnt lungs. TPA the life saver for strokes was developed by the Cincinnati Cardiologist, Dr. Dean Keriakis.

This is Florida and the whole State is not as good medically as what we are used to in my opinion.

We continue to return to Cincinnati for our oncologist and for our daughter who has a Congenital Heart Defect treated at Childrens, (although she is 53).

Like most other smaller " municipalities " with growing pains, the health care in " The Villages / Leesburg " can be sketchy. I personally dislike both hospitals but have found a good PCP and Cardiologist. There are other specialists which have me scratching my head as to their professional competence. The Ocala hospitals are better, and we all have the opportunity to climb in our cars and drive an hour to see some of the first class providers in Gainesville and Orlando. The hospitals there are generally very good. As to Leesburg Hospital, it is quite old and has not been modernized as quickly as needed. Why, who knows ? There are lots of opinions available on this forum about The Villages Hospital and it seems to have struggled with less then adequate management over the years.

Have had great health care provided by The Villages Hospital, My pcp and my cardiologist. Would not bother visiting here if care was so bad.

You will find great stories and horror stories about health providers anywhere you go but there are very few places that have a local bulletin board like TOTV to amplify horror stories like The Villages does.

I don't feel I can make personal assessments based on aggregate statistics of providers, unfortunately I feel I have to somehow make assessments of individual providers myself. There are good and bad providers everywhere no matter how good the "brand" they are associated with is.

For us the transition from Massachusetts to The Villages was stressful because of the having to find new health care providers... as it would have been no matter what place we moved to.

In the end we feel our health and health care is better here than in Eastern Massachusetts (which has lots of world class health facilities) simply because Villages Health and our doctor do a better job of managing the care we received than in Massachusetts, and the locality of services. We feel our PCP is just as competent as any of the better doctors we dealt with in Massachusetts.

As far as hospitals in the area we are very satisfied with the services we have received at Villages Hospital, Leesburg Hospital and Munroe (now Advent) in Ocala. We weren't satisfied with the services we received at the other big hospital in Ocala, though that might have been the luck of the draw.

In the end picking health care providers is stressful and personal, and if you get it wrong you lose.

If you already have providers in Cincinnati that you trust and have done a good job for you, you may find it hard to replace them no matter where you go. In our case most of our providers were on the verge of retirement so that actually made the transition to The Villages an easier choice for us.

Answers
 

Tomterrif: There are answers to your concern. A year ago we had a major Cancer in the family (Stage 3+) and of course went to Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Fl. 2 /12 hours from the Villages. The surgery was 100% effective and they have a house on the property that holds 28 long term patients. We were there for 6 weeks while having "radiation treatment". There were 3 heart transplants after surgery and 2 awaiting. Plus some other transplants (Liver, Lungs, Kidney, etc.) in the house Cost $45 a night which includes facilities for food, (own kitchens) large beautiful bedrooms overlooking lake and great Lani with rule that you must have 24/7 care person included in the price and comforts of the room. Another great reason for the villages..You have medical facilities close and some of the best in the USA.:ho:

Thanks for the responses.... having over 40 hospitals in the Cincinnati area , 7 of which are from 1-10 years old and within 10 miles of home is a luxury I did not fully appreciate especially when that is amplified by a close relationship with the lead hospitalist in one and long associations with specialists in the area... as some have suggested I will only use the local Florida Drs for crucial situations but have now started establishing those relationships. it was quite sobering to visit a poorly lit hospital where security personnel escorted people to their cars at night. Given only four hospitals within between local and Tavares it seems like an opportunity for a few more

That is a decision made by the State of Florida. I would also like to see more scrutiny by the State of Florida over licensing. They licensed a doctor from another State who had a serious drug problem there and was sanctioned.

I think it is time that State Government really cleans up their licensing laws and criteria. Never in my life before moving here did I run across a scammy dentist. They are quite common in Florida.

This is not the first time you have stated this opinion, and I stress the word “opinion”, as opposed to “fact”.
As always, you need to be selective where you go. In Florida, there is excellent health care available if you go to Mayo in Jacksonville, Shands in Gainsville, and Moffitt in Tampa.

It is indeed my opinion, but I invite you to check out U.S. News and World report list of best American Hospitals. This year and for a long time, The Cleveland Clinic was deemed the best heart Hospital in the U.S. Baltimore had the number one Children's Hospital, kicking Boston Children's to number two. Anderson in Houston was best Cancer Hospital with Sloan Kettering number two. Mayo Clinic (the original one was number one in MANY things)

The best U.S. Hospitals.Access Denied

And in Florida;

Access Denied

Remaining life expectancy at age 65

Florida 20.4
Ohio 18.5

I'll take my chances here. Another point to ponder most doctors here were from and trained in other states. Like you they like the sunshine. I like the diversity they bring. According to some points of view only the bad ones are allowed to move here.
State-Specific Healthy Life Expectancy at Age 65 Years — United States, 2007–2009

Best Hospitals
 

Very helpful links to the U.S. News & World Report hospital rankings. Thank you.

Also they all read the same books in becoming a doctor. People from northern cities think everything is better where they came from, food, doctors, water, etc.

Tomterriff,

First we had both good and bad experiences with the Villages Health System, mine was very good, my wife's, not so much. She needed to see some specialists and the wait time for the initial 'meeting' was 2 months or more, and the first actual doctors visit was at least a month beyond that. This was far too long. We had to drop the "advantage" plan, go back to medicare and find our own PCP and specialists. This was over 3 years ago, so conditions may have improved.

Contact SHINE, SHINE - Home for unbiased information on health care in Florida. Pay very close attention to ADVANTAGE versus Medical SUPPLEMENTAL plans. Also note that you may NOT be able to go back to Medicare from a supplemental, ask questions.

If you are over 65, VHS ONLY accepts 3 United Health Care ADVANTAGE plans, make sure you are aware of the restrictions of these plans, for example, 3 years ago, we could not get coverage while visiting relatives in the entire state of Colorado!

One other item of interest, VHS specialists are NOT under the same restrictions as the PCP doctors, I use 2 VHS specialists with Medicare.

The "villages hospital" is a separate entity from VHS, and does accept Medicare and supplemental insurance.

The entire system is very confusing.

Hope this helps.

It is amazing how people get all wrapped up in rankings without really understanding what actually goes into those rankings. It is the same thing that goes on with rankings of universities. The suggestion that you must go outside of FL for excellent health care is not based on anything concrete. You can certainly find less than stellar health care no matter where you live. If I needed the services of a children's hospital and I lived in Boston, would I travel to Baltimore based on the fact that it is now ranked just ahead of Boston? I don't think so. However, I would if there was a specific Dr. that I wanted to see. You can find excellent Drs. in Florida. A lot of them practice at Mayo, Shands and Moffitt.