Hospital in Trailwinds
 

No one has commented yet on the article in the 3/31 Daily Sun about how Ocala Health has purchased 27 acres in Trailwinds and plans to build a 300 bed hospital and 200,000 sq feet of medical offices.

This is directly behind and west of their free-standing emergency room,

I think this is great news. I and my neighbors have received outstanding and timely care at their Trailwinds emergency room. Also at West Marion Hospital, where they currently send patients who need in-hospital care.

I look forward to further updates.

But but but didn't the Daily Sunshine Pumper just tell us a few weeks ago that no hospital or any business would come to that area if impact fees were raised?

The developer told them not to print that little bit of important news.

A healthcare facility pretty much has a guarantee, that patients will come, if it’s anywhere near TV. Fractures, GI bleeds, Stroke, MI, to name a few will keep any facility busy.

One never builds a free standing ED, without plans to have a facility to move patients into. But is Ocala the medical facility that was to go near the family area, and industrial park. I thought UF was building in that area. But could be very wrong. If so I am guessing that may be a dead deal now.

It was UF Health the was going to build the medical campus by SR470 and the Turnpike.
We also don't know WHEN Ocala Health purchased the land. My guess before the Troika was given power in Sumter.

This will be a great addition. Hopefully the 400 acre Medical complex south of the Turnpike is still in the works too.

The State has to approve the addition of hospital bed construction. Has that happen? Approved or not - recruiting doctors and nurses will be the challenge. It’s great news that the effort to get additional medical facilities in The Villages is on the radar.

That will be nice, as the current hospital here doesn’t accept my Blue Cross health insurance with my Medicare, so I don’t go there.

There was an interesting article in the New York Times last week about how free-standing Emergency Rooms have been charging insurance companies as much as $3,000 to give people COVID tests, whereas urgent care centers nearby were charging a tenth of that amount. It’s a good idea to ask, rather than be hit with an expensive co-pay. (And of course, we ARE the insurance companies, so if they get charged exorbitant fees, we will be paying for that in our monthly or yearly fees down the road.)

It’s sort of an interesting conundrum. A new hospital nearby is newer and safer, prettier and maybe friendlier, and of course it is close. It won’t be a top rated hospital because they pretty much have to have residencies and interns and top doctors who do research. But that also means your surgery may be done by a resident who is a doctor, but is still learning how to be a specialist. It means that when your doctors come to see you, they will probably bring along a bunch of residents, interns, and maybe even med students to watch the examination. But if something goes wrong, there is a doctor there within a few minutes, instead of a nurse playing phone tag with a doctor who is on the golf course. If I needed a really difficult surgery, I’d want it done by a top surgeon.

On the other hand, a doctor in a smallish local hospital that doesn’t have a teaching program works alone or as part of a group practice. Was the doctor at the top of her medical school class or near the bottom (it really does make a difference in their ability to make the correct but unusual diagnosis!). Was she at a top school or a mediocre school? Did she go to medical school here or abroad? It’s entirely possible for excellent doctors to decide they want to practice at a smaller local hospital and not live in a big city or work at a high-stress hospital. However, some of them rarely get to treat rare diseases that the best specialists may have worked with many times.

How do we know the difference? As I have a medical background, I’ve talked with surgical nurses I’ve known and said “If you had this problem, who would you want doing the surgery?” However, most people don’t have that luxury. Some doctors have bad reputations among the hospital staff, but how would we know that?

So, I welcome a new hospital to The Villages, but we’ll see.

Impact fees have not yet been raised. The raise was recently approved, but it won't go into effect for 90 days. This development might have slipped under the wire and was approved under the current impact fee schedule.

Once again, Villagers take great news and decide to find a reason to be negative. We are thrilled that healthcare will be expanded.

Link?
 

I've searched for Ocala Health Hospital TV and the local rag. nothing. Help with a link please?

PM me if you have to.

Askcarl

Here is a copy of the article. Hope this helps!

Certainly sounds great. Hope they get it up soon cause we desperately need an alternative to the Villages Hospital.

I got great care at Ocala Health so I welcome them to Trailwinds

Seem to be an excellent source of health care. My wife recently had surgery at their W Marion Hospital and it was very well run.