Golisano Children’s Hospital Sees Growth At Its Naples Location

Golisano Children’s Hospital of Southwest Florida is expanding services in Naples and has forged a transfer agreement with the NCH Healthcare System.

The agreement is for seriously ill children who are in the care of an NCH hospital yet need more specialized services available at the children’s hospital located in south Fort Myers.

The goal is to make patient transfers run smoother and represents a fresh start between the two hospitals, said Armando Llechu, chief administrative officer of the 128-bed Golisano hospital.

“That was a really good first step to building a relationship,” Llechu said.

NCH historically has had a transfer agreement to send sick children when necessary to Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in Miami, formerly Miami Children’s Hospital.

NCH’s pediatrics services at North Naples hospital, including its pediatrics emergency department, have been expanded and upgraded to keep more children closer to home for care.

Golisano children’s hospital achieved a new milestone in 2017 with the completion of its new seven-story, $200-million hospital adjacent to HealthPark Medical Center to better serve the five-county area of Southwest Florida. Previously, the children’s hospital was inside HealthPark.

Llechu said he and Dr. Emad Salman, regional medical officer at Golisano, met with NCH’s interim CEO Phil Dutcher, and the agreement was signed July 1.

“(We) said this is an opportunity to start a new chapter in the care of children in the region,” Llechu said.

Dutcher served as interim CEO following the resignation in January of Dr. Allen Weiss until the Sept. 3 start of Paul Hiltz as the new president and CEO.

Dutcher said he reached out to many people and organizations, including Golisano, when he was interim CEO.

“I thought (the transfer agreement) was a good first step and the right thing to do,” Dutcher said, who is back as NCH chief operations officer.

Salman said it is not unusual for general acute-care hospitals to have transfer agreements with more than one children’s hospital. That’s because not all provide a complete line up of services. For instance, Golisano does not have the demand yet to add pediatric heart transplant services.

Besides the transfer agreement with NCH, Golisano has been working on projects at its Golisano’s Children’s Health Center in Naples at Pine Ridge and Livingston roads.

Golisano’s contract for Nicklaus Children’s to provide three physicians for the urgent care center at the Naples complex has ended. Four physicians with Golisano are now rotating through the urgent care center that is open from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Llechu, who came to Golisano in 2017 after serving as vice president of clinical operations at Nicklaus Children’s, said there was no controversy with ending the arrangement.

“They realize having a remote location created some logistical challenges as well,” he said.

When respiratory infections are common among children, the urgent care center can see 20 to 30 patients a day, Salman said.

“In summer, it’s 10 to 15 a day,” he said. “Two years ago when we had really bad flu season, we saw 40 to 50 patients a day.”

In terms of how many Collier children who need to be hospitalized through the Naples urgent care center and Golisano physician practice in the same building, it’s about two a month, Salman said.

“We try very hard not to bring them up here unless absolutely necessary,” Llechu said.

The pediatric specialists who see children in the office practice are preparing for expansions, he said.

That includes build out of a 4,000-square-foot cancer center, the addition of two gastroenterologists for rotations, and the hiring of a second autism navigator to keep pace with increased diagnosis of autism, he said.

“We are seeing a lot more autism in the entire region,” Llechu said.

The cancer center program is in design phase now; all together Golisano is investing about $1 million in the Naples complex, he said.

 

Source: Naples News

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HCA Healthcare Acquires 55-Acre Land Parcel In Jacksonville For $16M

HCA Healthcare, the parent company of Memorial Hospital, has acquired a 55-acre land parcel in the Wildlight community of Jacksonville for $15.8 million. The property is located at northeast Interstate 95 and Florida A1A.

“This purchase will allow us to establish a future presence in Nassau County and to align with the planned growth in the region,” said Bradley Talbert, CEO of Memorial Hospital, in a statement.

Nearby the land parcel, Baptist Health acquired 26 acres at Florida A1A and Harper Chapel Road in May, and plans to build a 50,000-square-foot medical office building. Also nearby, UF Health Wildlight, a 23,331-square-foot medical office building, is currently under construction.

 

Source: Connect Florida

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Palm Beach County Medical Office Building Sells For $13M

A medical office building near Lake Worth Beach sold for $12.61 million.

Palm Beach MOB LLC, managed by Steven P. Wathen in Hilliard, Ohio, sold the 31,847-square-foot medical office at 7408 Lake Worth Road to PrimeMed Lake Worth LLC, managed by Christoper Montello, the president of Aventura-based PrimeMed Manager Corp.

TD Bank provided an $8.83 million mortgage to the buyer.

The price equated to $396 per square foot.

The office building was completed on the 1.8-acre site in 2009. This is the first time it has sold.

According to the deed, tenants include CL Brumback Primary Care Clinics, Dr. Jefferey L. Katzell, PSHS Alpha Partners, Sports Care Institute and Imaging Center Management.

 

Source:  SFBJ

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In Need Of An Upgrade, Moffitt Cancer Center Seeks Millions More From State Cigarette Tax

 

 

For the past two years, leaders at H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute have quietly asked state legislators for more money to help expand their hospital and research campus in Tampa.

Their request never gained traction, so this year they plan a more assertive approach.

Moffitt officials said they are working to enlist the help of Tampa Bay area lawmakers to file bills aimed at securing the funding they seek. The legislation, they said, would increase the center’s share of state cigarette tax revenue, generating $11 million a year to finance a new clinical and research hospital in Tampa, and an additional $11 million for a new life sciences research building in Pasco County.

Moffitt’s CEO and president, Dr. Alan List, said the demand to treat more cancer patients has increased significantly in recent years, but the hospital doesn’t have the space to serve them.

“Our needs are more urgent than ever,” he said in an interview with the Tampa Bay Times editorial board. “We are out of space completely on the research side, which means we can’t recruit any more scientists, which drives all of our innovation. On the hospital side, we have the same number of beds we did 12 years ago. We’re nearly always full or near capacity nearly every day.”

Moffitt was established in 1981 by the Florida Legislature and is the only National Cancer Institute-designated “comprehensive cancer center” in Florida. The hospital opened in 1986 on the University of South Florida’s campus. Since then, Florida’s population has nearly doubled, and so has demand for specialty cancer care, List said.

Florida has the second-highest number of cancer cases in the country, behind California, he said. “The volume of growth year over year at our hospital has been tremendous.”

Each year, the hospital sees about 68,000 patients, who come from all over the U.S. and 133 countries. Moffitt is known for its work in immunotherapy, a newer approach that uses the body’s own cells to fight cancer. The hospital is also a draw to biotechnology companies, which have relocated to Tampa from around the world to work in Moffitt’s research laboratories.

Moffitt currently receives 4 percent of the state’s tax on cigarettes. The proposed legislation would increase that to 7 percent in 2020 — then to 10 percent in 2023.

Together, the two increases would generate an additional $22 million a year in revenue that would be used to finance the planned facilities in Tampa and Pasco County.

The first increase would produce $205 million, to be paired with $332 million from Moffitt, to build a new hospital on its campus at 10920 N McKinley Dr., in Tampa. The property currently is home to an outpatient center, and has 22 acres of land to develop.

Moffitt would create a new surgical center on the site, and move all operating room care out of its current hospital on the USF campus. In addition to freeing up more research space, the new tower also would include a center that specializes in clinical care on solid tumors.

The project would increase patient capacity, expand research space, and create funds for sorely needed upgrades, List said. Construction would begin next summer and take about three years to build.

“Our operating rooms are too small and we cannot get the technology we need into the rooms,” List said, reiterating that the hospital’s buildings are 30 years old.

Separately, List hopes to secure $191 million from the second proposed increase in Moffitt’s share of the cigarette tax, which would occur in 2023. That money would be used build a research park in Pasco County, helping to meet the future demand for cancer therapy and create space for biotech company partners, he said. Construction is tentatively set to begin in 2023 on a parcel along the Veteran’s Expressway.

List and other Moffitt officials are meeting with state lawmakers to garner support. Among them are Sen. Wilton Simpson, R-Trilby, and Republican representatives Jamie Grant, of Tampa, and Chris Sprowls, of Harbor.

In past years, Moffitt leaders have attempted to secure funds for their expansion through appropriations at the tail end of the legislative session. But each time they failed to break through with lawmakers.

The hope is that a more open approach will be more effective, List said. “We want to be as transparent as possible and get as much support as we can for this.”

 

Source: Tampa Bay Times

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What MOB Tenants Are Looking For In The Perfect Space

The medical office market is booming—particularly for landlords with quality spaces that serve tenants’ needs. In most markets, however, there is a dearth of quality buildings, a trend that is putting upward pressure on rents. Smart owners will be able to capture the demand by filling tenant needs.

“Tenants want a building that reflects their image and a space that will create a positive patient experience. Each submarket is unique as to what that looks like,” Bryan McKenney, director of brokerage services at Cypress West Partners, tells GlobeSt.com. “Overall tenants want: landlords that take a proactive approach to image and maintenance; signage (where possible) and wayfinding; ease of parking (which in Orange County is often free and surface), landlords that commit the necessary tenant improvements and provide functional spaces.”
Like in most asset classes, there is a shortage of quality supply for tenants. “In the best markets, no. As you move away from the bullseye, there are options that can satiate need but it is a balancing act,” says McKenney. “For those practices trying to serve the high-end patient who chooses cash pay, concierge, and elective medicine, they want to be in the best area, with the best demographics and then experience corresponding higher rents and a tight supply of product.”

The race for quality is also a reflection of the demographics these centers are servicing: the baby boomer crowd.

“Seventy percent of the disposable income in the US is controlled by the baby boomers,” Jason Krotts, principal at REDA, tells GlobeSt.com. “In various demographic markets, these Boomers can demand higher quality services, which translate to higher quality buildings and amenities.”

Investors are also focusing on quality as a defensive-buying strategy.

“With the bull market lasting as long as it has, investors are looking to acquire product that provides good defensive characteristics—no different than when stock pickers rotate into consumer staples,” says McKenney. “MOB proved resilient to market shocks in the Great Recession. During the past 10 years, there has been a ton of money raised and to now deploy it in a strong Southern California market is difficult. Often investors will have one set of underwriting guidelines for most markets and then have a second set for the tough to crack markets. The term “California Premium” is often used when discussing how the cap rate here does not match most other investment profiles.”

However, landlords are also starting to require longer lease terms as well for medical office tenants.

“In certain markets there are always higher barriers to entry, California is especially one,” says Krotts. “Given the challenging hurdles to obtain development approvals in the state, it makes for strong demand in the capital markets. Medical tenants are considered ‘sticky,’ meaning they sign longer-term leases and typically don’t relocate. Investors, when analyzing a particular investment are seeking a predictable, long term income stream and medical can provide this. There has been a tremendous amount of capital raised for MOB and the predictable income stream is a main component along with the general grow from the demand for expanded services.”

 

Source: GlobeSt.

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