Tag Archive for: community health systems

Bayfront Health St. Petersburg To Be Sold To Orlando Health

The city’s oldest and largest hospital, Bayfront Health St. Petersburg, is set to be sold to nonprofit health care company Orlando Health, pending a vote by the City Council on July 9.

Community Health Systems Inc., the private company which currently owns the 480-bed facility, announced it had signed an agreement with Orlando Health on Thursday. The news comes about a year after city officials raised concerns about the management of the hospital, which sits on city-owned land and provides care to all, regardless of insurance status.

Orlando Health will take over operations and the long-term lease that Community Health Systems holds with the city, so long as council members approve next month, a news release said. A copy of the proposed lease obtained by the Tampa Bay Times shows it would run for 50 years.

The agreement states Orlando Health must continue to “provide charity care to needy and underserved persons” and “those who may otherwise be unable to afford or obtain care due to various possible adverse circumstances.”

City councilman Robert Blackmon, who was born at Bayfront St. Petersburg, said Friday that continuing the charity care was a “sticking point” in negotiations with Orlando Health. He said he will support the agreement, as did councilwoman Darden Rice.

After a one-on-one conversation with the company’s president and CEO David Strong a couple of months ago, Blackmon said he is confident charity care will continue at the hospital — and be even better under new management.

He pointed to a string of troubles at Bayfront under Community Health Systems, which purchased it in 2013. The hospital has seen layoffs and resignations of top executives, the ending of a partnership with the University of South Florida, and a Department of Justice investigation related to charity care finances in recent years.

Already frustrated, city officials grew more so in early 2019, when then-Bayfront CEO Joe Mullany gave council members a glowing annual report that did not align with problems playing out in public view.

“We’ve had difficult times in the last few years,” Blackmon said. “Orlando Health is the best-situated group to bring (Bayfront) back to the excellence it was once known for.”

Rice called the sale the “only reasonable solution” to the ongoing issues at the hospital.

“Ultimately, the new ownership is what is best for our community,” she said.

The city’s other six council members did not respond to requests for comment Friday. Mayor Rick Kriseman was not available for an interview.

About 15,000 patients were served at Bayfront St. Petersburg in 2018, according to hospital records. As of July 2019, the hospital employed 1,839 people and had 171 open positions.

Officials for Orlando Health declined to be interviewed, instead releasing a statement that said the sale should be final by Sept. 30.

Peter Young, a hospital consultant based in Fort Myers, said Orlando Health, which operates the only Level 1 trauma center in the Orlando area, is in an “expansion moment” of “picking up the skeletal remains” of hospitals in need of rejuvenation.

The purchase of Bayfront St. Petersburg would be the nonprofit’s debut in the Tampa Bay area, and make it so the nonprofit owns 14 total hospitals, according to the Orlando Sentinel. The sale also would mark the second Community Health Systems hospital acquired by Orlando Health, as it purchased Osceola County’s St. Cloud Regional Medical Center in April, the Sentinel reported.

Community Health Systems, based in Tennessee, has sold more than 50 hospitals since 2017 to pay off debt related to its $7.6 billion purchase of Florida’s Health Managed Associates in 2014, according to the National Business Journal.

Bayfront officials declined to be interviewed, and the company released a statement by Sharon Hayes, chief executive officer of the St. Petersburg hospital:

“Orlando Health is well-respected for their work to sustain and enhance medical services, and we are excited to partner with them to benefit our patients and communities,” she wrote. “This is an extraordinary time in health care and together we will continue to provide quality care for our neighbors, friends and family.”

 

Source:  Tampa Bay Times

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$65 Million Expansion Of Sebastian River Medical Center Due To Open In February

A $65 million expansion of Sebastian Medical Center, that adds 48 private patient rooms, is scheduled for completion by the end of December.

It is expected to serve its first patients in February.

Officials from Steward Health Care, which owns the hospital, joined with general contractors from Suffolk Construction Wednesday to ceremonially place the final beam in the three-story building under construction at the rear of the hospital, 13695 U.S. 1 near Roseland Road.

The 90,000-square-foot expansion was announced in January 2016 by former owner Community Health Systems Inc. and was expected to be completed in 2018. But the acquisition of Sebastian River Medical Center by Steward in May 2017 changed the construction timeline.

The expansion moves the hospital’s main entrance and registration toward the back of the building. All pre-surgical services, operating rooms and recovery facilities now will be on the first floor.

The second and third floors of the new wing each will have 24 beds, bringing the total number of licensed, inpatient patient beds to 202, an increase of 31%.

“It was definitely time to upgrade to a new facility,” said Kyle Sanders, president of Sebastian River Medical Center. “This is a $65 million investment into the community.”

A similar tower wing was opened in 2010, providing 42 private rooms and a 16-bed intensive-care unit. That expansion cost about $25 million.

Sanders said the addition and reconstruction of the hospital’s first floor will help meet the needs of the Sebastian community well into the future.

“With the last beam going up, it is a great time to celebrate this construction milestone,” said Sanders. “It also gives us the chance to recognize the great work they’ve done on this project.”

Sebastian River Medical Center competes for patients with both Cleveland Clinic Indian River Hospital to the south and Health First’s Palm Bay Hospital to the north. Its new facilities will be attractive to patients who prefer private rooms, Sanders said.

Surgeons and primary-care physicians participated in planning the expansion/renovation. The medical center is expanding its primary-care physician affiliations, particularly in Vero Beach, where 51 percent of primary-care doctors now are part of the Stewart Health Care network.

“We’re definitely here for the long haul,” said Sanders. “We feel this project will allow us to better serve the community as a whole.”

 

Source: TCPalm

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