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JENNIFER LIBERTOSpring Hill Regional Hospital officials say they can't afford to provide space to support and senior activity groups.
On any given day, about a dozen different support and senior activity groups met at the Spring Hill Regional Hospital Enrichment Center on Mariner Boulevard.
Now, several of these groups say they are scrambling to find new places to meet, since they were given a 60-day notice that the enrichment center at 1244 Mariner Blvd. would close Aug. 30.
"I was so surprised, and of course, I panicked," said Mickie Morena, who directs the support group Compassionate Friends. "I just felt they should have alerted people a little sooner."
Fifteen years ago, the community center was the first of its kind for senior activities and support groups.
But the center's current sponsors, Health Mangement Associates of Naples, which owns the regional hospitals, say times have changed. They say other outlets exist to host these meetings. They also decided that the $100,000 annual cost of running the enrichment center would be better spent on patient care, Spring Hill Regional Hospital Enrichment Center director Kay Norris said.
"We had to look at our commitment to provide the best health care, and we had to trim our belt like a lot of families have had to do," said Norris, who also directs volunteer services at the hospitals.
Trying to put the cut in perspective, Norris pointed to the hospital's contribution to indigent/charity care, which has risen to $15-million so far this year, up from $10-million spent in 2002. Federal law requires all hospitals to care for anyone who walks into the emergency room with an emergency, whether they're insured or not.
Norris also said that the hospital's monthly lease was coming due in September and the landlord was seeking a rent increase. The hospital was paying about $5,000 a month, she said, and would face a "substantial" increase of seven percent - about $350 more a month.
Since the announcement of the center's closing, several local agencies have been getting calls from groups looking for places to meet.
"We don't have any extra meeting space," said Sue Ball, executive director of the Hernando County Family YMCA, which will have one small meeting room once its most recent expansion is complete. "We program every square foot of this building."
Enrichment Centers Inc. of Hernando County has been bombarded with requests to provide time and space for those who used to meet at the Spring Hill Regional Hospital Enrichment Center, said the group's director, Chuck Hill.
"We're shifting things around so we can accommodate all these guys," said Hill, who directs the group's two enrichment centers at Oak Hill Hospital and Brooks Plaza in Brooksville.
Enrichment Centers Board Chairman Nick Morana said he was not surprised by the announcement of Spring Hill Regional Hospital Enrichment Center's closing. His board was told the center would be closing three years ago, when its lease was last up in September 2000.
Enrichment Centers had been affiliated with HMA, until a conflict arose and the group turned to competitor Oak Hill Hospital, owned by HCA Inc. of Nashville, Tenn.
Morana said Brooksville and Spring Hill Regional Hospital officials told the group they would not be renewing its lease on the Mariner Boulevard center in 2000, and that's when Enrichment Centers started looking at other options, including partnering with Oak Hill Hospital. Oak Hill Hospital now sponsors the group, paying the salaries of its two employees.
Norris said that the lease was not in danger then, and that Enrichment Centers moved to Oak Hill Hospital without any prodding from Spring Hill Regional Hospital.
Regardless of their dispute, both Norris and Morana said they would work to see that the newly homeless support and senior activity groups found a place to meet.
- Jennifer Liberto covers business and development in Hernando County and can be reached at 848-1434 or liberto@sptimes.com