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Hospital move would snip 2 transport options

Some volunteer ambulance trips would cease, as would golf cart visits.

By SAUNDRA AMRHEIN Times Staff Writer
Published September 21, 2007

The head of the local volunteer emergency squad will talk to residents next week about a proposal to move South Bay Hospital.

HCA, the hospital's owner, filed an application with the state last week seeking permission to replace its 112-bed hospital in Sun City Center with a 112-bed facility on Big Bend Road west of U.S. 301.

If the move is approved, hospital officials say they plan to leave a free-standing emergency room at the current site as well as rehabilitation and diagnostic services.

The current 16-acre campus limits the hospital's expansion and what it can offer the retirees and a growing, younger population, hospital spokeswoman Debra McKell said.

"We are just landlocked there," she said.

But a move could pose a problem for residents who rely on free emergency transportation to South Bay by the volunteer-backed Sun City Center Emergency Squad.

The squad would continue taking residents to the emergency room, chief Mike Anderson said. But if residents need to be admitted, the hospital would be responsible for them.

The squad's ambulances could not transport them about 7 miles to the facility at Big Bend, he added. The hospital would have to arrange for their transport.

That could be through fee-based county ambulance services or a private ambulance company.

Also, the volunteer squad would not be able to transport patients from the new hospital to a rehab center or nursing home outside Sun City Center, Anderson said. The service has to either start or end inside the community.

Residents also would no longer be able to use their golf carts to visit hospital patients.

Anderson plans to address residents' questions and concerns about the emergency squad's duties in the event of South Bay's move at a community meeting at 9:30 a.m. Sept. 28 at the Kings Point clubhouse.

Jerry and Kathleen Mahoney want a meeting with state officials. The local couple sent a letter to the state's Agency for Health Care Administration asking for a public hearing about South Bay's request.

"The removal of the hospital well outside Sun City Center area would jeopardize our access to timely acute and general health care, to say nothing of elimination of access by golf cart, which many of us rely on for medical appointments as well as to assist loved ones," they wrote in the letter.

McKell said officials are looking into options that would help residents with transportation.

She stressed that the hospital is trying to offer more to current residents, not just new and younger residents moving in up the road.

The new hospital and medical office buildings would sit on 60 acres. The hospital would have space to expand beyond an original 112 beds and offer programs like obstetrics for younger people and surgical and oncology services for everyone, McKell added.

The current site holds no opportunity for growth.

"There are so many things we want to be doing for the community and we can't," she said.

Two years ago, the hospital sought permission to build an additional hospital on its Big Bend Road property. State officials rejected the request, saying there wasn't a need for two hospitals so close together.

Now it has some other challenges, including a competing application by St. Joseph's Hospital to build a hospital on Big Bend near Interstate 75.

South Bay has to submit a fuller plan to the state by mid October, McKell said. A decision is expected by mid December. If approved, it could take two to four years to get the new hospital up and running.

Saundra Amrhein can be reached at amrhein@sptimes.com or 661-2441.

IF YOU GO

Hear what's planned

What: A meeting will discuss concerns about the Sun City Center Emergency Squad's duties if South Bay Hospital moves.

When: 9:30 a.m. Sept. 28

Where: Kings Point clubhouse

[Last modified September 20, 2007, 07:49:57]