Rising public curiosity prompted the Feb. 4 assembly of the native hospital district board to happen on the Tennessee Williams Theater.
Greater than 100 individuals attended the assembly to encourage the board to contemplate different operators of Decrease Keys Medical Heart when the present settlement with Group Well being Companies ends in 2029.
4 of the seven unpaid members of the Decrease Florida Keys Hospital District board, who’re appointed by the governor, had been receptive to listening to from different firms that could be involved in working the Decrease Keys’ solely public hospital. In response to a request from an advisory committee of group members, the board voted 4-3 to permit the committee to rent an impartial authorized consultant to assist the committee solicit proposals for a brand new hospital operator.
The board may quickly rent a well being care advisor to assist the group decide its priorities and draft a brand new working settlement with whichever firm takes over in 2029.
The committee celebrated an extra bit of reports, when the hospital board’s longtime lawyer Lew Fishman shared information of a dialogue he had with Roberto Sanchez, a Miami businessman who has the ability to veto any potential new hospital operator.
How does one man have a lot management?
A troubling actuality of the Decrease Keys’ hospital state of affairs got here to gentle on the Jan. 7 assembly of the Decrease Florida Keys Hospital District board. The hospital’s present lease settlement with the Tennessee-based Group Well being Companies (CHS) expires in 2029.
There’s one other, personal entity concerned in that lease settlement.
The Decrease Florida Keys Hospital District is a state-chartered particular taxing district created in 1967 that exists solely to supply and preserve a hospital for the individuals within the district, which stretches from Key West to the Seven Mile Bridge.
The hospital district board is allowed to levy, and prior to now has levied, a particular tax throughout the district to fund the general public hospital. That tax has not been levied since 1999, when the hospital district board determined to lease the hospital on Inventory Island to a personal, for-profit well being care firm.
The present 30-year lease between CHS and the Decrease Florida Keys Hospital District consists of greater than the general public hospital on School Street. The settlement additionally consists of dePoo Hospital on Kennedy Drive, which is owned by Miami businessman Roberto Sanchez by his firm,
Kennedy Drive Investments. And Kennedy Drive Investments Ltd. is inextricably linked with Decrease Keys Medical Heart and Group Well being Programs.
Lawyer Fishman initially instructed the board and the group committee final month that Sanchez had expressed an curiosity in renewing the lease with CHS reasonably than contemplating one other operator. However that modified on the Feb. 4 assembly, when Fishman mentioned he had spoken with Sanchez.
“They’ve completely no real interest in promoting Kennedy Drive Investments, however they did say they’re not locked into CHS and are open to working with anybody,” Fishman mentioned, to cheers from the viewers.
The district board additionally voted to ask any hospital operators to provide a preliminary introduction and proposal about working Decrease Keys Medical Heart on the March assembly.
“Finally, we’re grateful for the board’s approval of the committee’s request for impartial counsel, which is a sensible resolution to help the board, which has th a fiduciary obligation to our group’s public well being,” mentioned Spencer Krenke, who launched a group group to advocate for a brand new hospital operator known as Our Hospital Key West (ohkw.org). “We’re nevertheless shocked that whereas Dr. Lesley Thompson, Erica Sterling, Mary Chambers and Mary Spottswood voted in favor of their very own committee’s request, Stephen Hammond, James Muir and chairwoman Kathy Ovide voted in opposition to it.
“We’re additionally happy that as of the March 4 assembly there might be equal time given to any hospital operator to current their curiosity for consideration to be a successor operator when the present settlement ends in April 2029.”
Go to ohkw.org to view an unedited video of the Feb. 4 assembly within the coming days.
For a full historical past of the hospital lease, go to keysweekly.com and seek for “hospital.”
