LMHS Elected Board Agrees to Get Permission to Build New Hospital

Lee Memorial Health System’s elected board has agreed to ask the Agency for Health Care Administration to build an 80-bed hospital in south Lee County, an effort that challenges rival Health Management Associate’s plan to relocate Lehigh Regional Medical Center.

The unanimous vote gives LMHS leadership permission to file an initial application with state regulators, which is due Wednesday. A final and likely much more comprehensive, application would not be due until April 10.

Board members also gave health system CEO Jim Nathan authority to begin a ‘dialogue’ and unspecified collaboration with HMA during this application process. Alan Levine, who heads HMA’s 22-hospital Florida Group, sent a letter to Nathan this week urging both sides to meet to discuss the applications. (To read Levine’s  email click here)