Planning Ahead for the Growth of Lake & Sumter Counties
Leesburg & The Villages, FL — Central Florida Health Alliance, parent company of Leesburg Regional Medical Center and The Villages Health System, announced that a Letter of Intent has been filed with the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) to secure a Certificate of Need for the construction of a new hospital to be built in Sumter County, off Route 44 near Wildwood.
“This is an essential step to developing comprehensive health care services in the region and to support the growing needs of Leesburg Regional Medical Center and the southern territory of The Villages, where the soon-to-be constructed town of Brownwood, along with several other not yet constructed large communities in that area of Sumter County. This progressive plan for growth could see construction beginning in the next three years with build-out completed by 2015,” stated Lee Huntley, President and CEO of Central Florida Health Alliance.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau (4/00-7/09), Sumter County’s population experienced a 45.6% increase granting it the 39th fastest growing U.S. County with a population of more than 10,000 residents and Lake County’s population increased 48.3% during the same time period, earning it the 32nd fastest growing county. Additionally, The Villages has been named one of the fastest growing “micropolitan” statistical areas in the nation by the U.S. Census Department from 2000-2009.
“Based on conservative estimates, with the current rate of growth in Lake and Sumter County, we could exceed our current bed capacity at Leesburg Regional and The Villages Hospital as early as 2013. Substantial additions of new beds at Leesburg Regional or The Villages Hospital would be very expensive. As we look ahead to the next decade of health care, we are taking the responsible steps to ensure that we have the facilities in place to care for the booming population,’” Huntley continued.
“We conducted a series of professional industry studies to help us determine the potential need of our region in the next decade. The Certificate of Need is an outcome of those results. Even in these challenging times when health care reform changes are uncertain and local and federal financial support is in question, we cannot ignore the growing need for health care that we will experience,” according to Chairman of the Board for Central Florida Health Alliance, David Sustarsic, M.D. “Also it is evident that by 2015, our hospitals would struggle to absorb the population growth coming our way. We are very excited that eventually our Brownwood-based hospital will anchor the southern hub of health services in The Villages with The Villages Health System to the north, Leesburg Regional Medical Center to the southeast in Lake County and the development of numerous other services with our health care partners in between,” concluded Huntley.
