By Terry Witt – Spotlight Senior Reporter

                In Levy County, hospitals are as scarce as hen’s teeth, so any mention of a new hospital turns heads.

            Given the history of proposed hospitals in Chiefland and Fanning Springs that were never built, there is always healthy skepticism swirling around any talk of a hospital coming to Levy County.

            And yet, there is a proposal of sorts to build a hospital in Chiefland once again. It would be a small hospital, but a hospital nevertheless.

            Small is good, as long as it’s constructed.

            Dave Pieklik, executive director of the Nature Coast Business Development Council told Levy County Commissioners Tuesday there is a possibility of a 10-bed hospital eventually opening in Chiefland if everything falls into place.

            Pieklik said an Ocala cardiologist is planning to open a walk-in urgent care clinic along U.S. 19 in Chiefland equipped for diagnostics and scanning.

The clinic could turn into a 10-bed hospital with an emergency room and surgical suite, but the timing for construction of the facility would depend on how quickly the owner could arrange financing.

Pieklik said the proposed site of the urgent care clinic and hospital can’t be disclosed at this point except that it would border U.S. 19 in Chiefland.

Pieklik said the cardiologist has looked at Regional General Hospital in Williston but indicated the hospital would have to be closed down and completely rebuilt with a different business plan before it could be used again.

Regional General Hospital has income issues. The hospital has no emergency room. It serves primarily as a walk-in clinic. The owner owes thousands of dollars in back property taxes.

On the brighter side, the Florida Legislature this year passed a bill eliminating the requirement for hospitals to acquire a Certificate of Need. The CON process has been a hospital killer in small communities.

The first hospital proposed on the west side of the county would have been built in Fanning Springs, but the project was forced to compete in the CON process with larger and more politically influential hospitals in Gainesville.

The CON process was focused on allocating bed space to existing hospitals and proposed hospitals, but there were always a limited number of beds to fight over and smaller hospitals sometimes couldn’t compete successfully for the beds.

Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the bill eliminating the CON requirement in June. It became effective on July 1. The bill is aimed at allowing the free marketplace to drive decisions in healthcare.

Board of County Commission Regular Meeting July 16, 2019; Posted July 16, 2019