Last week, Inweekly learned Baptist would not leave medical services at the old inner-city campus after it moves on Saturday, Sept. 23. The hospital expected Community Health to provide the services on its E Street campus.
“We had worked with Chandra (Smiley) at Community Health Northwest Florida,” Jennifer Grove, Baptist Health Care’s vice president of external relations, said.
“We identified a parcel that our board had agreed to donate to them for her to build a facility that would offer primary care and dental, but her board decided to go in a different direction, so that won’t be right here on our campus.”
What parcel?
The 2.6 low-lying acres on Moreno Street across from the Kupfrian House.
Community Health CEO Chandra Smiley knew that the redevelopment vision, which was released in June 2022, had among the vision’s seven main components:
- “Baptist ensuring there is a solution for health care that meets the needs of the neighborhood and surrounding areas.”
She told Inweekly that the parcel offered had significant – and costly – problems.
“The 2.6 acres they offered had significant flooding issues. It had an existing building on it that they were willing to donate, but it had flooded many times and wasn’t a space that could be rehabbed. We would need to pay to demolish it and build something in its place.”
A Baptist board member put Catalyst HRE in touch with Community Health to determine what the new building on the site would cost.
“Last October, Catalyst came back with a proposal that would have cost over $7.6 million, and a significant part of the cost was the civil engineering required. We were just not in the position to take on that kind of debt, so we backed away from it.”
- Based on Grove’s statement, Baptist Hospital has no other plan that ensures “a solution for health care that meets the needs of the neighborhood and surrounding areas.”
Does it have to be this way?
Quint Studer says, no. According to him, when healthcare systems pull out of a community, the norm is to leave some medical services.
He suggested that an urgent care center would be a low-cost solution that would help those living within walking distance of the E Street campus and may cut down on visits to Baptist’s emergency room on Brent Lane, saving the hospital money in the long run.
- Maybe Baptist could provide the urgent care center in partnership with Community Health.