Yesterday, several friends sent me a link to a viewpoint posted on FloridaPolitics.com that criticized Baptist Health Care for “executing a masterclass in dodging fiscal responsibility for the mess it’s left behind in Pensacola.”
- The subject line for one of the emails: “You are not the only one anymore.”
Florida Politics founder Peter Schorsch called out Baptist for moving out of the West Moreno District – which Baptist now spins as its “legacy campus” – to “greener (and wealthier) pastures” while leaving the taxpayers on the hook for $16.4 million to demolish its old facility.
As I have written many times, Schorsch pointed out:
Baptist repeatedly said they would continue providing some medical services at or near the old campus so neighboring residents wouldn’t lose critical access to care, even reaffirming that commitment as recently as May 2022. Today, they’ve completely abandoned that community, choosing to expand into more affluent areas, like the new Nine Mile ER they plan to open in northern Escambia County this month.
Baptist Leadership’s Message: We have been the only media outlet in Pensacola that has challenged Baptist’s abandonment of the Black community and its lying to elected officials, donors, and the entire community.
- As I know it would, Baptist would not let the criticism go unpunished. You will notice in our Rising Star issue that there are no Baptist employees. For the first time in 17 years, the healthcare system and its over four dozen past Rising Star honorees did not nominate a single individual.
- Two of my articles: Outtakes- Be A Trusted Partner and What Happens When Baptist Leaves.
The developers that got DV Reeves elected want that land. Affordable housing my A$$.
CJ you hit the mail on demolition! There has been many attempts to have consideration for an adaptive reuse of the facilities.
Especially the 3 medical tower buildings that can easily be converted to affordable workforce apartments in towers 1&2 and a one stop social services resource center with wrap around service providers. The ground mall area that connects the towers can be converted to neighborhood retail services and products.
There is a lot happening behind the scenes that the community has been left out of. The only “community meeting” held months ago at Bayview community center at 8:30 am on a work day far away from the affected community near the old campus.
Surely, there could be transparency from baptist on what options they have considers and if there are some interim solutions to improve the property until the City’s “multi-year” development strategy that leaves the community with a festering sore in the hear of the community!
We still don’t know some aspects of this story. First, what did the city and county do or not do that led Baptist to decide to move…or was that its objective all along? There’s a 2014 document on the city CRA’s webpage that describes a wholesale makeover on the area with Baptist staying in place and building one new building. I don’t recall the city or county lifting a finger in support of that effort. Then, there’s a 2016 document still in draft form and never finalized. Why is that? Second, when did the Baptist Board make the actual decision to move? Someone on the board must know and be willing to tell Inweekly even if on deep background. Third, do the documents submitted by Baptist to the Escambia County Health Finance Authority (part of the Escambia County government) describe anything related to creating a Medical Park at the “legacy” campus? Further, do the documents describe that Baptist intended to significantly reduce the number of hospital rooms and beds and so the countywide medical capability? I’m still shocked that the PNJ never addressed that last issue. Fourth, what is the actual condition of the old hospital? I was in it the day before the big move. It seemed OK to me though a bit of a mess. It had to have met state standards to be a hospital so it could not be that bad. Who in the city or county has inspected the old hospital? It doesn’t belong to D.C. Reeves. Why is everyone assuming that it has to be demolished? Fifth, what are the potential uses of the old hospital, the other buildings and the legacy campus in general? It all strikes me as something ripe for the city to hire a firm like DPZ CoDesign to take a hard, objective look at the potential of the campus.
Thank you Rick for continuing to cover this major issue to the Citizens and Taxpayers of the City of Pensacola. There is absolutely no reason why such a major corporation should be allowed to just walk away from their campus and leave the taxpayers with the responsibility of paying for demolition and removal of numerous buildings. It’s a slap in the face to the City and especially the surrounding neighborhood. If a home owner just abandoned their home and left it to rot and ruin, degrading the neighborhood and surrounding properties, they would be ordered to appear before Code Enforcement and pay hefty fines until the nuisance was abated. Baptist Hospital thinks that they are above the law of common decency. Baptist pays its executives millions and is only now, thanks to your coverage, looking at paying their employees a fair wage. They had this new hospital planned for years. Where was the funding that should have been budgeted to tear down the abandoned facilities? Was walk away and let the taxpayers pay for everything their plan all along? They were dishonest about what would happen to the old campus in order to fool the City Council into annexing their new site so that they would qualify for funding. There was no mention that this would be a smaller facility and offer less beds for the community. What they are doing is horrible and I appreciate your coverage. They should not be left off the hook for ALL the expenses of the demolition of their former hospital.