Site plan for freestanding ER receives city approval

After much discussion and many questions, the Winter Garden City Commission on Thursday, May 23, approved the proposed site plan for a new freestanding emergency room in the area.

The commission has debated and reviewed the plan since the item was placed on the agenda at the Thursday, April 25, meeting. 

At that meeting, the item was postponed after commissioners expressed desire to gather more information, have additional questions answered and speak to the local hospitals in the area. 

The item was then again postponed for the same reasoning at the Thursday, May 9, meeting.

Cameron Howard, chief operating officer for HCA Florida Osceola Hospital, spoke on the hospital and the impact it hopes to have on the local community.

“Our Winter Garden freestanding emergency department is an extension of HCA Florida Osceola Hospital,” he said. “HCA Florida Osceola Hospital currently operates four freestanding emergency departments, and we’re pretty good at it. Patients are seen by a provider in under five minutes, most patients are discharged in under 80 minutes, and our patient satisfaction scores are above the 90th percentile. … Given our experience and proven track record in operating freestanding emergency departments and being part of the nation’s largest health care system, we’re confident in our ability to care for the citizens of Winter Garden.”

EMERGENCY SITUATION

At a community meeting in January, HCA Florida Osceola Hospital shared plans to build the ER on the vacant tract to the south of 1200 Daniels Road in the recently developed Daniels Road Business Park.

The existing land use for the 1.56-acre property is vacant land, and the existing zoning is Arterial Commercial District.

The $11.5 million project will include a one-story, 11,570-square-foot freestanding emergency room building. The facility will house 11 exam rooms, CT scan, digital X-ray, ultrasound, on-site laboratory services and would be capable of caring for all ages, including pediatrics.

Planning Director Kelly Carson said the facility would be open 24 hours a day, with walk-in and ambulance accommodations but not overnight care. 

The ER requires a special-exception permit, which received approval from the city’s Planning and Zoning Board with six staff conditions.

Carson said the conditions of approval include that no helicopters are permitted to land on or near the facility; the facility will provide an on-site ambulance service as to not negatively impact Winter Garden’s emergency services; and no sirens will be permitted during the unloading and loading of patients. 

After Mayor John Rees recused himself from the vote, as did Commissioner Colin Sharman, who is on advisory board for AdventHealth Winter Garden, the three remaining commissioners all had questions for Howard.

“If a patient is in an emergency situation and they do not have the ability to acknowledge that they would like to be at a closer hospital, would you take them to Osceola?” Commissioner Chloe Johnson asked. 

“If they are not voicing it and they are needing that higher, additional care, we would transport them to Osceola,” Howard said. 

Two residents also shared their thoughts on how the new hospital would affect the community.

“When this was proposed … it was suggested and brought up that the (city) would check with the local hospitals to see if this was needed,” Gretchen Tope said. “When you go down Highway 50, there’s places to get help all the way down. … Is this really necessary to have another for-profit hospital emergency room right here?”

City Manager Jon C. Williams said in talks with the existing facilities in the area, the hospitals believe they currently have what is needed to serve the community.

Johnson made a motion to approve the site plan, and it passed 3-0.

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