Lee Memorial Health System plans to build new hospital

Lee Memorial Health System has filed a letter of intent with the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration to build an up to 80-bed hospital on Coconut Road. The proposed hospital will be built on 33 acres owned by the health system, just south of Coconut Point Mall and adjacent to the Bonita Community Health Center.

“We purchased the land during the boom years with the intent of one day building a hospital on it, but the economic downturn slowed those plans,” Jim Nathan, president of Lee Memorial Health System, says in a press release. “When HMA revealed plans to move Lehigh Regional Medical Center out of Lehigh Acres and to the Alico Road corridor, we knew we needed to step up our timetable as such a project off Alico could possibly impact the ability of the citizens of the southern part of Lee County from getting a hospital for many more years. We believe this site located on the Estero-Bonita border is the best alternative for a hospital to serve the growing portions of southern Lee County.”

Lee Memorial Health System is the fifth-largest public health system in the United States and the largest community-owned health system in Southwest Florida. With more than 10,000 employees, the system is made up of four acute-care hospitals and two specialty hospitals, as well as outpatient centers, walk-in medical centers and physician offices