Lee Memorial Health system is pairing with key community leaders to achieve what they call the ‘two-thousand-seventeen initiative.’

President of Lee Memorial Health System, Jim Nathan explains that the 2017 health vision may seem far out, but with the many goals and opportunities our health system wants to achieve they must start somewhere. “So with this visioning process, we have a chance to bring the community and healthcare providers together to take a long term view of healthcare for our community to try and find ways of improving quality, reducing cost, improving efficiency and doing a more effective job of planning for healthcare needs for the future.”

Researchers evaluated Lee County on a wide-range of health issues such as how we compare to other communities on a national and state level, and what specific areas we need to work on to improve care. Director Of The Community Health Division Professional Research Consultants, Bruce Lockwood says, “I think there were a lot of indicators that really came out as kind of separating us from those national state averages. Some that came to mind; injury certainly was something that was a significant issue here, more so than state and nation wide.”

Other areas of concern that have been brought up by the new initiative include finding new doctors and try to cope with an exploding population. Jim says, “This is an opportunity for the community and healthcare providers to come together and develop a better and more effective long range plan for health care services on behalf of the people that we serve each and every day.”

Third Party Facilitator, Dr. Paul Keckley says, “So its not what’s the future of Lee Memorial Health System, its what’s the future of heath services in the community and what are the roles that people will play.

The last meeting will take place next Tuesday before a list of recommendations goes to a committee for approval. Tell us what you think of healthcare in Southwest Florida by logging on to www.leememorial.org