Special to the Lehigh Acres Gazette from Lee Health
Lee Health plans to open a low-cost outpatient medical clinic in Lehigh Acres this year, 2017.
The new clinic will be located in a still undetermined property in Lehigh Acres.
According to Bob Johns, executive director of Lee Community Healthcare, the Lee Health subsidiary that operates the clinics in Cape Coral, Dunbar and North Fort Myers they will likely see 2,200 patient visits in 2017 and over 14,000 next year in Lehigh Acres Clinic.
The Lee Health board initial plan calls for the Lehigh Acres clinic to open by the middle of 2017 as a four-exam-room women’s health practice, operated by a certified nurse midwife and support staff. By 2018 they would add pediatric and family medicine services and add more exam rooms.
According to Johns in a Lee Health Study in 2015, more than 28,400 people, earned less than 200 percent of the federal poverty level — $23,760 for an individual and $48,600 for a family of four.
Johns is expected to give the Lee Health board more details of the clinic plans, including its proposed location, in the coming weeks.
Lehigh Acres Board member Diane Champion urged Johns to provide more mental health care to the clinic, which according to Johns is already are staffed with social workers.