Does Lehigh Acres actually have an 88-bed hospital? No, it has 53 beds for the residents of Lehigh Acres

Editorial

For years Lehigh Regional Medical Center had a bad reputation for poor or no care. Now something has changed.

Lehigh Regional Medical Center was built as a 88-bed acute care facility but it now leases out 32 of those beds to a private pay hospital called Landmark Hospital of Southwest Florida which is located on the 3rd floor of Lehigh Regional Medical Center.

Landmark Hospital of Southwest Florida does not take insurance they are a private pay hospital that hides the identity of its patients.

According to Landmark’s website: They are a nationally certified, CIHQ approved, thirty-two (32) bed hospital that provides extended acute care services for patients in a clean, modern, professional environment. 

Landmark Hospital of Southwest Florida benefits from a team of hospitalists and critical care/pulmonary specialists to care for patients on a daily basis. The facility has a dedicated team of professional nurses and other clinicians with advanced certification degrees.

Is it ethically correct for Prime Healthcare which owns Lehigh Regional to lease a third floor of the hospital to a company that treats millionaires and hides the patient identities?

Landmark Hospital brings in patients by black car services or by private ambulance never using Lehigh Acres Fire or Lee County Services.

Cheryl McIntire Chief Executive Officer/Chief Financial Officer of Lehigh Regional Medical Center has refused to comment.

Julie Lawrence Manager, Business Development & Marketing Lehigh Regional Medical Center refused to email us a statement on the questions we gave her. Lawrence responded by emailing us, Jeff Brown CEO of Landmark Hospital of Southwest Florida phone number. The Lehigh Acres Gazette has left messages at the Landmark Hospital of Southwest Florida on the 3rd floor of Lehigh Regional Medical Center and Brown’s phone number and no response. Why?

According to the Lehigh Regional Medical Center website, it has uniquely served its five-county community in Lehigh Acres, Florida, since 1965, but only has 53 beds now.

What is the difference between Lehigh Regional Medical Center and Landmark Hospital of Southwest Florida? They are both listed as acute care facilities, but one has an ER and works for the everyday Joes needs the other works for the 1 percenters.