Staying Well

In recent years, Southwest Florida has grown at a staggering rate, with population increasing by 38.2 percent (that's 257,876 people) between 1993 and 2004, according to Enterprise Florida, a public-private economic development partnership. In all, the region now has close to a million people-and every one of them requires health care. As a result, medical service and facilities are constantly expanding facilities, services and technology. That's good news for visitors as well as residents, since everything from walk-in clinics to well-equipped critical care units stand ready to assist if illness interrupts a holiday.

collier County
Naples Community Hospital, with more than 500 physicians and 390 beds, is among the top five percent in the nation for cardiac services, heart surgery and cardiac interventions, per the Health Grades Hospital Report Card. The hospital's mortality rate is less than half the national average in cardiac programs; and its Regional Heart Institute offers an off-pump coronary artery bypass, which lowers the risk of complications such as stroke for bypass patients by avoiding stopping and restarting the heart.

NCH continues its commitment to cutting-edge medicine with the recent debut of the CyberKnife. Used to treat complex-shaped tumors that may previously have been deemed inoperable, the CyberKnife uses an image-guidance system in conjunction with a multijointed robotic arm to access difficult-to-reach tumors. It involves no incision, no blood, no pain, and no need for anesthesia. Patients can return to normal activity with no recovery time.

Other progressive programs include the Crusade Program, adopted from Duke University, which addresses patients with diminished blood flow to the heart; and Code Save-a-Heart, an aggressive treatment plan designed to stop heart attacks before they happen.

The 70-bed Cleveland Clinic in Naples boasts all private rooms, outfitted with the latest word in comfort and function. The staff of 60 physicians covers more than 40 different medical and surgical specialties, among them the new Orthopaedic Center of Excellence.

Dedicated to providing specialized, high-quality orthopedic care to patients undergoing joint-replacement surgery, the center features a staff of nurses and physical therapists trained in joint-replacement care. With smaller incisions and the rapid recovery program, roughly 90 percent of patients go directly home rather than to a step-down or rehab facility.

Other features at the facility known for specializing in complex or difficult-to-treat medical problems are the inpatient physical and speech therapy department; leading-edge diagnostic services including stereotactic breast biopsies, nuclear medicine, and color-flow vascular ultrasound; and incisionless surgical alternatives for women undergoing hysterectomy due to menstrual disorders. These result in lower complication rates and shorter recovery and hospital stays.

Lee County
With 830 physicians, 948 beds, and more than 5,700 total employees-not counting the more than 2,500 volunteers-Lee Memorial Health Systems is the largest community-owned health-care system in the area, and the largest public system in Florida that receives no direct tax support.

The hospital board plans to invest more than $120 million in the next 10 years for new construction and enhanced and modernized clinical services. In February 2003, Lee Memorial instigated its largest expansion to date with its $80 million expansion of HealthPark Medical Center, due to be completed in late 2005. The facility will add three more stories, 122 beds, and 239,000 square feet to its current parameters.

Three of the system's hospitals-Cape Coral, HealthPark, and Lee Memorial-have been named among the top 100 hospitals in the nation by Solucient, a health-care information company based in Illinois. And AARP's Modern Maturity named LMHS one of 10 leading providers of knee-hip orthopedic care.

Among the system's other recent accomplishments: the acquisition of two revolutionary new coronary stent systems at LMHS's cardiac catheterization laboratory at Health Park. The systems should achieve better and more predictable outcomes than traditional stents.

And this past January, the Children's Hospital Pediatric Emergency Center at HealthPark celebrated its grand opening. Almost a third of its nearly $3.7 million price tag was raised by community philanthropic efforts, and the completed center added seven treatment bays, 9,133 square feet of new construction and 6,665 square feet of renovation.

Southwest Florida Regional Medical Center is a 400-bed hospital featuring 700 physicians on staff. This year the hospital was named one of Solucient's top 100 in the nation for the fourth year running for excellence in quality of care, efficiency of operations, and overall organization performance.

The Kidney Transplant Center at SWFRMC is one of only six in Florida, with more than 390 transplants performed since the program's inception in 1990. The one-year graft survival rate is 100 percent, compared to the national average of 89 percent; the five-year survival rate is 84 percent, nine percent higher than the national average.

The hospital also offers a cardiology department, which has performed more than 30,000 heart catheterization procedures since 1975; a 31-bed Neurological Institute; and an Orthopedic Center featuring the "Joint Camp" program, a special service focused on total joint replacement.

Hope Hospice, which serves nearly 700 patients per day, was this year's only Florida organization to be awarded

the American Hospital Association's prestigious Circle of Life Award for innovative patient care. Hope Hospice's "Collage of Comfort" program encompasses the patient's body, mind and spirit in end-of-life and palliative care, and focuses on each individual's specific needs, rather than trying to make patients fit into a standardized system.

Lehigh Regional Medical Center is an 88-bed facility featuring 100 physicians trained in a wide variety of specialties. The emergency department has eight state-of-the-art treatment bays, all with bedside registration, and a Nurse First Program that ensures patient evaluation by a nurse immediately upon arrival, before any registration paperwork is completed.

The hospital's radiology department is equipped with state-of-the-art diagnostic equipment, such as MRI, a dual-head spiral CT scanner, cardiovascular ultrasound, and mammography. The center also features a Chest Pain Center, rehabilitation department, and a new unit, the Same Day Surgery Suites.

Urgent care centers
Lee Memorial Health systems offers the Lee Convenient Care Walk-in Medical Centers to serve Lee County residents, both open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., seven days a week:

n Fort Myers: 4771 South Cleveland Avenue; 274-7100.

n South Fort Myers: 16271 Bass Road (at Health Park); 432-4235.

NCH runs several Healthcare Centers with varying hours:

n Marco Healthcare Center: 40 Heathwood Drive, Marco Island; 394-8234; open 24 hours, seven days a week.

n NCH Healthcare Center East: 6400 Davis Blvd., Suite 103; 455-6300; open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. until 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

n Bonita Community Health Center: 3501 Health Center Blvd.; 949-1050; open Monday through Friday from 7:30 a.m. until 5 p.m., and Saturday 8 a.m. to noon.

n Isabel Collier Read Healthpark: 1441 Heritage Blvd., Immokalee; 658-3110; open Monday through Friday, 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Bon Secours-St. Joseph's After Hours Clinic is located at 15121 Tamiami Trail in North Port, 423-5066; open Monday through Friday from 5 a.m. to 8 p.m., Saturday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.