POINCIANA, Fla.,None — After years of delays, officials finally broke ground Tuesday on what will be Poinciana's only hospital.
The Poinciana Medical Center is being built at the corner of Cypress Parkway and Solivita Boulevard. The next closest hospital is 30 minutes away.
“This is a miracle, finally fulfilled, so we use the word ‘rejoice,’” said Fernando Valverde, a member of the Friends of Poinciana Hospital group.
Valverde is one of dozens of residents who gathered Tuesday to celebrate the groundbreaking of the Poinciana Medical Center, a $65 million facility that will open its first phase in just 18 months.
While the hospital will start small, just 12 beds in an emergency room, they have plenty of room to expand on their of property.
The emergency room is an important first step. It means that people in the community of more than 10,000 won’t have to travel 30 minutes for emergency care.
Those who fought to get the hospital built say government red tape stood in the way for six years.
“It does not make sense, and there was just this bureaucratic layer, that prevented this hospital from happening sooner,” said Osceola County Commission Chairman John Quinones.
Some community leaders say that in the years since the battle for the hospital began they are certain some deaths can be attributed to a lack of close, reliable healthcare.
“It's unfortunate, because the need is real. It's about health, and it's about saving lives. People here had to go an hour away to get emergency care,” said Quinones.
With the new facility, that will change and those who fought for it say lives will be saved.
The emergency room facility is expected to open in 2013.
Initially it will be an 11,000 square foot facility, but will eventually grow to 90,000 square feet with an intensive care unit.
WFTV
