LEHIGH ACRES, Fla. — HCA Florida Lehigh Hospital has invested $27 million in upgrades after taking over Lehigh Regional Medical Center earlier this year.
The significant investment covers infrastructure updates, new furniture, renovated patient rooms, new stretchers, as well as advanced medical technology.
Hospital CEO Paige Laughlin said, "We really want to build up the facility to ensure that patients want to come here and that they feel safe and cared for while they're here."
See the changes HCA Florida Lehigh Hospital has already made in Lehigh Acres Community Correspondent Ella Rhoades' report below:
Patients will see new services in the emergency room and expanded offerings in general surgery, orthopedics, and cardiovascular care.
HCA plans to add on to the building in the future. Currently, the MRI technology is in a trailer outside near the emergency room. They're in the design phase to add a MRI unit to the building.
The hospital is already using new resources, including specialized operating tables and laparoscopic surgery tools.
Lauglin said, "We have new physicians that we're bringing to the facility will expand our service lines and make sure that patients have what they need right here where they live rather than having to travel for care."
She added that they've seen an increase in patients they're serving since acquiring the hospital at the end of January.
O.R. nurse Nayvi Rodriguez, who grew up in Lehigh, said the community has been waiting for these improvements.
"I do feel like this town needed a better hospital...but just because it needed an upgrade. I think it was it was due for that for how big Lehigh is getting," Rodriguez said.
The hospital's leadership says they're focused on meeting the healthcare needs of the growing community.
"Patients want to stay in the community that they live in for their care, and we're gonna give that to them," Laughlin said.
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