FORT MYERS, Fla. — From the outside, Golisano Children's Hospital may look big, but this lobby area of where families normally come for child eye care has been getting smaller for years.
“Given the current space situation we still have 97 patients waiting to be seen for a new appointment and we are still at 70 days. Our goal is once the eye center opens is to be able to see patients in a week or 2 with referral”, said Armando Llechu, Chief Administrative Officer at Golisano Children’s Hospital.
The building, about a 7 minute drive from Golisano will be home to that new eye center. Ideally, it will eliminate the need for local families to drive out of town to get specialized care without the wait.
“The pressing need for us was to get some help for those families and to make sure we were providing world class care in a timely fashion here in southwest Florida,” said Llechu.
These eye health areas currently in use at Golisano will be even bigger in the eye center.
“The new building will have new exam rooms, it’s going to have space to add an optometrist, it’s going to have all state of the art latest equipment, it will truly be an eye institute,” said Llechu.
An institute with the specialists and technology to keep your kids' eyes healthy for years to come.
“We’re bringing great physicians, great equipment, to a great space, really doing right by the children of southwest Florida” said Llechu.
The hospital is giving credit to private donations for funding the institute, especially from the famous wine fest. The eye institute has not a date the new facility will open but in the meantime, they intend to meet the growing need here at the children's hospital.
