Lee Health: Breach of public trust?
To the editor:
The Lee Health Board of Directors are duly elected by the voters of Lee County.
The Lee Health Board will be voting on June 13, 2024, to “convert” the Citizens’ Lee Health Care System from a Publicly Held Non Profit Entity to a Privately Held Non Profit Entity. The meeting will be held at Gulf Coast Hospital at 1 p.m.
So how did this occur and what forces caused this to happen? The public record reports that a member of the Lee County Legislative Delegation, a state representative, acting on requests from Lee Health’s Administration and other interested parties that included a county commissioner acting as an interested citizen, not in his role as a county commissioner, had influenced the state representative to act as a “carrier pigeon” to author a bill during the 2024 Legislative Session. The bill would enable the Lee Health Board to have the legal means to “convert” the publicly-held Lee Health System to a private not-for-profit hospital system.
A breach of the public’s trust regarding the bill is evident based on the fact that the citizens/voters of Lee County were not even considered as the most important piece of the legislation. The bill did not include a provision for a referendum that would allow the voters/citizens of Lee County to vote on the “conversion issue.”
Moreover, it should be duly noted that according to Lee Health’s Charter and website, “We the People” are considered the owners of the Lee Health System via us having the right to vote for a Board of Directors to represent us from Districts in Lee County.
The bill was passed in February with a 120-day hurry-up enabling “conversion” deadline.
The Lee Health’s Board of Directors and CEO have reported that they have hosted Town Hall Meetings giving the public the opportunity to voice their opinions on the “conversion.” Most of the meetings have been held late afternoon, 4:30 p.m., when most people are getting off work and or still working. As far as public hearings before the board, their meetings are held at 1 p.m. twice a month on Thurs-days. The public has three minutes to speak before the board who they elect.
The rationale for the “conversion” proposal being touted by the Lee Health Board and its administration is that in order for Lee Health to have a competitive edge and expand its market share outside Lee County it must convert to a private non-profit entity.
What is suspicious and specious about Lee Health’s reasoning is that Lee Health is the primary health care provider in Lee County and Lee Health is providing pediatric rehab services in Collier County. There is nothing under the current governance model that would prevent Lee Health from exploring and seeking to expand its services outside of Lee County.
As far as Lee Health enjoying a competitive edge in health care, Lee Health has been repeatedly recognized as one of the top 100 health care systems in the United States (U.S. News and World Report).
This past week in Orlando, Lee Health received the Governor’s Sterling Award for “…how well Lee Health has strengthened, improved and innovated winning systems to ensure long term success and sustainability in a competitive environment.”
All of this leaves me with the following questions:
Why this and why now?
How will this impact delivery of health care services?
What will Lee Health gain from the “conversion?”
What do Lee Health and the citizens of Southwest Florida stand to lose?
In my opinion the citizens and voters of Lee County will suffer the greatest loss. We the People will no longer be the owners and guardians of our healthcare system as we have been since 1968.
The next step after Lee Health Board’s vote is a vote by the Lee County Commission to either support or deny the “conversion.”
Without a public referendum/vote, the citizens are shut out of this process thereby creating a breach of the public trust.
Steven R. Maxwell, Ed.D.
Sanibel