Multimillion dollar expansion approved for Lee Memorial Health Systems

LEE COUNTY, Fla.- A new multimillion dollar expansion plan could ease long wait times at Lee Memorial Health System.

Patients tell WINK News they’ve spent hours in emergency rooms waiting to be seen and waited even longer to be put into a bed.

The expansion will add 275 more beds that will be ready for patients in five years.

With more and more patients heading to local emergency rooms, the board of directors for Lee Memorial Health Systems approved the project without hesitation Thursday.

It’ll cost around $300 million to add those 275 new beds, giving the hospital a total of 624 beds.

It’ll be another two years before the project breaks ground and it won’t be finished until 2020.

The health system’s CEO said if they could build it all today, they would. This year, emergency rooms are seeing an increase in patients greater than expected.

WINK News did some digging and found some of the wait times patients are seeing at Gulf Coast Medical Center.

Patients average:
* 35 minutes before seeing a doctor
* 5 1/2 hours before they’re admitted
* More than 2 1/2 hours before they’re in a bed

That’s longer than eight hours from the time the patient stepped into the ER. The national average is around 6 1/2 hours.

Some people are doubtful the expansion at just one hospital will be enough.