CAPE CORAL, Fla. — Lee Health is keeping up with Cape Coral's growth by expanding across the city. It's doing this inside existing buildings and others not up yet.
"It's kind of like a 5G force," said Dave Kistel, Chief Facilities Executive of Lee Health. "It’s just kinda gone off the rails with the growth."
He says the number of residents, the need for expansion of physician services and primary care has increased.
They're expanding services in the Cape Coral Hospital. Lee Health is doubling the size of its dialysis unit for about $2.8 million.
Lee Health is expanding its ER to 12 bays, adding 12 more ICU beds, and will soon have a total of 303 hospital beds, which will be up and running by early 2024.
"We are also gearing up to start construction on our cardiovascular services department that has outgrown its current location and space," Kistel said.
They're also doubling the size of the obstetrics unit in about six months.
Over at their Surfside Outpatient Care location, they're spending $10.4 million on an expansion.
"We’ll be adding sub-specialties in that facility and also in Cape Coral that we currently don’t have," Kistel explained.
Some of those specialties include orthopedics, endocrinology and rheumatology. They've outgrown their rehab capacity at the Cape Coral hospital, so they'll have that at the Surfside location, too.
This will be done in early 2024 as well.
"That’s supporting the young families moving into Cape Coral," Kistel said.
Other projects aren't off the ground quite yet. There are plans to be in the new Bimini Basin development off of Cape Coral Parkway and Sunset Court.
"That represents about 47,000 square feet of medical space to serve the community in that location," Kistel said.
It'll have cardiology, primary care, pediatrics, behavioral health, expansion of radiology, and women's health. This is expected to be open in the Summer of 2025.
"Looking at the density and the population growth...we know it's growing to the north as well," Kistel said. "Preparing to look into the future and support the clinical needs of the residents of Cape Coral."
This is why they bought two parcels: one at 22 acres and the other at 57 off of Pine Island Road, just east of Burnt Store.
"We want to be prepared to support the community of Cape Coral with the appropriate services," Kistel said.
