Lakeland Regional Health is getting rent relief after city commissioners agreed Monday to suspend annual rate increases for five years.
The amendment to the hospital lease agreement removes the annual 2.75% increase in rent through fiscal year 2024, freezing the price at $14.4 million. The annual rent increases had been set under a 25-year agreement between the city and the hospital signed in 2015. More
A plan by the city’s staff will reduce the pressure to raise the property tax rate if a request for rent relief by Lakeland Regional Health is granted, but it won’t be pain-free, City Manager Tony Delgado said. More
Facing financial challenges, Lakeland Regional Health has asked the city of Lakeland to forego planned rent increases through 2025. If city commissioners approve the request, it would mean a $48.6 million revenue reduction over the next few years for the city and a possible property tax increase for residents.
Elaine C. Thompson, who has been the chief executive at Lakeland Regional Health since 2010, is retiring at the end of next year and will be replaced by Danielle Drummond, currently the hospital’s executive vice president and chief operating officer. More
Lakelanders with busy schedules don’t have to look far to find a nearby center where they can get same-day health care. There are currently at least nine urgent care centers in Lakeland, including one, MedExpress, that hosted a grand opening earlier this month at 3700 U.S. 98 N. And Watson Clinic has announced it will break ground next month on an urgent care center at its Oakbridge location. More
Hollie Hepler of Lakeland was born without a uterus, but she fulfilled her dream of having a baby when her sister-in-law, PJ Willis of Gainesville, volunteered to help. In a procedure overseen by a Colorado fertility doctor, PJ carried the fetus created by uniting Hollie’s egg and her husband Joe’s sperm. The Heplers’ son, Jarrell Clayton Hepler, was born healthy last week, weighing 8 pounds, 9 ounces, ABC’s Good Morning America reported.
The community clinic recently opened at Crystal Lake Elementary School by Central Florida Health Care serves students as well as neighborhood walk-ins regardless of their ability to pay, Ken Suarez reports. It is currently open Tuesday and Thursday mornings.
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Our tour of Lakeland establishments that offer healthy food choices continues with a visit to the Lakeland Downtown Farmers Curb Market, operating on Saturdays on Kentucky Avenue between the railroad tracks and Oak Street. More
USF Health has opened an office on Edgewood Drive for its three-year Preventing Alzheimer’s with Cognitive Training study and is seeking 300 more Lakeland-area residents age 65 and older with no cognitive impairments to participate | Learn more
City and Lakeland Regional Health officials are bracing for the unknown financial impact of the Florida Legislature’s expected repeal of the Certificate of Need process.
That process, established more than 45 years ago, has protected the market for Lakeland Regional Health Medical Center, ensuring it is the only general hospital in the community. More
