The purchase of 10 acres for the first phase of the Poinciana Medical Center was announced June 1 at a town hall meeting in Poinciana.

Dan Miller, president of West Florida Division of the Hospital Corporation of America, made the announcement at the meeting, which was attended by more than 350 residents at the Poinciana Community Center.

Miller said that in the first phase of the project the Hospital Corporation of America, or HCA, would build a medical office building comprised of offices for doctors, a free-standing emergency room, a laboratory (drawing station) and a radiology department.

The next step in building the medical offices is for the HCA to go through a due-diligence review of the site, Miller said, and it would be about six to eight months before construction begins, with the building expected to be completed by late 2011.

Miller also said the general contractor and architects for the project are based in Nashville, Tenn., but that 95 percent of the subcontractors who would work on the project are local.

The second phase of the project, Miller said, involves HCA having a two-year option to buy the remaining 30 acres for the medical center. He said the design of the hospital would be built to “fit the needs of the community and to adapt to the newest technology.”

Miller also said the medical center would be located adjacent to the Solivita Market Place on State Road 580 in Osceola County.

Miller assured the crowd that not buying property now for the new hospital made sense.

“Why should we pay for property now that we’re not going to build on for another eight to nine months,” he said.

However, HCA has made a down payment for the remaining 30 acres to Avatar Holdings, Miller said, and construction on the hospital should begin late next year, with an opening planned for the spring of 2013.

The final state approval of the certificate of need for the medical center was given on March 5, 2009. In the process, the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration, due to the economy, gave HCA an additional 18 months (until October) to start “significant sustainable progress” on the project.

Miller spoke for approximately 20 minutes and then took questions from the audience. Among those questions, and the answers, were:

• Has HCA filed for an initial public offering to take the company public? Miller said yes, but that the company has the cash flow to build the hospital and that becoming a public corporation would not impact building the hospital.

• Would there be rehabilitation, inpatient and outpatient services? Yes, and in addition, there will be cardiology, cardiac catheter, lab and EKG facilities. Also, the medical office building would be fully occupied by the time it is built.

In addition to Miller, other officials on hand for the meeting were: Ginger Mace, vice president of marketing for HCA’s West Florida Division; and officers of Osceola Regional Medical Center, including Tim Cook, CEO, Brian Marger, COO, Vanessa Guevara, director of marketing and Jane Forsythe, chief nursing officer. Also attending was Hank Yunes, vice president of commercial operations for Avatar Holdings.

Invited guests included Osceola County Commissioner Brandon Arrington, Polk County Commissioner Jean Reed, Yadira Holmes, legal assistant to state Sen. Paula Dockery, R-Lakeland, and state Rep. Mike Horner, R-Kissimmee.

“We can now see the end of the tunnel,” stated Fernando Valverde, founder of the Friends of Poinciana Hospital, in a press release. The Friends group formed in March 2008 to help spearhead community support for a hospital and to get the certificate of need approved for it.

Valverde also thanked the many individuals and organizations that have supported the hospital initiative during the past four years. He also thanked the officers of the Friends group as well as Jeanette Coughenour, manager of the Association of Poinciana Villages, and her staff for their efforts in getting a hospital in Poinciana.

Valverde also stated that the Friends of the Poinciana Hospital group has started a database to send information to residents concerning the hospital and other im-portant community information. Residents can e-mail Annette Brown-Best at abrownabbrown@yahoo.com, mentioning “database” as the subject and giving their names and villages.

For more information about the Friends group, contact Fernando Valverde at fvalverde@ cfl.rr.com or 407-346-5320 or Annette Brown-Best at abrownabbrown@yahoo.com.

This article was provided by The Friends of the Poinciana Hospital.