Answers to Frequently Asked Questions

A: The Boca Grande Health Clinic cares for cancer patients, recent transplant patients, patients undergoing major cardiac surgeries, complex orthopedic cases and patients with serious chronic health conditions. Because the Clinic does not have the imaging equipment and onsite lab needed and it takes so long to get results from off-island providers, we often have to send patients to packed emergency rooms just to get the advanced diagnoses and treatment plans that we could do very well ourselves here on the island.

With the right equipment and space, we hope to send patients straight into surgery or specialist care and bypass the long waits that delay care. Lab results are taking up to a week, imaging appointments are often up to six weeks out. This has become a problem that our doctors, nurses and administrative staff are forced to tackle every day, along with not enough exam rooms and having to shuffle patients between the clinic and annex buildings.

Also, with more space, patients of all ages would have access to physical, rehabilitation and occupational therapy services here, instead of having to travel off the island.

A new clinic will not only improve access to care but improve our facilities and technologies so patients can continue to have confidence in knowing that at any moment, on any given day, the Clinic is there for them right here on Boca Grande.

A: Patient needs have exceeded the limitations of the current space. There is not enough room in the clinic building or annex for truly effective patient care areas, let alone space for new services or equipment. To be truly efficient and increase patient access to care, we need three exam rooms per physician. Physicians and nurses are currently elbow-to-elbow sharing small office spaces. One physician office doubles as an exam room. The new building will house same-day (urgent) and primary care in the same building, with three exam rooms for each. No more shuffling of patients between buildings means better, more efficient care and a much-improved patient experience.

A: The Clinic of the Future project is being developed in two phases to allow care to continue uninterrupted during construction. Construction of the new clinic is set for May 2025, with completion expected by May 2026, at which time renovation of the old clinic building will begin. All construction and renovations should be complete by November 2026.

A: The current clinic was built in 1990, in a different generation of healthcare services. It served the community well for many decades but is inadequate for today’s needs, let alone future needs. The annex was built in the 1960s. Over the years, we have worked to reconfigure both buildings to accommodate the addition of physicians and nurses and increased patient needs as best we could.

Patient needs have exceeded the limitations of the current space for the last five years. There is not enough room in the clinic building or annex for truly effective patient care areas, let alone space for new services or equipment. There are currently not enough exam rooms and we’re getting busier all the time. The state-of-the-art diagnostic imaging, CT and ultrasound services, and dedicated space for physical, rehabilitation and occupational therapies our patients need on the island require physical space that we currently don’t have at the Clinic or Annex buildings.

A: The building that houses the current clinic will be renovated to provide dedicated space for physical, rehabilitation and occupational therapies with modern equipment and a hydrotherapy pool. Patients of all ages will have access to these therapies here, instead of having to travel off the island. The building will also provide administrative space for the Clinic and Foundation.