NSBNEWS.net videos by Sera Frederick.
Bert Fish Medical Center officials as expectedconsummated a deal Wednesday to allow Florida Hospital to take over administrative functions. Meanwhile, The New Smyrna Beach City Commission last Tuesday allowed Bert Fish to absolve itself from the Community Redevelopment Agency, which leaves a gaping hole of 26 percent less in revenues the CRA can now count on before it sunsets in 2015. Our first video looks at the debate over hospital funding with the highlights of the City Commission voted in our second video.
NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- A lease agreement signed early Wednesday means Bert Fish Medical Center is now under the management of Florida Hospital. Florida Hospital, under the umbrella of the Adventist Health System, will take over management of the 112-bed hospital off the South Causeway, with an option to buy the hospital outright in five years.
Florida Hospital won Bert Fish's favor by promising indigent care taxes would be reduced by 15 percent in the first year while providing access to its array of services available through its network of area facilities. The losing suitor was Halifax Medical Center of Daytona Beach, which came in with an 11th-hour bid of reducing taxes by 20 percent the first year.
Bert Fish was allowed by City Commission earlier this month to leave the Community Redevelopment Agency, and with it a whopping 26 percent of the CRA's budget. Mayor Adam Barringer said it was "the right thing to do."