Southwest Florida Regional Medical Center was a 400-bed general hospital in

Fort Myers, Florida Fort Myers (or Ft. Myers) is a city in southwestern Florida and the county seat and commercial center of Lee County, Florida, United States. The Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program calculated that the city's population was 92,245 in 20 ...

. Then Ft Myers Community Hospital was originally developed by a subsidiary of Basic American Industries (BAI) called Basic American Medical in 1974. BAI was based in Indianapolis, Indiana. The first Executive Director of the hospital was John Gass. The hospital later became part of the

Columbia Hospital Corporation HCA Healthcare is an American for-profit operator of health care facilities that was founded in 1968. It is based in Nashville, Tennessee, and, as of May 2020, owns and operates 186 hospitals and approximately 2,000 sites of care, including sur ...

family of hospitals and continued to operate under Columbia/HCA until it was purchased by Lee Memorial Health System along with sister facility Gulf Coast Hospital in late 2006. It was merged with GCH to form the new

Gulf Coast Medical Center Gulf Coast Medical Center (GCMC) is a 356-bed hospital located in Fort Myers, Florida. History Gulf Coast Medical Center was created through the merging of Southwest Florida Regional Medical Center and Gulf Coast Hospital in March 2009. Both we ...

in Fort Myers in March 2009, leaving the old SWFRMC building unused.

Closing

While the hospital was still owned by HCA, the building was surveyed for possible renovations by independent contractors. Due to deteriorizations, it was determined that it would be better to build a new hospital than to renovate SWFRMC, so HCA began to construct expansions to Gulf Coast Hospital with plans to merge the facilities. When Lee Memorial Health System took over the hospital, they surveyed the SWFRMC facility for possible reuse as well, only to come to the same conclusion as the contractors hired by HCA. LMHS continued the expansions to GCH as planned by HCA. When expansions were finally completed in March 2009, all patients, staff, and equipment were transferred to the new Gulf Coast Medical Center. Lee County

paramedics A paramedic is a registered healthcare professional who works autonomously across a range of health and care settings and may specialise in clinical practice, as well as in education, leadership, and research. Not all ambulance personnel are p ...

treated the transfer of patients as an emergency evacuation drill. As a final farewell to the facility, staff members signed their names and start dates on the interior walls of the hospital in permanent marker before leaving, and some left hand prints in colorful paint. The building was demolished in November 2009 to make way for a new distribution center for medical supplies.

References

{{authority control Hospital buildings completed in 1974 Hospitals in Florida Defunct hospitals in Florida HCA Healthcare Buildings and structures in Fort Myers, Florida 1974 establishments in Florida 2009 disestablishments in Florida Hospitals disestablished in 2009 Hospitals established in 1974