Hardee
County Steering Committee
The General Surgery
Clinical Integration Team has met four times (October 23, 2003; December
4, 2003; January 8, 2004, February 12, 2004). During these meetings more
detailed data on surgical services for Hardee County was presented to
the Integration members. These services include gastroenterology,
orthopedics, thoracic surgery, gynecology, neurosurgery, otolaryngology,
vascular surgery, and urology. After brainstorming and discussions the
Integration team identified some significant key issues:
· There have been no surgical services provided in Hardee County for
over 10 years.
· Residents must travel outside the county for surgical care.
· Hardee County residents visited 69 different hospitals in the state of
Florida in 2002 for health related inpatient services.
· Problems accessing surgical specialists when patients are referred to
them from the Emergency Room.
· Lack of surgeons in many specialty areas.
On March 3,2004 the Hardee County Steering Committee met to discuss the
current status of surgical services and what service lines or issues
need to be focused on next. No decision was made at the last meeting and
the committee requested some reports be run and a meeting time will be
set a later date. Please check back often to get up-to-date information
on this project. Exciting things are going to happen and you don’t want
to miss out on the information!!