Key West hospital’s owners won’t leave early despite request

The for-profit corporation that owns Key West’s only hospital has no plans to break its lease or share operational controls with a local agency.

The Lower Florida Keys Hospital District Board, which meets Jan. 30, wrote to Community Health Systems, based in Franklin, Tenn., on Dec. 15 asking to explore changes that include it leaving town by breaking a 30-year lease struck in 1999.

“We would like to see a period of goodwill and cooperation between the district and medical center before considering changes in the parties’ existing relationship,” according to a Dec. 29 letter from CHS’ Paul Smith, president of Division V operations. “We have no interest in terminating the lease early.”

The hospital district board’s lease was deemed valid by lawyers the board hired to see what grounds, if any, the agency had in taking greater control of Lower Keys Medical Center when it comes to staffing and services.

Key West locals a year ago began organizing in protest to LKMC, citing billing complaints and a low quality of services. CHS replaced its CEO when 13-year veteran Nicki Will abruptly resigned last July.

Nearly 90 new employees have started at LKMC since July, Smith wrote in a list of positives he included in the two-page letter, including starting $15 million in capital projects. The hospital sinks $70 million a year into the Keys through local taxes, employment and charitable acts, Smith added.