Three hospitals want to offer rehab beds in C. Fla. but none show an interest in child psych or NICU beds

Three hospitals are in the running to offer comprehensive medical rehabilitation services in central Florida by 2020 even though the state has announced no new beds are needed.

The Agency for Health Care Administration announced on Tuesday it has accepted letters of intent from North Florida Regional Medical Center in Alachua County, North Brevard County Hospital District/ Parrish Medical Center in Brevard County, and Osceola Regional Hospital/Osceola Regional Medical Center in Osceola County.

The Alachua-based facility wants to operate 24 rehab beds, the Brevard-based facility wants to operate 20 beds and the Osceola-based facility wants to operate 32 beds.

The agency on January 16 published its “fixed need pool” for comprehensive rehab beds which showed there was no need for any additional rehabilitation beds anywhere in the state.

The letters of intent are the first step in the state’s certificate of need process. Filing a letter of intent does not lock a provider into pursuing a CON but it must be filed if a facility does intend to pursue a CON.

The facilities will have until March 4 to file a CON application for the services. The agency will announce June 5 which facilities have been awarded the rehab beds.

AHCA also published fixed need pools for neonatal intensive care units and psychiatric beds. Although there showed a need for level II NIICU beds in Districts 5 and 6 and 116 children and adolescent psychiatric beds–mostly in District 7 and 3 in District 10–no provider submitted letters of intent by the deadline.