Jesse Scheckner
The Board of the Lower Florida Keys Hospital District (LFKHD) has a new member to guide it through coming management changes.
Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed accountant and Realtor Nancy Swift to the nine-member panel. She’ll join members Mary Chambers and James “Doc” Muir, whom the Governor again reappointed this month.
Swift, a Key West resident, is self-employed. She currently serves as a member of the Florida Institute for Certified Public Accountants and the Key West Association of Realtors.
Division of Election records show Swift has donated to candidates on both sides of the political aisle. She gave $500 in 2004 to former Republican Rep. Ken Sorensen. In 2016, she donated $200 to former Monroe County State Attorney Catherine Vogel, a Democrat.
Chambers is President of Earleton-based MyCera Inc. and a former School District Superintendent of Alachua and Monroe counties. She also serves as Treasurer of the Monroe Education Foundation and Monroe Tropical Research Nonprofit.
Muir is a retired FedEx pilot and U.S. Navy veteran. He donated $25 to DeSantis in 2022 and gave $100 in 2014 to then-Gov. Rick Scott.
The LFKHD is a special taxing district the Legislature created in 1967 to fund and maintain hospital provisions for residents between Key West and the Seven Mile Bridge. That includes a lease to Key West HMA, a Tennessee-based limited liability company that operates the Lower Keys Medical Center acute care hospital; and the Key West Health and Rehabilitation Center nursing home.
Last week, the LFKHD heard from three hospital operators — Baptist Health, Mt. Sinai Medical Center and Tampa General Hospital — that are interested in running the Lower Keys Medical Center after its lease with current operator Community Health System expires in 2029.
Community Health System, a Tennessee-headquartered company that has run the hospital since 1999, is aggressively pursuing an early renewal of its 30-year lease, Keys Weekly reported.
Less than a year ago, the LFKHD heard complaints from many Key West residents that their health needs — including cancer care — weren’t being met locally.
