Orlando Health apparently will be the new parent company of  Sebastian River Medical Center, perhaps by the end of the year.

No qualified bidders bested the big Orlando non-profit’s  $439.4 million offer to buy the Sebastian hospital from Steward Health Care by last week’s bankruptcy court-imposed deadline.

But until a final hearing this coming Tuesday – and with a closing of the sale likely some months away – the future hospital operator remained tight-lipped last week about its plans for Indian River County.

While Steward, its major lenders and mega-landlord Medical Properties Trust appear to suddenly be playing nice to expedite the sale of the Sebastian hospital, two Brevard hospitals and six Massachusetts hospitals, plus the Stewardship Health physicians’ group, the ground under some of these acquisitions could shift if the fragile bankruptcy truce falters.

Still, eager to know more about what the future holds for our North County hospital under a new operator, Vero Beach 32963 asked Orlando Health’s corporate office about how the company might bolster the drastic need for primary care physicians here.

The newspaper also asked Orlando Health whether it expected to develop a pediatrics department at Sebastian River, or expand women’s health services here to include labor, delivery and newborn care, since the century-old hospital operator also owns both the Arnold Palmer Children’s Hospital and the Winnie Palmer Hospital for Women and Babies among its portfolio of 27 hospitals.

Orlando Health hospitals help bring more than 20,000 babies into the world each year.  This type of care at Sebastian River would directly compete with Cleveland Clinic Indian River Hospital’s Partners in Women’s Health, and its collaboration with pediatricians from Nemours Children’s Hospital. 

“I appreciate your interest, however, it’s a bit premature to respond to this level of inquiry,” Orlando Health Assistant Vice President, Public Affairs and Media Relations Kena Lewis responded by email.  “I will make our leaders aware of your interest in talking in-depth about the facilities and will be back in touch with you once we’re ready.”

So, devoid of detail, how are local health leaders hoping Orlando might improve upon what Steward has offered at Sebastian River Medical Center to get local patients to choose that hospital over the county’s other hospital? 

When the Indian River Hospital District selected Cleveland Clinic to take over Vero’s community hospital in early 2018, Orlando Health was one of four finalists. Trustee Barbara Bodnar was ultimately outvoted, but Orlando Health was her top pick.

“They're a nonprofit and they seem to have good stability,” Bodnar said.

Orlando Health started out with one 50-bed hospital established in 1918 to treat patients caught up in the Spanish Flu epidemic. Today, it employs nearly 5,000 physicians across 100-plus medical specialties, plus nearly 30,000 team members. 

Bodnar’s vote in 2018 came down to Orlando Health being a local company with deep roots in Florida.

“Being a native of this area, Vero is kind of a special place with lots of things, and although I thought all of the hospitals that came down in the final were good hospitals, I felt that Orlando Health would be the best fit for Indian River County,” she said.

Hospital District Chair Marybeth Cunningham recalled her research into Orlando Health and the official site visits the trustees made to two Orlando Health facilities prior to the 2018 vote for a hospital to take over Indian River Medical Center.

“When we went through there, I think most everybody was very impressed with them,” Cunningham said of Orlando Health. “The main concern at the time was that they weren’t that big. They’ve expanded since then considerably. And we felt that Cleveland could bring more specialty and a broader array of care at the time than they could, but they were very impressive.”

“Quite honestly, having two nonprofits in the county working toward the public’s health is the best thing that could ever happen to us,” Cunningham said.

District Trustee Paul Westcott was not on the hospital district board to vote in 2018, but since he has been in office, he’s been critical of Cleveland Clinic and encouraged his fellow trustees to exercise greater oversight.

Westcott said he was thrilled at the prospect of getting Steward’s top-down management – or mismanagement – of Sebastian River out of the community.

“I think it’s beneficial to the community insofar as we have an entity who is going to be taking over as a major player in our community where medical care is concerned who is going to be much more stable and certainly an improvement over the leadership we’ve seen from Steward,” Westcott said.

He said he hopes the entrance of Orlando Health into the local market will allow Cleveland Clinic Vice President and Chief Medical Officer Dr. Richard Rothman to implement many of the local initiatives he wants to take on.

“On its face, it would seem we couldn’t ask for a better type of new competitor in town. I believe that having choice in our community and competition is a healthy thing,” Westcott said. “It makes everybody better, and with Orlando Health being a nonprofit, it’s a competitor with whom Cleveland Clinic has a more level playing field than a for-profit entity would bring in terms of attracting and compensating doctors.”

Uninsured or underinsured patients tend to avoid for-profit hospitals, Westcott said, and having two nonprofit hospitals in town will spread the burden of indigent care more evenly than has historically been the case.

“Cleveland Clinic is not sustainable losing the kind of money that they’re losing,” Westcott said, referring to the staggering annual losses posted by the hospital’s Vero operations since it took over in 2019.

Dr. Rothman, for his part, said he thought Orlando Health coming to town would be a good thing for Indian River County.

“I think that any hospital system that’s dedicated to caring for patients would be the right hospital system to bring into Sebastian,” Rothman said.

“We’ll continue to expand services in Sebastian by adding medical and surgical services based upon the needs of those communities. We’ll also continue to grow our practices across Vero Beach, and as the clinic has committed to, we are committed to advanced cancer care for patients, complex surgical care for patients who would otherwise not be able to receive that care on the Treasure Coast, care for patients with both heart diseases and neurological diseases.

“So while it may feel at first that there’s a competitive component to this, I don’t really view it that way because I think this is an opportunity to improve access, which is needed in the community. Insofar as competition, I don’t view it as competition per se,” Rothman said.

While the North County Steward-owned hospital has languished this summer, Rothman said Cleveland Clinic has seen increases in surgical volumes, but he would not attribute that to the decrease in patients at Sebastian, but to “the ability to deliver better care for patients” plus the impact of major improvements underway to the Emergency Department and the Labor and Delivery floor.

Surprisingly, Rothman said Cleveland Clinic has not picked up any employees who have fled the sinking Steward ship.

Hospital District Executive Director Frank Isele, who is relatively new to Vero but has worked in the healthcare field for more than three decades, said Orlando Health would serve as a positive force and patients at both of the county’s hospitals should benefit.

“Healthy competition between nonprofit hospital entities like Cleveland Clinic Indian River Hospital and Orlando Health can drive innovation and improve the quality of care,” Isele said. 

“A second major healthcare provider could complement the already excellent care offered by Cleveland Clinic Indian River Hospital. This addition could help meet the community's growing healthcare needs, ensuring that residents have access to top-tier medical services without needing to travel outside the county,” Isele added.