trauma centers

Gov. Rick Scott signed 38 bills into law on Wednesday, including a measure that supporters hope will end years of battling in the hospital industry about the approval of trauma centers.

With the sponsor taking aim at Florida’s controversial “certificate of need” law, the Constitution Revision Commission on Wednesday advanced a proposal that would tie new hospital growth in the state to hospital-acquired infection rates at existing facilities.

A Florida panel may be on the verge of ending the state's contentious certificate-of-need process for hospitals.

A bill approved by the Florida Legislature would end HCA’s bid to open a trauma center at Northside Hospital in St. Petersburg.

More than a decade of discord over how to apportion Florida’s trauma centers may have come to a close Tuesday, with the Senate’s passage of what amounts to a compromise. 

Senate Minority Leader Oscar Braynon wants to create a $10 million program that would reimburse trauma centers for care provided to victims of mass shootings, and Senate President Joe Negron said he will support the effort. 

Legal wrangling over new trauma centers and which hospitals should be allowed to operate them could come to an end under a proposal moving through the Legislature.

Senate Health Policy Chairwoman Dana Young, R-Tampa, said Wednesday the Senate, House and major players in the hospital industry have reached agreement on how to revamp the state’s 26-year old trauma rules.

“We have a deal,” Young told members of the Senate Health and Human Services Appropriations Subcommittee.

A House health-care panel on Monday approved a bill that would clear a path for increasing the number of trauma centers in the state’s biggest cities and changing rules that allow hospitals to challenge the designation of new trauma centers.

A dispute over cuts to hospitals is one of the reasons Florida lawmakers had to postpone their final votes on the new state budget to this week. It was finally approved and sent to Governor Rick Scott, where its future is uncertain. Health News Florida's Stephanie Colombini talks about those hospital cuts and other key health issues this session with Kathleen McGrory, health reporter for the Tampa Bay Times.

Despite backing from House Republican leaders and Gov. Rick Scott, controversial bills that would have eased regulations on building hospitals and adding trauma centers died Friday night.

With little discussion, the House on Friday overwhelmingly approved a bill that would change criteria for approval of new trauma centers in the state.

The House voted 93-24 to support the measure, sponsored by Rep. Jay Trumbull, R-Panama City. Hospitals and the Florida Department of Health in recent years have repeatedly tangled in legal battles about whether new trauma centers should be allowed to open.

As lawmakers debate revamping the trauma-care system, a judge Tuesday rejected a plan by the Florida Department of Health that likely would have led to an increase in trauma centers across the state.

After years of hospital-industry legal battles about opening new trauma centers, a House panel Monday approved a bill that would repeal limits on the numbers of trauma facilities across the state.

A Senate Republican on Tuesday filed a proposal that would eliminate caps on the numbers of trauma centers in the state.

Florida health care regulators are considering doing away with a rule limiting the number of trauma centers that can set up shop in each region.

Getting to a trauma center quickly can be critical, and in the Florida Keys, there are no trauma centers.

That leaves you the option of being airlifted out.   And that can cost you nothing -- or tens of thousands of dollars. 

But Monroe County is trying to make sure patients have the chance to choose that first financial option. 

For years, hospitals in Florida have been fighting over the right to add new trauma centers. That fight came to an end this week, as four new trauma centers opened in Florida: One in Miami, one in Sarasota, and two in Central Florida.

Health News Florida's Abe Aboraya spoke with WMFE's Morning Edition Host Nicole Creston:

NC: Historically, there’s been one trauma center in Central Florida, and that’s Orlando Regional Medical Center. But that’s not the case anymore.