With Florida’s 2024 Legislative Session officially in the rearview mirror and Georgia’s rapidly coming to a close, this month’s CII Healthcare Trending Topics focuses on new healthcare legislation passed in Florida and Georgia, as well as some important hospital facility expansion news and other healthcare industry trending topics in Florida and Georgia.
Florida Legislation Raises Background Screening Bar for Healthcare Professionals
If House Bill 975 is signed by Governor DeSantis, background screenings will be required for dozens of new categories of Florida healthcare providers who previously have not been subject to background screenings.
Right now, it’s only a handful of Florida healthcare pros that need to jump through this hoop: doctors, both allopathic and osteopathic, certified nursing assistants and even massage therapists.
However, many Florida healthcare professionals, despite being under the Florida Department of Health’s watchful eye, have been exempt from these screenings.
If Florida House Bill 975 gets the green light, the screening landscape is going to be much broader, and more Florida healthcare professionals will need to pass a background check before they can don their scrubs.
The new list of Florida healthcare professionals that will be required to undergo background screenings with the passage of House Bill 975 is quite long, so we present them here in a single image to minimize scrolling.
clinical lab personnel clinical social workers dental hygienists dentists dieticians electrologists genetic counselors hearing aid specialists marriage and family therapists medical physicists mental health counselors midwives naturopaths nursing home administrators occupational therapists opticians optometrists pharmacists physical therapists psychologists psychotherapists respiratory therapists speech-language pathologists
Holland & Knight’s Healthcare Blog offers a good summary of this proposed legislation, as well as the implications for Florida healthcare professionals who may have a disqualifying offense on their criminal records. (Holland & Knight)
Georgia Legislation Makes It Easier To Build Hospitals
In Georgia, lawmakers from both sides of the aisle appear to be working together to make it easier to build new hospitals, especially in more rural areas where an estimated 40% of Georgia’s population resides in the roughly 90% of the state outside of metro Atlanta.
Georgia House Bill 1339, which passed the Senate 43-11 just two weeks ago, with the majority of senators acknowledging the need to make it easier for Georgians in more rural areas of the state to have better access to hospitals.
“We’re targeting certain areas where we want to make it easier to provide medical services to Georgians.”
Augusta’s Channel 12 gives a good overview of the proposed legislation and how the existing Certificate of Need (CON) requirements, in place since the 1970s, have been a barrier to expanding quality healthcare to Georgians statewide. (Channel 12)
Orlando Health Breaks Ground On New Children's Pavilion
This week Orlando Health, a nationally recognized leader in pediatric and adult trauma care, broke ground on a stunning new six-story Children’s Pavilion overlooking Lake Beauty Park in Downtown Orlando.
This week, global design, architecture, engineering and planning firm HOK announced the groundbreaking on their site and shared renderings of the 189,000-sq.-ft. outpatient pediatric facility scheduled to open in 2026.
“Construction is underway on the Orlando Health Children’s Pavilion following a recent groundbreaking. The new six-story outpatient care facility will house more than 30 pediatric specialties, including adolescent medicine, audiology, cardiology, general surgery, neurology, orthopedics and palliative care.”
Upon completion, the new Orlando Health Children’s Pavilion will vastly improve the patient experience for children with complex medical conditions thanks to OHCP’s mission to unite 30 different specialists in one building.
“This is a major milestone for our community and the original vision of the great Arnold Palmer, who always believed we could do better in caring for our children."
Health First Breaks Ground On $410 Million Hospital
This week, Rockledge-based Health First initiated construction on a new $410 million hospital in Cape Canaveral to better serve the Space Coast.
This new Cape Canaveral Hospital, which spans 268,000 square feet, is being built to endure Category 4 hurricanes and will house 120 private rooms for patients, 25 Emergency Department treatment rooms, and 6 operating rooms, according to the official press release.
Cape Canaveral holds a special place in Health First history considering that the not-for-profit healthcare system was born in 1995 when Cape Canaveral Hospital and Holmes Regional Medical Center in Melbourne joined together to create a fully integrated delivery network for Florida patients living on the Space and Treasure Coasts.
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