Welcome to the Neighborhood

Given all the ink and paper devoted to its arrival on Monday we would be remiss not to extend a welcome from the community to Sacred Heart Hospital.

We are glad you’re here. We hope your stay is a long, healthy and vibrant one.

This has been a long time coming.

I can remember clearly the night of a county commission meeting when I decided to drive by and see what was going on at the old Gulf Pines Hospital.

I arrived in time to observe staff from the state agency on health care shuttering the place because, well, to be blunt they had tired of waiting out the game with the hospital owner and administrator.

Hu Steeley, bless his heart, tried to make a go of it on a wing and prayer and somehow found some investors with an almost comic method of tossing good money after bad in order to keep the wolves at bay, but only for only so long.

While in his mind Mr. Steeley may have had the best intentions – which is not to assert that there aren’t plenty who feel he had the worst of intentions – it was clear after the Dr. Alfred Bonati episode that Gulf Pines was on borrowed time, hence the trip by after a commission meeting.

I did have other things to do.

And despite all the problems that plagued the hospital for years, with money, with meeting state requirements, it was still a hospital and was a source of last resort, I suppose would be the way to word it, for urgent care in the county.

One day interviewing two University of Florida researchers out on St. Joseph Bay, one was stung by a sting ray.

A girl essentially visiting for six weeks, no family, no real friends, who pretty much worked each day on the bay and came back and crashed, was bleeding profusely from a wound in her hand.

She needed immediate help.

Maybe it wasn’t the Mayo Clinic, but P.A. Hank Kozine and Gulf Pines Hospital served pretty well nonetheless that day.

Living without a hospital is no treat.

Yes, most have little problem with going to Bay County and Bay Medical Center is one of the best in the country as far as a heart center, but forever in the mind is the “Golden 60 Minutes” that can be the difference between life and death in too many emergencies.

Consider drive time with only moderate traffic to Bay Medical is over 30 minutes; half those golden 60 are expended in route.

Your odds diminish, even with one of the best EMS groups in the area fighting their way through often gnarled traffic – no other way to put it – and working on you to get you to a hospital.

And from the get-go this Sacred Heart on the Gulf has come from vision to reality in a way that makes Gulf Pines seem like something we all saw on the Flintstones.

A dedicated county health care committee worked through initial stumbling blocks and what one could call interviews to identify a health care provider with which to partner.

Sure, The St. Joe Company had much to do with the final selection, but when you are providing the land, start-up construction costs, permitting and the company’s foundation has committed $5 million as a donation, well having sway on a dance partner seems a small request.

That the community, from the Junior Service League to the Alfred I. DuPont Foundation to so many individuals who opened more than their wallets, would raise another $5 million is nothing but astounding, certainly given the economic climate and the demographics – this hospital can certainly be said to be ahead of population growth.

People actually clapped to have a half-cent sales tax at the pump or convenience store counter.

And while there remained skeptics or the apathetic prior to the dedication and blessing two weeks ago or last week’s open house, a walk through the facility that will open in a few days will ensure they do not remain doubting Thomases for long.

The dedication and blessing ceremony itself was a testament that the medical partner the county now has is one of compassionate care, of faith, of being more than a presence, more than a staff of degreed professionals – community members.

Yes, there will be hiccups with opening – they come with the territory though all evidence is that Sacred Heart on the Gulf has prepared for just about any twist – and growth must still come in the form of services, diagnostics, breadth of physicians and specialties, in the facility itself.

But it is here, it is real and it is a hospital.

When I consider what has happened to the area around Destin – an area I passed en route to many a ball game – since the opening more than a decade ago of the Sacred Heart Hospital there, the economic growth surrounding that hospital, the growth of the hospital and services, this is a new neighbor to be embraced.

Roll out the welcome wagon. We are glad you’re here. We’ve been waiting for your arrival.

May we all live longer and prosper together as a community.