Forty Years Serving Marco

Naples Community Hospital (NCH) hosted an open house at the Marco Island Urgent Care Center on Tuesday, March 25, to commemorate 40 years of NCH serving Marco Island and to showcase its new urgent care building, expected to open to patients this summer. Everyone involved seems overjoyed about the possibilities the new facilities will bring to Marco Island.

Board chair Dianna Dohm is especially thrilled at how the entire plan is coming together.

"First of all, 40 years that NCH has serviced Marco Island is just amazing,” said Dohm. “And now to celebrate our new facility. Thanks to the Kaufmans and the Slaggies and the sale of our property to Watermark, we were able to build this beautiful facility. It's all about taking care of our Marco Island residents, and there's nowhere else that they can go on the island and get certified emergency department (ED) doctors, certified emergency nurses, blood drawn, CT and X-ray casting. So, this is our medical facility here on Marco Island.”

Dohm even has a moniker for the area that’s being built at the corner of Bald Eagle Drive and San Marco Road.

 "I kind of like to say that this is our care corner,” Dohm said, "because not only do we have our urgent care, but Marco Dementia Respite is renting space upstairs in order to help their dementia patients. We have Watermark Assisted Living. So, this corner is becoming Marco Island's care corner. We're very, very proud of that fact."

Chief Operating Officer Jonathan Kling has been with NCH for 22 years. He spelled out what the new facility means to Marco Island. Though the new facility won’t be open 24 hours, he’s not ruling out that possibility in the future.

“We're designing the building so it can grow and expand to a more functional ER type setting,” Kling said. “But today, the intent is that it upgrades the current facility and the existing model and the existing hours. The new building is going to be world-class. This facility will help the early diagnosis and treatment of that care. And on the second floor of this building, we're adding more primary care, (and) specialty care like pulmonary, orthopedics, cardiology, pediatrics, etc., that we don't have a lot of today. So that primary care, that preventative care, will be something that's going to be added to the community. Tomorrow, we may be in a different conversation. We're not tied into one model. But this is the model we're in today. We just want the community to know that when the time comes for a change in the model end stage NCH is there to help the community.”

Kling said the quality of care will be a cornerstone of the new facility.

“Most urgent cares either have a primary care physician or internal medicine physician, or an advanced practice professional, like a nurse practitioner or a PA that works under a primary care family practice doctor. Emergency Department physicians go to school. They have residencies. They train in everything from A to Z because they've got to be prepared. It's just a level of education and training that is the best for this type of model. You're going to come to somebody that has the highest qualifications and is board certified in their specialty of ED medicine, which is the best in class. We like to focus on what we can do the best, and we know that model works best for the outcomes and care of patients. Quick treatments, quick diagnoses, and the right diagnoses is what they do.”

Certified RN Kaitlen Magdalener, nursing supervisor at Marco Island Urgent Care, appreciates that the design team consulted her staff.

“The plans for the urgent care were allowed to be reviewed by the staff,” Magdalener said. "The hospital was seeking input on what would make our jobs easier and make it easier to care for patients. There were some changes as far as where the lab was situated (and) where the nurse's station was situated, that the nurses had a lot of input into to make our jobs easier to care for patients. So, the staff's very excited to see what our recommendations look like.”

Of course, the importance of the means for building such a facility cannot be overstated. Two couples are at the forefront. 

 "Scot and Pat Kaufman and Steve and Barb Slaggie,” Dohm said, “they are the guys. We couldn’t do this without them. Their commitment to our community. They live here, they love it. And they use the facility often. Especially our NCH rehab facility. They felt that it was important to make it the best it can be. They gave very generous donations in order to get our project started and finished.”

"We were asked to be a donor for the new urgent care,” said Barb Slaggie. “We pretty quickly said, ‘We'll do that,' because we both felt the need for better facilities on Marco. It was our pleasure to be involved in it and see the progression that it's making and what it will do for our community."

Steve Slaggie said time was of the essence.

"We weren't sure of the timetable for the new urgent care,” he said. "I think it was down the road quite a ways. So, we were in a position to give it a jump start, together with the Kaufmans. That definitely got it off the ground and going forward. Within a year or year and a half, maybe up to two, it's completed. It’s an amazing story. We wanted to be around to see the completion. I said, 'I don't want to contribute to something that's ten years from now. I'm not going to be here.'"

"We've been blessed to be able to help in these situations and other nonprofits that need support,” Barb Slaggie said. “Our blessings are that we are here to support them. This is a perfect time and facility to do that."