Hospital sues law firm for legal malpractice, Pembroke Pines Homecare Agency Notes The Florida Current Report
By Christine Jordan Sexton, August 29, 2011
http://www.thefloridacurrent.com/
A merger negotiated behind closed doors between a private hospital and public facility spawned a controversy in the Florida Legislature last year and helped lead to the creation of a gubernatorial committee on taxpayer-funded hospital districts.
Now the failed merger has spawned a malpractice lawsuit.
The Southeast Volusia Hospital District board of directors voted unanimously last week to move ahead with a $22.5 million lawsuit against Lowndes, Drosdick, Doster Kantor & Reed and one of its attorneys, Jim Heekin . The hospital is arguing that Heekin advised the public facility to merge with Adventist Health System in closed meetings. Heekin is a former chairman of the Board of Regents, the now-defunct panel that once oversaw the state university system. The law firm did not return calls seeking comment.
The merger was invalidated by a circuit judge who ruled that 21 closed-door meetings that the Bert Fish Medical Center held with Adventist Health Systems regarding an $80 million lease violated the state’s open government requirements.
A number of bills that would have required judicial review of the sale or lease of a county or municipal hospital were filed during the 2011 session and two of them, SB 1448 and HB 619 were moving but died after aggressive lobbying efforts from high-powered lobbyists Ron Book, Mark Delegal and the Safety Net Hospital Alliance of Florida. For profit hospital lobbyists supported the legislation.
While no bills passed, Gov. Rick Scott appointed a Commission on Review of Taxpayer Funded Hospital Districts, which has held a spate of meetings in Tallahassee this summer. Its next meeting is Tuesday, Sept. 6.
http://www.thefloridacurrent.com/
A merger negotiated behind closed doors between a private hospital and public facility spawned a controversy in the Florida Legislature last year and helped lead to the creation of a gubernatorial committee on taxpayer-funded hospital districts.
Now the failed merger has spawned a malpractice lawsuit.
The Southeast Volusia Hospital District board of directors voted unanimously last week to move ahead with a $22.5 million lawsuit against Lowndes, Drosdick, Doster Kantor & Reed and one of its attorneys, Jim Heekin . The hospital is arguing that Heekin advised the public facility to merge with Adventist Health System in closed meetings. Heekin is a former chairman of the Board of Regents, the now-defunct panel that once oversaw the state university system. The law firm did not return calls seeking comment.
The merger was invalidated by a circuit judge who ruled that 21 closed-door meetings that the Bert Fish Medical Center held with Adventist Health Systems regarding an $80 million lease violated the state’s open government requirements.
A number of bills that would have required judicial review of the sale or lease of a county or municipal hospital were filed during the 2011 session and two of them, SB 1448 and HB 619 were moving but died after aggressive lobbying efforts from high-powered lobbyists Ron Book, Mark Delegal and the Safety Net Hospital Alliance of Florida. For profit hospital lobbyists supported the legislation.
While no bills passed, Gov. Rick Scott appointed a Commission on Review of Taxpayer Funded Hospital Districts, which has held a spate of meetings in Tallahassee this summer. Its next meeting is Tuesday, Sept. 6.
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