FSU seeks tweaks to letter of intent

Florida State University officials are planning a scaled-down medical training program in Immokalee and are asking the NCH Healthcare System to tweak an agreement to protect the university’s investment in the farmworking community.

The university wants NCH to amend a clause in a letter of intent that addresses the hospital’s plan to donate the Isabel Collier Read Health Park building in Immokalee for the training center and what would happen in the event the center closes someday.

As it stands now, FSU would return ownership of the building to the hospital, but the agreement does not say that NCH would reimburse the university for improvements made to the building. At a meeting earlier this week in Naples, FSU representatives asked for that condition to be included in an updated agreement.

“It was overlooked,” Dr. Ocie Harris, dean of FSU’s College of Medicine, said of the letter of intent signed this past spring.

“They asked us to reconsider clauses in the contract which they felt would better protect investments of state assets,” said Edward Morton, chief executive officer of NCH.

The original letter of intent expires July 1 and the NCH board of trustees will be asked to extend it to the end of July, Morton said. Attorneys for both parties will address FSU’s concern about being compensated for building improvements if NCH were to resume ownership.

Morton said he doesn’t anticipate any issue with the time extension. The NCH board of trustees, all members of which are out of town, will be reached by phone. Also discussed at Monday’s meeting was how the medical school plans to proceed with a smaller program than originally envisioned, but no details were offered as to how much FSU would invest to make that happen, Morton said.

“Other (than) to say a material amount of money, I don’t recall a specific (amount),” Morton said.

Despite Gov. Jeb Bush slashing FSU’s request for $5.5 million in capital improvement funding from next year’s budget to renovate the building, the governor did leave intact $2.2 million in operating dollars. There also are a $750,000 pledge from Isabel Collier Read, who donated the land and money to NCH a decade ago to build the center, and $250,000 in community redevelopment money from Immokalee and money raised in the community.

Harris said the university plans to submit a proposal to Naples Winter Wine Festival officials to see if the annual fundraiser can help.

What’s envisioned is having a faculty member each from the medical school and from the College of Nursing in Immokalee to launch the training center for students for part of their rotations. The goal is to start sometime before the end of the year, although one hurdle is housing.