“BayCare has a long history of good financial stewardship,” Stephanie Conners, RN, president and CEO of BayCare, said in the release. “I’m proud to say, even as we embark on significant investments to ensure we continue to serve our communities’ health, we do so on sound financial footing.”
The Aug. 1 bond approval will help the system with expansion plans across West Central Florida, with $572 million of the funding going towards the construction of a 154-bed hospital in Manatee County, Fla.
On June 30, BayCare also moved to a new corporate legal structure where its hospitals and healthcare facilities are now “fully and legally” part of the system.
The structure replaced a 50-year joint operating agreement between multiple hospitals that were responsible for the creation of BayCare in 1997. Fitch cited eliminating the JOA 2047 termination date as a “positive” in its report, the release said.
“Our board and leadership felt strongly that to ensure BayCare remains the best place to work, receive and provide care, we needed to modernize our structure for the future,” Ms. Conners said in the release.
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