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Southwest Florida, We Want Your Ideas!

The development of the new Lee Health Fort Myers campus brings an exciting opportunity to rename Challenger Boulevard to align the street name with the values, history, and vision of our community. We invite the community to submit nominations for the renaming, as your involvement in this process is important to us. Submit your nomination here!

Lee Health Awarded $3.2 Million to Address Health Disparities in the Community

From Robert Johns, Executive Director of Lee Community Healthcare

At Lee Health, we are committed to advancing health and wellness in the communities we serve.

Through a recently awarded grant from the U.S. Health Resource Services Administration (HRSA), we will be working to bolster the programs and services we provide to the underserved communities in our region.

HRSA has awarded Lee Health $3.2 million to fund efforts by Lee Community Healthcare to address health disparities in our community.

Created by Lee Health, Lee Community Healthcare is a community health center that provides primary medical care to the medically uninsured and economically distressed residents of Southwest Florida. Lee Community Healthcare has four family medicine offices located in Dunbar, North Fort Myers, Cape Coral and Lehigh Acres, two women’s health offices located in East and South Fort Myers, six pediatric primary care offices located in Fort Myers, Cape Coral, Lehigh Acres, Bonita Springs and Port Charlotte, and one behavioral health office located in Fort Myers.

The funds from the HRSA grant will be used over the next two years for several initiatives, including:

  • Help fund salaries and benefits for staffing of the planned expansion of the Dunbar Lee Community Healthcare office;
  • Establish a mobile medicine program in partnership with a local organization;
  • Create six telemedicine “hubs” in facilities serving underserved communities; and
  • Streamline the referral process for smoking cessation services for Lee Community Healthcare patients.

This grant is going to have a huge impact on our region. It will allow us to grow our services even more in the communities that need care.

The planned expansion at the Dunbar clinic will provide additional primary care and behavioral health services to the community through renovation of space and the addition of fourteen full-time employees, which includes family practice physicians, a psychologist, a licensed clinical social worker, advanced practitioners, medical assistants and other key positions.

Additionally, the mobile medicine program, which will be funded through the grant, will include an established mobile medical unit to be used for COVID-19 testing, vaccinations and primary care.