Sarasota Memorial North Port ER reopens Wednesday morning; tent facility to close

Earle Kimel, Sarasota Herald-Tribune
·2 min read
A Disaster Medical Assistance Team that had been deployed near the near the intersection of Sumter Boulevard and Tamiami Trail, was scheduled to close at 7 p.m., Tuesday.
A Disaster Medical Assistance Team that had been deployed near the near the intersection of Sumter Boulevard and Tamiami Trail, was scheduled to close at 7 p.m., Tuesday.

Sarasota Memorial Hospital reopened its North Port Emergency Room at 2345 Bobcat Village Center Road, at 7 a.m. Wednesday after it was damaged by Hurricane Ian.

In a related move, a 60-bed Disaster Medical Team tent hospital located at Tamiami Trail and Sumter Boulevard closed Tuesday night.

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The 21-bed Emergency Room, along with outpatient radiology, laboratory, and rehab services will have usual hours, Sarasota Memorial Hospital spokeswoman Kim Savage said Tuesday.

Those services occupy the first floor of the medical campus.

The offices of family medicine physicians, Dr. Dennis Charette and Dr. Jessica Perez-Cardwell have been temporarily relocated to First Physicians Group offices at Jacaranda Boulevard. Patients can call the existing number and the call will be properly routed.

Services normally received at the second-floor offices of Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital Outpatient Care Center in North Port can be received at the outpatient center in Sarasota, off of Clark Road at 5881 Rand Boulevard.

Savage said the North Port ER site has been secured – including a sweep with a magnet to make sure metal and nails have been removed.

The First Physicians Group offices on the second floor are expected to be open as soon as Oct. 24.

An International Medical Corps mobile medical unit is seeing patients at the Ann & Chuck Dever Regional Park Recreation Center, 6961 San Casa Dr., Englewood.

The center opened late last week and is seeing from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, at least through this week.

Meanwhile, North Port spokesman Jason Bartolone noted that the 60-bed Disaster Medical Assistance Team tent facility was scheduled to close at 7 p.m. Tuesday.

The North Port facility represented two of seven DMAT teams established in Southwest Florida, to respond to medical needs after Hurricane Ian.

Two other tent hospitals were scheduled to close, with facilities in Port Charlotte, Fort Myers, and in the parking lot of the Venice campus of Sarasota Memorial Hospital scheduled to remain open.

Two hospitals that closed during Hurricane Ian have recently reopened.

HCA Florida Englewood Hospital, a 100-bed acute care hospital, reopened on Oct. 6, and HCA Florida Fawcett Hospital, a 238-bed acute care hospital, reopened Monday in Port Charlotte.

Savage said the 30-bed tent hospital is expected to remain at SMH Venice through Oct. 21.

“With all the hospitals coming back online we should be able to resume as normal operations as we can from before the hurricane,” Savage said.

Earle Kimel primarily covers south Sarasota County for the Herald-Tribune and can be reached at earle.kimel@heraldtribune.com. Support local journalism with a digital subscription to the Herald-Tribune.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: North Port: Sarasota Memorial Hospital ER to reopen this week