Advent Health is building a Gastroenterology Program that will consist of 8 providers. The infrastructure and equipment is already implemented and ready to go with several candidates in play for positions. This isn’t a matter of “if” the program will be built, but rather “this program will be built extremely fast.” Advent / Ocala is among the fastest growing service lines in the nation, and the population is exploding. We are looking for someone who wants to be handed the “keys to the kingdom” and build this program how they see fit. When speaking to a provider who doesn’t work for Advent, but is very familiar with Ocala and Advent, as he works in Port Orange nearby. I asked for his feedback. He said, “Ocala is a goldmine for any GI wanting to go there. Advent is going to build an amazing program and will surpass any sort of competition in the area, but they won’t need to because there is such high demand already.”
When speaking to Ryan Gerds, AVP Business Development, I told him that candidates will want to have reassurance in the fact that they are joining a stable and growing program. He stated, “There is no question here. We are going to take over the market. We have the reputation of one of the nation’s top health systems (Advent), supported by our top-notch culture with a Leapfrog ‘A’ rating and first ever Emerald Award recipient. We also have very little competition. The other group in the area is a private practice, who we are extremely cordial with, and we help each other out. However, many of their providers are on the brink of retirement being 60-70 years old. Additionally, HCA has a gastroenterologist, Dr. Singhu, but both groups’ ASCs do not run very efficiently, nor do they have our Leapfrog rating/culture. This is Advent’s number one priority, and we have a huge opportunity to capture this area. Incoming physicians can join us now and have a massive slice of that opportunity.”
Again, there is a 3-6 month wait time. As an example, there are currently 1197 medical procedures and 534 surgical procedures waiting.
There will be zero issues getting into the endoscopy suites or having surgical time as they just downsized from 425-beds to 388-beds to accommodate 12 more OR rooms. There is also 6 endoscopy suites. General surgeons do some but not enough to eat into any sort of volume. The private group in the area has their own ASC and does not impact Advent whatsoever. HCA has one Gastroenterologist, Dr. Singhu. Gastroenterology Associates of Ocala has 12 GI providers, 8 of which are close to retirement. They may try to plan succession and retention while we are planning massive expansion.
Currently, the desire for inpatient coverage is crucial. However, if you are looking for outpatient only or a mix, we can accommodate it.
Being bilingual in Spanish would be phenomenal, but not required. If you’re willing to learn, we can pay for classes. Again, not required.