ICYMI: Lake City Residents Reflect on Hospital Closures and Brainstorm Solutions to Expanding Health Care Access

Lake City, Fla. - Last week, more than 30 residents from Lake City and surrounding areas gathered to have an open conversation about the impact of rural hospital closures in recent years and the difficulties accessing high-quality health care. The health care event was hosted by Florida Voices for Health, a nonprofit health advocacy organization, as part of an ongoing listening campaign to implement solutions and spur action from residents and stakeholders to work on closing the health care gap in North Central Florida.   

The health care event was titled “What Happened to Our Hospitals?”, focusing on the impact that the closure and reduced care opportunities at three area hospitals, including Shands Lake Shore and Shands Live Oak, had on the community. 

Scott Darius, Executive Director with Florida Voices for Health, told attendees, “We actively want to help move through solutions. Our goals are to uplift some of the issues that you all as residents of Columbia county, as rural Floridians face - but also to look forward, to think about solutions and how we actually get there.”  

Scott was joined by Philip Mobley with the NorthStar Family Resource Center, Jonathan Burgess, a former Lake City resident, and Steven Davis with the Rural Health Redesign Center, to kick off the sharing of their own health access stories and to discuss how other rural communities are bringing stakeholders together to find ways to create more affordable, accessible, and high-quality health care options in rural Florida. Both Florida Voices for Health, with the help of partners like the Rural Health Redesign Center, plan to continue discussing these issues with stakeholders, organizing meetings, and advocating for solutions with elected officials.  

Below are news articles on the event, hosted in collaboration with local partners from the Columbia County Wellness Collaborative. To find out more about the local work being done by Florida Voices for Health and other partner organizations, please visit BringBackCareFL.org.   

WCJB TV 20: ‘We need more’: Residents and health care groups raise concerns about access to health care 

By: Kayla Lewis, September 15, 2025  

Many people in North Central Florida have to travel a long way to go to the hospital, and some people are calling this a health care crisis. 

The Lakeshore Hospital in Lake City closed back in 2020, but now residents say having more access to health care is a need and not a want. 

“We need more,” shared retired nurse Mattie Jones. 

Jones was the director of nursing at Lakeshore before it closed. She says a lack of access to health care in Columbia County and the surrounding rural areas, especially hurts expectant mothers, who need to visit an OBGYN or have to travel to give birth. 

“It’s just not fair for mothers, and it’s not safe for the mothers or the babies,” Jones said. 

Jones attended the “What Happened to our Hospitals” event, emphasizing how staff at Lake City Medical Center tries to accommodate everyone, but it just isn’t cutting it. 

... 

“Everyone at some point needs a doctor, needs a place to get health care, and the harder that becomes, the harder it is to do everything else,” shared Scott Darius, the executive director of Florida Voices for Health. 

According to the organization “For Florida’s Health,” funding streams need to be improved, along with addressing labor shortages. 

“There’s just different ways to put this puzzle back together,” said Darius. 

Some people say sometimes the answer isn’t to bring back a hospital, but to find different models of care. 

Lake City Reporter: Florida Voices for Health hosts open forum  

By: Morgan McMullen, Wednesday, September 17 

Local residents and leaders mixed and mingled while discussing the potential future of healthcare in the region. Florida Voices for Health, a nonprofit group that works with health organizations to improve healthcare outcomes, hosted a forum Monday night at the Florida Gateway Fairgrounds for a presentation titled “What Happened to Our Hospitals?” The event drew about 35 residents, including NorthStar Family Resource Center Manager Philip 

Mobley, who spoke about the recent scarcity of healthcare options in rural North Florida.

“We really wanted to understand what are those things that are causing disparities in health and life expectancies within communities, within parts of our county,” Mobley said, noting the tri-county area of Columbia, Hamilton and Union counties were nearly always at the bottom the list in positive health outcomes for patients.

Scott Darius, the executive director for Florida Voices for Health, moderated the event. Darius said one of the biggest things he was looking for from others was shared experiences that all in attendance had in common. 

“We’ve focused on a lot of different issues,” Darius said. “From oral health to disabilities access, there are a lot of things that Floridians are struggling with in terms of access to healthcare.” 

Darius was joined on the dais by Steven Davis, the director of external relations with the Rural Health Redesign Center.

Davis outlined his work with the program in rural Pennsylvania, which he said focused on three main areas: healthcare access, population health, economic feasibility. He said hospitals that worked with the PA Rural Health Model actually improved services offered to patients. “These communities had higher unemployment rates, higher poverty rates, higher math rate per 100,000…financial distress, at risk of foreclosure,” Davis said.

Davis noted Monday’s meeting was simply a starting point, a conversation- starter in the hopes of bringing the right people together to figure out a better healthcare model for the area. One idea raised by a local resident included an essentials-only hospital meant for emergencies such as childbirth or critical medical situations. 

“Like all things in life, it takes something personal sometimes to happen before you’re like, ‘Wait a minute, somebody needs to do something about this,’” Darius said, relaying an instance where he and his wife couldn’t get a reservation at Shands Hospital in Gainesville for their baby’s birth for two days. “It’s easy enough to do if you live 10 minutes from Shands, but I had the thought that, ‘Hey, if I live 90 minutes from here, what am I going to do?’” 

### 

About Florida Voices for Health

Florida Voices for Health is a nonprofit advocacy organization working to improve health care outcomes for all Floridians. We are a coalition of community organizations, businesses, and individuals working to create a health care system that works for every Floridian. Our partners work together to bring the latest resources and information into our communities. We also make sure that the stories and the interests of hard working, low and moderate income Floridians are represented in the health reform debate.