AdventHealth Sebring

History

After the World War II, many Highlands County residents desired to have a hospital in the county. The county itself lacked money to convert Lake Lillian hotel and casino into a hospital, so in 1946 various community leaders and representatives of the Seventh-day Adventist Church agreed that it should be converted into a hospital. In June 1947, a subsidiary group of the Adventist Church purchased the old hotel building at a 100% discount with the provision that $150,000 be raised by October to be used toward converting the building. The Adventist Church spent $400,000 to aid in developing the hospital.

The Walker Memorial Medical Center was showing its age by the 1990s and the Adventists felt it was time to build a completely new facility. In 1997, the hospital moved to Sebring and was renamed Florida Hospital Heartland Medical Center.

On April 2, 2009, the hospital was locked down by an anthrax scare. After forty-eight envelopes were placed on motor vehicles in its parking lot and also twenty-eight more envelopes were put in mailboxes across Sebring. On April 3, a local man was arrested and told police that it was done as an April Fool's Day joke. He was charged with seventy-nine counts of possessing a hoax weapon of mass destruction. One month later the police arrested a second man as an accomplice.

On January 2, 2019, Florida Hospital Heartland Medical Center rebranded to AdventHealth Sebring. In late June 2020, the hospital opened a new 24,000-square-foot, Heart and Vascular Center for $17.5 million, with twenty-four private rooms and a catheterization laboratory.

On January 1, 2021, all hospitals were required to have their chargemaster on its website by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. In early February 2023, almost all of the AdventHealth hospitals had their chargemaster on their website, including AdventHealth Sebring. On March 14, 2024, a murder-suicide took place at AdventHealth Sebring when Joe Landon shot his special needs adult son Noah and then himself in the emergency department. This forced the hospital to go on lockdown and ambulances were diverted to other hospitals. On June 21, the hospital graduated its first class of forty-eight physicians from its family medicine residency program.

References

References

1. Moody, Kim. (July 15, 2022). "Center for Nursing Excellence unveiled". [[Highlands News-Sun]].
2. "AdventHealth Sebring".
3. (September 5, 2016). "The man who delivered Avon Park its own hospital".
4. (October 29, 2023). "AdventHealth Sebring celebrates 75 years". [[Highlands News-Sun]].
5. Ubinas, Lindsay. (April 2, 2009). "HOSPITAL LOCKDOWN OVER: White powder not harmful".
6. Walter, Shoshana. (April 2, 2009). "Anthrax Scare Closes Sebring Hospital". [[The Ledger]].
7. Walter, Shoshana. (April 4, 2009). "Sebring Anthrax Scare Was April Fool's Prank". [[The Ledger]].
8. (April 5, 2009). "An April Fool's Joke That Wasn't Funny". [[Tampa Bay Times]].
9. (April 5, 2009). "April Fool's Day Joke - Why isn't he laughing". [[South Florida Sun Sentinel]].
10. Peppard, Jim. (May 19, 2009). "Second arrest in Sebring anthrax hoax".
11. Ross, Nikki. (January 2, 2019). "Florida Hospital is now AdventHealth". [[The Daytona Beach News-Journal]].
12. (January 2, 2019). "Florida Hospital is now AdventHealth".
13. (June 25, 2020). "AdventHealth Sebring unveils Heart and Vacular Center". [[Highlands Sun]].
14. (June 25, 2020). "AdventHealth Sebring to open $17.5M expansion for heart care".
15. (February 23, 2022). "New report shows Tampa Bay hospitals not following medical transparency law".
16. Chavez, Juan. (February 10, 2023). "Find out if Tampa Bay hospitals are hiding costs of medical care". [[Tampa Bay Times]].
17. Bayron, Carla. (March 14, 2024). "Sebring hospital shooting: Father, son killed at AdventHealth Sebring, deputies say".
18. Nelson, Rebekah. (March 14, 2024). "Friend of man involved in murder-suicide at hospital says he'd been struggling for weeks".
19. Kremposky, Averi. (March 15, 2024). "Deputies: Florida father shoots son in hospital bed, turns gun on self in apparent murder-suicide".
20. (June 26, 2024). "AdventHealth Sebring's First Graduating Class Of Resident Doctors Honored; Incoming Resident Doctors Welcomed At White Coat Ceremony". [[The Herald-Advocate]].
21. (July 3, 2024). "AdventHealth honors Sebring's first graduating class of resident doctors". [[Highlands News-Sun]].