Lee Deputies work to track down transient sex offenders who fail to registerThe Weather Authority: Stay alert – chance of showers and storms on Sunday
LEE COUNTY Lee Deputies work to track down transient sex offenders who fail to register WINK News Anchor Corey Lazar goes on patrol with Lee County Deputies in search of transient sex offenders who don’t register.
National Hurricane Preparedness Week: Know your risk Hurricane season starts on June 1st, but the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has designated the week of May 5 through May 11 as National Hurricane Preparedness Week. Each day, Meteorologist Lauren Kreidler will be highlighting ways to stay prepared ahead of this year’s hurricane season.
Southwest Florida The Weather Authority: Stay alert – chance of showers and storms on Sunday Hot, humid, and more rain for parts of Southwest Florida on Sunday.
CAPE CORAL What we learned about Cape Coral’s water crisis after a ride along On Friday, WINK News got to ride along to see just what people are doing that could be wasting water.
The Weather Authority: A wet Saturday evening as storms move through Southwest Florida A rainy Saturday evening across much of southwest Florida.
FORT MYERS Lee Health Touch-A-Truck event educates families on Trauma Awareness On Saturday morning, sirens were ringing to celebrate Lee Health Trauma Center’s 30 years of service and to provide the public with trauma education and prevention methods.
SOUTHWEST FLORIDA (CBS) CDC says bird flu viruses “pose pandemic potential,” cites major knowledge gaps Bird flu continues to appear to pose a “low risk to the general public” for now, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says. But the agency’s scientists ran into roadblocks investigating a human case of this “pandemic potential” virus this year, they said in a new report.
DOWNTOWN FORT MYERS Bay Street Yard set to open in late May A new place to hang out in Downtown Fort Myers is opening this spring.
Aetna agrees to settle lawsuit over fertility coverage for LGBTQ+ customers Aetna has agreed to settle a lawsuit that accused the health insurer of discriminating against LGBTQ+ customers in need of fertility treatment.
SOUTHWEST FLORIDA WINK Neighborhood Watch: Robbery, Pawn Shops, and Child Porn This week’s segment of Wink Neighborhood Watch features an armed robber, fraud at a pawn shop, and possession of child pornography.
Southwest Florida The Weather Authority: Sun, clouds, humidity, rain – it’s all in your weekend forecast Saturday afternoon will be hot and humid, with a mix of sun and clouds.
LEHIGH ACRES Chaotic lake getting fence and security Now, with all the negative attention it has gotten, some think putting up a fence is a great way to keep that bad activity out.
FORT MYERS Students affected by COVID-19 able to graduate for the first time For many young people, COVID stripped away one of their greatest rites of passage: graduation.
Deadly crash on State Road 29 in Hendry County Authorities are at the scene of a deadly crash on State Road 29 in Hendry County on Friday afternoon.
Celebrating Free Comic Book Day in SWFL JP Sports store manager Jonathan Powell said this is a generational event that brings families together to reminisce on comics and other hobby-related knickknacks.
LEE COUNTY Lee Deputies work to track down transient sex offenders who fail to register WINK News Anchor Corey Lazar goes on patrol with Lee County Deputies in search of transient sex offenders who don’t register.
National Hurricane Preparedness Week: Know your risk Hurricane season starts on June 1st, but the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has designated the week of May 5 through May 11 as National Hurricane Preparedness Week. Each day, Meteorologist Lauren Kreidler will be highlighting ways to stay prepared ahead of this year’s hurricane season.
Southwest Florida The Weather Authority: Stay alert – chance of showers and storms on Sunday Hot, humid, and more rain for parts of Southwest Florida on Sunday.
CAPE CORAL What we learned about Cape Coral’s water crisis after a ride along On Friday, WINK News got to ride along to see just what people are doing that could be wasting water.
The Weather Authority: A wet Saturday evening as storms move through Southwest Florida A rainy Saturday evening across much of southwest Florida.
FORT MYERS Lee Health Touch-A-Truck event educates families on Trauma Awareness On Saturday morning, sirens were ringing to celebrate Lee Health Trauma Center’s 30 years of service and to provide the public with trauma education and prevention methods.
SOUTHWEST FLORIDA (CBS) CDC says bird flu viruses “pose pandemic potential,” cites major knowledge gaps Bird flu continues to appear to pose a “low risk to the general public” for now, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says. But the agency’s scientists ran into roadblocks investigating a human case of this “pandemic potential” virus this year, they said in a new report.
DOWNTOWN FORT MYERS Bay Street Yard set to open in late May A new place to hang out in Downtown Fort Myers is opening this spring.
Aetna agrees to settle lawsuit over fertility coverage for LGBTQ+ customers Aetna has agreed to settle a lawsuit that accused the health insurer of discriminating against LGBTQ+ customers in need of fertility treatment.
SOUTHWEST FLORIDA WINK Neighborhood Watch: Robbery, Pawn Shops, and Child Porn This week’s segment of Wink Neighborhood Watch features an armed robber, fraud at a pawn shop, and possession of child pornography.
Southwest Florida The Weather Authority: Sun, clouds, humidity, rain – it’s all in your weekend forecast Saturday afternoon will be hot and humid, with a mix of sun and clouds.
LEHIGH ACRES Chaotic lake getting fence and security Now, with all the negative attention it has gotten, some think putting up a fence is a great way to keep that bad activity out.
FORT MYERS Students affected by COVID-19 able to graduate for the first time For many young people, COVID stripped away one of their greatest rites of passage: graduation.
Deadly crash on State Road 29 in Hendry County Authorities are at the scene of a deadly crash on State Road 29 in Hendry County on Friday afternoon.
Celebrating Free Comic Book Day in SWFL JP Sports store manager Jonathan Powell said this is a generational event that brings families together to reminisce on comics and other hobby-related knickknacks.
Karen and Terry Stark (CREDIT: WINK News) Waiting, waiting and still waiting. It is a problem across the country. Emergency departments buckling under pressure. Here at home, Lee Health is well aware of the issue. They’ve had it for years as WINK reported back in 2015. Terry Stark knows all about waiting. He brought his wife Karen to HealthPark Medical Center on a recent Monday morning when she woke up in pain. “They took her in, they ran some tests, determined that she had a tumor on her brain. The problem was during all this time, she was in a bed in a hallway,” Stark said. After 10 hours of waiting in the hallway, word arrived a surgeon at Lee Memorial near downtown Fort Myers could operate. “They said there’s a room available here. The transport brought her here. By the time they got her here, there was no room available,” Stark said. That was Monday, Feb. 7. They waited in the hallway again for two days. Starks said his wife finally got into a room Wednesday night, 56 hours after first arriving at HealthPark’s emergency room. “We’ve been married for 31 years, I wasn’t leaving her in the hallway anywhere. I’m just there, I’m just there holding her hand literally. I have no value because I can’t ease the pain. I can’t help her. I can’t, I can’t even tell her. This is what’s gonna happen next because Lisa, I don’t know what’s gonna happen next. So is this the best we can do during this time? And if it wasn’t Covid related, what is causing this and how are you going to fix it?” asked Stark. That seems to be the case for anyone heading to hospital emergency departments. It is a situation Lee Health President and CEO Larry Antonucci readily acknowledges. “Unfortunately, things are continuing to get worse as it relates to our capacity,” Antonucci said at a press conference on Feb. 3. That is very similar to what Lee Health told WINK News seven years ago. Back in 2015, Lee Health attributed the long wait times to population growth. At that time, 679,413 people lived full-time in Lee County. Now in 2022, the population has swelled to approximately 818,898. Projections say we could reach one million full-time residents by 2030. “Definitely the increase in growth in population, we’ve seen a lot more people we think, got to the best of our ability, some of them are staying more permanently less seasonal traffic,” said Scott Nygaard, chief operating officer at Lee Health. In 2015, Lee Health came up with a Global Patient Station (GPS) which is a 24/7 control center monitoring capacity at all four hospitals and moving patients where they have room. It deployed in 2019 and Lee Health says it has made a difference but it will not solve the capacity issues. “Once the flow stops inside the walls of the hospital, we can’t get people discharged, you know, everybody’s coming to the emergency room, if they need to be admitted, and we don’t have a bed available immediately, then it kind of creates a bottleneck at the front door,” Nygaard said. “The problem is just trying to triage people try to get to the sickest people first, which creates waits and delays for those who might not be quite as sick. That leads to some dissatisfaction.” Adding to that bottleneck, community-wide many medical facilities are dealing with the same situation. Submit Copyright ©2024 Fort Myers Broadcasting. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without prior written consent.