Fight Over Poinciana Hospital Moves to Picket Line

ST. CLOUD | More than a dozen protestors, wearing rain gear and carrying umbrellas along with their picket signs, braved the chilly and rainy weather Thursday in an effort to get St. Cloud Hospital to drop its opposition to a hospital being constructed in Poinciana.

Led by Jeanette Coughenour, the manager of the Association of Poinciana Villages, the demonstrators spent four hours during the morning rush hour on two intersections near the hospital carrying signs that read “Stop The Appeal” and “Allow Poinciana Hospital.”

At the heart of the protest is St. Cloud Hospital’s challenge earlier this year of the decision by the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration to issue a certificate of need to Osceola Regional Medical Center to build a community hospital in Poinciana.

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