Three Hundred Tour New $25 Million NCH Facility

An open house inherently involves some anxiety. Will anyone show up? Well, on Tuesday, October 28, three times as many people as expected showed up to tour the island’s new NCH Marco Island Urgent Care. The $25 million project is slated to open by the end of November.

"We're so excited for the turnout,” said Dianna Dohm, board chair of the NCH Marco Island Healthcare Center committee. “This is the Marco Island Community's Urgent Care. This is what we have been wanting for 40 years because our old one is 40 years old. But we were expecting we would be excited with 100 people coming in, so we can show everybody around and spread the word. But we have about 300 people that have come through already. We planned to open up at one and they were here at 12:30.”

Kaitlen Magdalener, nursing supervisor, is excited about their new digs. She was consulted when the new building was being planned.

“They let us move things around to how we saw fit,” Magdalener said. "I was told at one point that not everything can be directly off the nurses' station. Because it's the nurses doing a lot of the work, and we want to be able to see our patients but also be running labs. Or if we're in the break room, we want to be able to be within hearing distance of our other counterparts just for patient safety. They did a very good job building everything around the nurses' station.”

“This is amazing,” said Yvette Benarroch, Florida State House Representative, who was on hand for the event. “We really needed this. I'm glad it's finally here. NCH has been a great partner to our island.”

Dohm said it took cooperation to make the project come together.

"NCH owned all this property,” she said, "plus it owned Watermark's property. And when I was on the NCH board, and I was also on the Marco Island Civic Association board as president, and MICA controls the use of the land. When NCH was approached to sell the property to Watermark for $5 million, they really couldn't do it without the approval or the change of use from MICA. So, I helped facilitate that with a caveat. The caveat was since this property was all given to NCH by the Mackle brothers, any funds had to stay on the island because it belonged to the people. It belonged to our island’s people, all our residents. So, NCH says with that sale of $5 million, and if we can help them raise more money, they'll build a brand new facility, because we know we need a new facility on the site. The two facilities, the urgent care and our medical buildings, were 40 years old. It needs an upgrade. So, all the stars aligned, and we were able to do this. And this has only been a little bit more than a year and a half in the making. We broke ground in March of 2024, and here we are in October of 2025 with this big, beautiful facility.”

Dohm said there is still money to be raised.

“We need to raise another $10 million in order to finish,” she said. “NCH said, ‘Listen, we're going to do this because we believe in the Marco Island community. So, we'll take out bonds, we'll take out whatever we need. But we're going to do this, and then we'll ask the community to help us when it comes time, once we open, so we can prove to you that we are committed to doing this."

Dohm is excited for the opening of the project, which has raised $11 million so far.

“We're talking about a $25 million facility,” she said. “Look at our equipment. I mean, our CT scanners are from Germany. And we want to make sure that's up and running. But we're still waiting on parts from Germany. We've got our advanced X-ray machine. We'll do blood draws here. So, this will be more of a full-service facility. We're still an urgent care because we can't do some of the things the hospitals do, but we're not a walk-in clinic, either. We provide certified E.R. doctors and certified E.R. nurses. They read the X-rays. They read the CT scans. So, it's more of what I call a mini hospital. The investment that NCH has made here is quite significant. And they believe in it. I’m hoping we'll last another 40 years."

Dohm said there will be no lapse in service when the old urgent care closes and the new facility opens.

"That will stay open,” she said. "It's like turning a switch. We'll have everything ready to go, and one day we'll lock those doors. Then all the staff move over here. It will be a seamless service. I really appreciate NCH's belief in Marco Island. I mean, this is a huge investment."