Your Turn

AI-assisted summary The author supports a partnership between Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare and Florida State University but cautions against a “giveaway” of the community-built hospital.

He insists that any new governing board must maintain a clear and permanent local majority to protect community interests.

He calls for transparency, including open meetings and written guarantees on services, to ensure public accountability in the deal.

The proposed partnership between Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare and Florida State University is a good idea. It can mean better care here at home, more doctors trained here, and real research that helps our families. Done right, it lifts both TMH and FSU and serves patients across the Big Bend.

Let me be clear: I support the partnership.

But I don’t support a giveaway.

TMH wasn’t built with local tax money. For 75 years, families paid for this hospital one visit at a time — births, X-rays, surgeries. Nearly a billion dollars have been poured back into buildings and equipment, so people don’t have to leave town for care. That’s community wealth. You don’t hand it over for free and call it progress.

This isn’t about ego. It’s about a few basics any honest deal should meet:

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Keep it local:

TMH can partner with FSU and still be a community hospital. That means a clear local majority on the new board — not a one-vote nail-biter that can flip overnight. Local voice, locked in.

Pay a fair price — and keep the money here:

When government takes something for nothing, that’s just another word for socialism — and the bill comes later to working families. If TMH’s assets change hands, there should be an independent valuation and a real price. Then put those dollars to work at home: care for the poor and recruiting and training doctors and nurses. A fair price helps ease the hidden cost that paying customers carry today.

Put promises in writing

If the partner brings capital and training, good — write it down. Spell out the services families count on (ER, moms and babies, mental health, key specialties) and report on them so the public can see it, not guess at it.

Be straight with people

This is the biggest city deal we’ve seen. Open the books, hold open meetings, give folks time to ask questions. The city commission’s job now is to secure these protections for the people who built TMH patient by patient.

Partnership works when each side brings its strengths. FSU needs a real home to grow medical education. TMH needs more specialty depth and research ties. Our community needs both — without giving away ownership value or local control. I’ve seen what happens when something is taken “on the cheap.” It doesn’t stay cheap. It gets political, and families end up paying.

We don’t need politics to see this; just common sense. Pay a fair price. Keep the value here. Protect care for the least among us. Grow the workforce we’re short on. Measure what’s promised. Make sure Tallahassee can’t be outvoted tomorrow because the rules were loose today.

Do that, and we’ll have something to brag about — a world-class academic medical center that’s still anchored in this community. Skip it, and we’ll have headlines now and regrets later.

DeVoe Moore is a Tallahassee businessman and philanthropist. Contact him at devoe@tacm.com.

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