Paradise Center medical suite opens for appointments

After months of anticipation, components of the medical suite at the Paradise Center are open for appointments. 

As of mid-September, Connexis Primary Care; Advanced Foot and Ankle Care podiatry; Luminary Dermatology; Silverstein Institute ear, nose and throat and FitnessQuest Physical Therapy are all accepting appointments at the building at 540, 544 and 546 Bay Isles Road. 

They’re not all there every day, as the Paradise Center model creates a rotating schedule of care providers. It’s similar to an executive suite, where the facilities will be there, but the practitioners don’t have to front the costs for the real estate. The goal is to have this medical suite succeed where others on Longboat Key failed because there just aren’t enough people on the island year-round to support a medical practice. 

“Everybody is taking appointments through their main office, as this is considered a sort of a satellite location,” executive director Suzy Brenner said. “That's why we set this up the way we [did], so that these practices can come in and operate one or two days a week, hopefully have some room for growth.”

The medical suite has been a long time coming, but construction delays and the practices actually getting their care providers set up have pushed back the opening date. It’s even still not quite all there, as the Silverstein Institute, an ENT, is waiting on audiology equipment to be delivered. Brenner hopes to have a bigger opening in November. 

“The nice thing about opening in September is that it's very quiet and we can work out all of these little logistical kinks,” Brenner said. “It's nice to have a smaller audience to deal with that and make sure all of our traffic flow is safe.”

Several providers, like Connexis, have brought on care providers specifically to serve the Longboat Key office. Amy Lhote, a Longboat resident, is the nurse practitioner that Connexis brought on to serve the community alongside Dr. Irv Becker. Lhote owned her own practice in Pennsylvania, where she practiced with a physician. A nurse practitioner began as a registered nurse, then added a master’s degree after practicing for several years, Lhote said. Recently, nurse practitioners are able to practice independently in Florida. 

“We do the same thing as a physician would do in an office, we just sometimes do it a little differently, as in a nursing style,” Lhote said. 

Lhote can prescribe medications and carry out comprehensive exams, and she’s specialized in chronic diseases since 1996. The Longboat “satellite office” will be sort of like her independent practice, and she’s looking forward to getting to know her patients like she did in Pennsylvania. 

If you’re worried about needing to call your doctor on a day they’re not in the office, no fear. Patients won’t actually be calling the Paradise Center for medical care — they’ll be calling and making appointments with the main office of the practitioner. 

Brenner hopes that the medical suite will be cooperative, and aims for little overlap amongst the providers to allow them room to grow as needed. Ideally, the practices will refer amongst each other, and if someone accidentally pops into 546 Bay Isles (where the Paradise Center is) and needs 540 (where FitnessQuest is), Brenner will be happy to help patients find the right place. 

“This is a market with unmet needs,” Connexis vice president of business development Rob Coseo said. “What will be interesting is how much demand there is and how we’re able to meet that demand. It will be interesting to see how fast we run out of time and have to expand. It looks very promising for the community to have this one-stop shop.”

There are a few kinks here and there, like a glitchy magnetic door locking system keeping a cleaning crew out one day and incomplete signage, but for a couple weeks in, Brenner is happy with how things are going.