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Encompass Health's (EHC) Expansion Plans Continue in Florida

Encompass Health Corporation EHC recently unveiled plans to construct an inpatient rehabilitation hospital in Cape Coral, FL. The hospital, which will be known as Encompass Health Rehabilitation Hospital of Cape Coral, will have 40 beds in it.

The hospital, once functional, will facilitate physical, occupational and speech therapies that will aid patients in recovering from debilitating illnesses and injuries. Further, the new hospital’s construction will utilize the company’s annual experience of treating around 190,000 physical rehabilitation patients in its hospitals across the United States.

The hospital staff will encompass physicians having sound experience in physical medicine, rehabilitation and other specialties including internal medicine, cardiology, infectious disease and nephrology in order to treat a complex patient population. Patients will also be taken care of by registered nurses, the majority of them being certified in rehabilitation nursing.

This move will enable Encompass Health to resolve health issues of residents in the Cape Coral and Fort Meyers areas of Florida more effectively. Further, increasing demand for improved healthcare services in both the areas only reinforces the importance of the new hospital. 

Shares of this healthcare provider, which carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold), have gained 9.8% in a year compared with the industry’s growth of 4.5%.

Constant Efforts to Expand Presence in Florida

Encompass Health has been making continuous efforts to strengthen its presence in Florida. To this effect, since July, the company has unveiled plans to construct five inpatient rehabilitation hospitals in different parts of Florida including the most recent one at Cape Coral.

This month, the healthcare provider revealed plans to construct an inpatient rehabilitation hospital in Naples containing 50 beds. Last month, it also unveiled plans to build similar inpatient rehabilitation hospitals containing 50 beds in Clermont and Lakeland. Another announcement made by the company last month was about purchasing land in St. Augustine for construction of an inpatient rehabilitation hospital containing 40 beds.

Apart from all these plans, Encompass Health presently has 12 inpatient rehabilitation hospitals and 19 home health locations in Florida. Apart from these hospitals, it already has two hospitals under construction in both north Tampa and Pensacola.

Several initiatives undertaken underlines intensive need for rehabilitation services in Florida, where the company has been delivering services for more than 30 years through operating hospitals.

Not only Florida, Encompass Health has been striving to offer improved healthcare services across the United States with a nationwide presence and strong portfolio of 136 hospitals, 245 home health hubs, and 83 hospice centers in 39 states and Puerto Rico. The current COVID-19 pandemic situation definitely calls for greater access to healthcare services, which positions Encompass Health well for growth in the long term.

Q2 Top-Line Results Affected by COVID-19

Encompass Health’s second-quarter results, which were released last month, reflected revenue decline of 5.4% year over year mainly due to reduced volumes across both the company’s segments – Inpatient rehabilitation and Home health and hospice. Nevertheless of late, the healthcare provider has been witnessing revival of patient volumes at both of its segments from low volumes in April.

Stocks to Consider

Some better-ranked stocks in the medical space include Quidel Corporation QDEL, BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. BCRX and Kindred Biosciences, Inc. KIN. While Quidel sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), BioCryst Pharmaceuticals and Kindred Biosciences carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Quidel, BioCryst Pharmaceuticals and Kindred Biosciences have a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 26.12%, 26.08% and 76.72%, on average, respectively.

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