The Florida Department of Health released a four-page outline Friday of steps it plans to take leading to the January 1 closing of the state’s last tuberculosis treatment center, Lantana’s A.G. Holley Hospital.

But the document, ordered by the Florida Legislature, basically is a logical how-to when it comes to shuttering the 62-year-old facility. The practical difficulties of relocating 37 severely ill patients and what the state plans to do with Holley’s 144-acre campus are reduced mostly to aspirational goals.

Eleven of the patients at Holley have been hospitalized there under court-order, DOH acknowledges.

DOH, however, states in the transition plan that there are “ongoing discussions with several licensed hospitals” for accepting Holley patients who need continued in-patient care. “The anticipated contracts for hospitalization remain in a stage of active negotiation,” DOH said.

“Our Department of Health continues to demonstrate our commitment to meeting the needs of Floridians with tuberculosis as we work to reduce the risk of tuberculosis across our state,” said State Surgeon General Dr. John Armstrong. “We remain focused as well on facilitating the transition of our AG Holley employees to new opportunities.”

The town of Lantana has long talked about acquiring the hospital site and using it to lure industry to the area.

The state has talked about closing Holley for years but has been stymied by a host of problems related to the facility’s population of patients difficult to treat.

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Florida’s surgeon general, Dr. Frank Farmer, announced Monday that he is stepping down to assist in the care of his wife, Peggy, who was recently diagnosed with breast cancer.

Farmer, an Ormond Beach physician, was named surgeon general last year by Gov. Rick Scott. The surgeon general is Florida’s chief medical officer and also leads the state’s Department of Health.

Legislation already approved by the House (CS/HB 1263) would reshape the surgeon general’s role, removing the position as the state’s leading voice on wellness and disease prevention. The legislation also would change some duties of the Department of Health, while closing Lantana’s A.G. Holley Hospital, the state’s last tuberculosis sanatorium.

For Farmer, though, his departure appears more personal.

“My position and the path I must choose have now changed,” Farmer said in an email to DOH staff.  “I want to support my wife and family through this time.”

The governor’s office announced no immediate plans for a successor.

Florida’s last tuberculosis sanatorium, Lantana’s A.G. Holley Hospital, would close in January under legislation approved 86-28 Friday by the state House.

Holley’s shuttering has been proposed for most of the past decade. But House Health Care budget chief Matt Hudson, R-Naples, said it was time to move forward with closing a facility he said costs $10 million annually to operate and typically serves no more than 30 patients.

“It’s time we dust off those plans and go to work,” Hudson said about the proposals for shutting down Holley.

Under the bill (CS/HB 1263), the state’s Department of Health would be charged with drafting a transition plan by May for steering patients from Holley to community hospitals.

Earlier versions of that approach date to at least 2008, when the Legislature directed DOH to find a new way to treat tuberculosis patients, while also outsourcing their management to a private vendor, records show. When no qualified vendors came forward, the Legislature in 2010 ordered DOH to develop a plan to find community hospitals willing to isolate and care for patients.

Lantana town officials also are eager to obtain the 144-acre site, which they hope will prove attractive to a company looking to relocate to the area.

The proposal still must clear the Senate, which so far has shown little interest in the wide-ranging bill. Along with closing Holley, the measure revamps the duties of the state surgeon general and repeals a statewide septic-tank inspection program approved by lawmakers only two years ago.

Critics say the bill also limits the department’s focus on disease-prevention and education programs. 

But Holley, the last of the state’s four TB hospitals opened between 1938 and 1952, has drawn much of the focus. The legislation in the House advanced over opposition from several health advocates, who said closing Lantana hospital would threaten care for a few dozen seriously ill patients who also pose a public health risk.

In a committee hearing earlier this week, Dr. Paul Arons, former director of the state’s HIV-AIDs program, called Holley a “unique institution.”

 ”It treats the hardest of the hard patients,” he said.

Arons said 40 percent of Holley’s tuberculosis patients also have HIV, making them particularly frail and complicated to treat. He labeled the House proposal “puzzling and troubling.”