University of Florida Launches New Hospital Project

University of Florida (UF; Gainesville, USA) Health has broken ground on a new USD 415 million project to provide expanded services for Florida residents.

The UF Health & Vascular Hospital is being developed to focus on patients with heart and vascular needs, while UF Health Neuromedicine Hospital will provide services to patients with neurologic needs. Both hospitals will be housed in one contiguous building, helping to consolidate cardiac and neurologic experts in one location, which will provide shorter procedure times and a variety of treatment options for patients. The Heart & Vascular Hospital will be located on the south wing of the building and include 120 beds, while the Neuromedicine Hospital will occupy the north wing of the building and comprise 96 beds.

Radiology, pre-surgery, laboratory and other support services will be on the first floor of both hospitals, so that patients will be able to have most of their health care needs met in one building. In addition, the hospitals will feature multiple hybrid operating rooms that can be adapted to rapidly changing medical technology. Inpatient rooms will be on the upper floors of the hospitals. UF Health has selected Skanska USA (New York, NY, USA) to do the construction work. The hospitals are expected to open in 2018.

“Thanks to the excellent work and dedication of our teams over the past decade, UF Health Shands has become a destination center for patients needing complex heart, vascular and neurological services,” said Ed Jimenez, interim CEO of the UF Health Shands Comprehensive Stroke Center. “Now, these teams of doctors, nurses and other staff will have a building with more than 500,000 additional square feet to meet the growing needs of our patients.”

“These two new hospitals reflect the goals outlined in our strategic plan, to offer our patients a continuum of compassionate care that will address their cardiovascular and neurologic needs throughout their lives,” said David Guzick, MD, PhD, president of UF Health. “While we already provide state-of-the-art care to these patients, the two new hospitals will provide a healing environment that revolves around our patients, one location to address everything from outpatient visits and easy access to laboratory tests and imaging to complex surgeries and follow-up care.”

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