University of Florida Health Breaks Ground on Hospitals
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The University of Florida Health broke ground on Jan. 23 for the UF Health Heart & Vascular Hospital and the UF Health Neuromedicine Hospital. The $415 million project will make room for a facility to care for patients with heart, vascular and neurological illnesses.
The UF Health & Vascular Hospital will focus solely on patients with heart and vascular needs while the UF Health Neuromedicine Hospital will focus on patients with neurologic needs. Housed in one building, each hospital’s focus will give patients concentrated care for complex health conditions. Consolidating cardiac and neurologic experts in one location will help to provide shorter procedure times for patients, provide a variety of treatment options and promote shorter hospital stays and faster recovery. The UF Health Heart & Vascular Hospital will occupy the south wing of the building and will include 120 beds.
“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, a doctor at the University of Florida Health, in a statement. “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.”
The hospitals also will provide a place where UF Health can grow. Florida has recently been named the third most populous state, and the rising population means a rising number of patients coming into the UF Health system.
“Thanks to the excellent work and dedication of our teams, over the past decade UF Health Shands [hospital] has become a destination center for patients needing complex heart, vascular and neurological services,” said Ed Jimenez, interim chief executive officer for UF Health Shands, in a statement. “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.”
Encompassing a total of 521,104 square feet, the hospitals will have a combined 216 rooms. Radiology, presurgery, 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. Inpatient rooms will be on the upper floors of the hospitals. The hospitals also will feature multiple hybrid operating rooms with the capability of adapting to rapidly changing medical technology.
Skanska USA of Parsippany, N.J., has been selected to do the construction work. The building’s engineering firm will be Affiliated Engineers Inc. of Phoenix, and Flad & Associates of Madison, Wis., is the architect designing the building. The hospitals are expected to open in 2018.