All Children’s Hospital Constructs Research Facility

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — An existing parking lot near All Children’s Hospital Johns Hopkins Medicine in St. Petersburg will soon become an $85 million research and education building. The new 225,000-square-foot facility will hold a large, 250-seat auditorium and state-of-the-art labs and simulation space, according to Jonathan Ellen, All Children’s Hospital’s CEO.

After acquiring the property from the University of South Florida, the hospital began to plan the research and education facility, according to Tampa Bay Times. The University of South Florida received a $2.5 allocation in the state budget for the trade with All Children’s Hospital.

All Children’s Hospital officials held a groundbreaking ceremony the last week of November as they plan to begin construction early this coming year. The new building is expected to be complete by 2018. According to hospital officials, the facility will provide 30 additional jobs for researchers and educators. “This really gives us the opportunity to recruit people from around the world,” Neil Goldenberg, director of research, said. It will allow All Children’s Hospital to expand its research in many different areas, such as heart disease, neuroscience, cancer and blood disorders and neonatology,” Goldenberg said in a statement.

“Imagine being a resident, having a great lecture, and then turning the corner and running into one of our great researchers working in the bio repository or one of our great faculty who is now reviewing data on a trial they are doing,” Dr. Raquel Hernandez said in a statement.

Hernandez, who oversees the hospital’s medical education programs, believes that the new facility will be a great asset to the resident trainees currently at the medical school. A whole floor will be dedicated to simulation, according to Hernandez. This feature will allow residents to practice critical skills for their future career, such as team building and how to interact with patients.

The new facility will also provide Florida with physicians that they will need in the future. Florida has a projected shortage of about 7,000 physicians in the next 10 years. “If we are able to train and keep those fantastic students and residents, we know All Children’s will be a leader for that next generation of care that’s needed,” said Hernandez.