AdventHealth Makes Plans for New Florida Hospital

By Eric Althoff

PALM COAST, Fla.—Healthcare operations company AdventHealth announced this month that it will construct a new 100-bed hospital in Palm Coast to supplement the firm’s many other care sites throughout the Sunshine State.

The new facility will be called AdventHealth Palm Coast Parkway. All told, the $100 million project will include an emergency department, full-service imaging facilities, five operating suites, outpatient lab and labs for heart catheterization and endoscopy services. Of the 100 beds, 80 will be for general or surgical care, with the balance being utilized for the needs of critical care patients.

The healthcare campus will encompass 10 acres, allowing for expansion in the years ahead. In the meantime, a 30,000-square-foot medical office building is in the works for the site.

AdventHealth Palm Coast Parkway will be the largest healthcare investment to date in Flagler County, which is located in a part of Atlantic coastal Florida not too far from Daytona Beach. Because the population of Flagler County is projected to experience rapid growth in the next decade, additional investments in the area’s healthcare infrastructure were needed to meet the expanding populace.

And thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, which has hit Florida especially hard, the need for the expansion of healthcare services could not be timelier.

“COVID-19 has shown us the importance of strong healthcare infrastructure and, while these plans were in motion before the onset of the pandemic, our recent experience underscores the need for fast access to quality health care,” David Ottati, president and CEO of AdventHealth Central Florida Division-North, said in a recent statement. “We look forward to bringing our world-class services closer to home for more people in this growing region.”

“The ability to get to an emergency department in minutes can mean the difference between life or death for our patients,” added Dr. Paul Mucciolo, chief of staff at AdventHealth Palm Coast. “I’m thrilled that even more families will be just a few minutes’ drive from our world-class care.”

Ron Jimenez, CEO of AdventHealth Palm Coast, echoed those sentiments, saying that the project will “strengthen our presence in this community with a second world-class hospital.” Jimenez said that his firm looks forward to improving relationships with the community as the project moves forward.

Construction is due to commence in September. The current project timeline has the four-story hospital coming online sometime late in 2022. It is anticipated that nearly a thousand new jobs will be coming to Flagler County thanks to the AdventHealth Palm Coast Parkway.

AdventHealth’s other work in Flagler County includes $15 million donated to the community in 2019 alone. In 2020 the company also gave $50,000 to Flagler Cares, a program that promotes health, wellness and social welfare infrastructure to Flagler residents as a way to reduce health outcome disparities.