Florida Hospital Plans Major $650 Million Expansion Project

HCA East Florida announced it will spend $650 million for major expansion projects throughout South Florida. The initiative includes building new hospitals and expanding and improving existing health care facilities over the next three years.

The capital improvements are needed to address growing patient loads in Broward, Miami-Dade, Palm Beach and St. Lucie counties.

The largest project is a $220 million five-story hospital planned at Nova Southeastern University's Davie campus. The new hospital will be part of an academic village that will one day include a hotel, residential complex and retail center.

Relocation of Plantation General Hospital to the new site was approved in May by Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration. The new hospital, which will be about 7 miles away from its current location, will have five stories with an attached $21 million parking garage.

Work on the project is scheduled to begin later this year and take three years to complete.

Highlights of the other projects include:

• $66 million expansion of Northwest Medical Center in Margate, including two new floors to increase patient beds and ICU capacity and a new six-level, 322-space parking garage.

• $56 million expansion of Westside Regional Medical Center in Plantation, including private rooms and additional beds.

• Improvements to JFK Medical Center in Atlantis, including a three-story bed tower, emergency room expansion, patient unit renovations and expanded parking facilities.  
Projected cost is $108 million.

• New parking garage and new four-story tower at Kendall Regional Medical Center.  
Estimated cost: $90 million.

• New patient tower, parking garage and emergency room expansion at Aventura Hospital & Medical Center. $61 million is earmarked for the project.

• Enhanced patient rooms at Mercy Hospital in Miami, part of a project that will include additional upgrades and remodeling. 
$26 million project

• New freestanding emergency rooms in Doral and in the Town & Country section of Kendall.  
Estimated cost for both projects is $20 million.

HCA East Florida, a division of Hospital Corporation of America, serves 1.3 million patients annually in the four South Florida counties, plus Okeechobee County. Its 14 hospitals employ more than 16,500 people and more than 6,000 staff physicians.

HCA hospitals include: JFK Medical Center, JFK North Campus, (formerly West Palm Hospital), Palms West Hospital, Northwest Medical Center, Plantation General Hospital, University Hospital & Medical Center, Westside Regional Medical Center, Aventura Hospital & Medical Center, Kendall Regional Medical Center, Mercy Hospital, Sister Emmanuel Hospital, Lawnwood Regional Medical Center, Raulerson Hospital and St. Lucie Medical Center.

In addition, the company operates ambulatory surgery centers, imaging centers, physician practices, four emergency care centers, a supply chain center and a regional laboratory.

HCA East Florida operations have an economic impact of about $2.5 billion annually, including more than $315 million worth of indigent services and $163 million in taxes.