Mayo Clinic Launches Massive Expansion of Florida Hospital
On February 22nd, Mayo Clinic announced plans to expand its Jacksonville, Florida hospital. This expansion project involves constructing 5 new floors on top of the existing 8-story hospital, adding 56 new ICU beds and a total of 121 inpatient beds. Construction is planned to start later this year and should conclude by the end of 2026. Over the past three years, Mayo Clinic has expanded its Florida staff by 23%. The $432 million project will help Mayo Clinic offer quality healthcare services to cope with the surging demand for healthcare.
Research and Facilities
In addition to offering an easy-to-use, accessible online resource for basic medical questions, Mayo Clinic operates three major campuses across the United States in Jacksonville, Florida, Rochester, Minnesota, and Phoenix, Arizona. A non-profit organization, Mayo Clinic spends over half a billion dollars each year on medical research. The organization has received many accolades from media organizations in recent years, including the number one rank on the Best Hospitals Honor Roll in US News & World Report for six consecutive years. Mayo’s Florida campus provides service in over 40 medical and surgical specialties and employs 5,800 people. In addition to the main Mayo Clinic Hospital, the campus includes two research centers, the Birdsall Research Building and the Griffin Building, as well as the Mangurian Building, a new addition that focuses on neurologic and cancer care.
Consolidating Healthcare To Focus On Patients
Mayo’s expansion efforts are just one way that Florida doctors and healthcare agencies are coping with new trends in healthcare. Over the past few decades, Florida’s doctors have been slowly conglomerating their practices so that they can spend more time on keeping patients healthy and less time on paperwork. In November 1998, Dr. Herb Mendelsohn was the first doctor to sell his private dermatology practice to Advanced Dermatology and Cosmetic Surgery, an Orlando-based practice looking to expand. Consolidated practices like this make finding a qualified dermatologist in Orlando a breeze and offer plenty of benefits for doctors who join them.
Other Expansion Plans
Mayo’s hospital expansion and Advanced Dermatology and Cosmetic Surgery’s empire-building efforts aren’t the only projects that will improve Florida’s healthcare system in the future. HCA Healthcare Inc announced on February 22 that it planned to build a 10,860 sq ft, one-story ER on Lee Vista Boulevard. The hospital will sit behind a Wawa and will serve as the only freestanding ER north of the airport in the Lee Vista area. HCA, a Nashville-based health system, plans to affiliate its new ER with Osceola Regional Medical Center. The company currently owns 50 hospitals in Florida and partnered with the University of Central Florida to build the $175 million teaching hospital Lake Nona Medical Center, which opened in mid-2021.
Expanding Florida’s Healthcare For A Healthy Future
Between Mayo Clinic’s $432 million expansion of its main Jacksonville hospital, private practices banding together to reduce administrative overhead, and new hospitals being built by systems like HCA Healthcare, Florida’s healthcare providers are working hard to ensure that they’re ready to meet future demands. These expansion projects will provide more facilities, beds, and equipment for patients who need them and help healthcare professionals work together so they can focus more on caring for patients and less on administrative tasks or finding the right equipment. The healthcare industry has experienced major changes over the past two years. Expansion efforts like these will help relieve the pressure on hospitals and clinics and allow Florida’s residents to get the quality healthcare they deserve, whether it’s a lifesaving medical procedure at a hospital or a simple screening at a dermatologist.
