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SOURCE: Sun Sentinel
AUTHOR: Ron Hurtibise
Hospital company HCA East Florida on Thursday released details of $650 million in capital improvement projects in Broward, Miami-Dade, Palm Beach and St. Lucie counties.
HCA East Florida on Thursday released details of $650 million in capital improvements needed, the hospital company said, to address growing patient loads in Broward, Miami-Dade, Palm Beach and St. Lucie counties.
Work on the projects is scheduled to begin later this year and take three years to complete.
"We are the largest provider of health care in our area," Michael G. Joseph, HCA East Florida president and CEO, said in a news release. "Our patient volumes have grown over the past few years and created capacity constraints in many of our facilities."
The largest project is a $219 million five-story hospital planned at Nova Southeastern University's Davie campus. Relocation of Plantation General Hospital to the new site was approved in May by the state's Agency for Health Care Administration.
The new hospital will be part of an "academical village" that will one day include a hotel, residential complex and retail center, NSU President Dr. George Hanbury said in May. HCA East Florida already runs an emergency room facility on the NSU campus.
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. HCA East Florida says $61 million is earmarked for the project.
- Enhanced patient rooms at Mercy Hospital in Miami, part of a $26 million project that will include additional upgrades and remodeling.
- 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. In addition, the company operates ambulatory surgery centers, imaging centers, physician practices, four emergency care centers, a supply chain center and a regional laboratory.
The company says its 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.
Sun Sentinel reporter Lisa J. Huriash contributed to this report.