HCA breaks ground on new hospital (2024)

The HCA Florida Gainesville Emergency RoomER near I-75 in southwest Gainesville has been open for a few months now, but HCA Florida Healthcare celebrated the facility with a ribbon-cutting on Thursday morning. At the same ceremony, HCA broke ground for a new, 90-bed hospital that will eventually join with the ER.

“Over the last 50 years we have really never stopped growing as a hospital,” Eric Lawson, CEO of HCA Florida North Florida Hospital, said in a speech.“North Florida has grown with our community, with Gainesville and with the surrounding communities. So this is just the next chapter for North Florida Hospital.”

The hospital’s main focus will be minimally invasive robotic surgery, dedicating 60 beds and four operating rooms to medical/surgical uses. Thirty beds will belong to an inpatient rehab hospitalas a “hospital within the hospital.”

“We’ll have advanced imaging, we’ll have robotics from day one,” said Mark Amox, HCA Florida North Florida’s new Chief Operating Officer (COO). “That’s not only on the general surgery side, but on orthopedics and other areas of that nature, so that patients can come in here, receive the cutting-edge care that they receive just down the road at our flagship hospital on Newberry [Road].”

Hospital officials said the freestanding ER and the coming hospital help make HCA’s healthcare more accessible to the community. They are also helping fill an overwhelming demand for beds as the community grows.

Eric Godet, president and CEO of the Greater Gainesville Chamber of Commerce, said the new HCA facilities on the west side of Gainesville are helping improve the community’s quality of life.

“I think what’s really nice is, it’s important for our community to see infrastructure being placed in our community as we grow because our existing infrastructure was insufficient to handle the amount of people that are moving in here,” Godet said in an interview.

Gary Gillette is a member of the board of trustees and medical director of emergency room physicians for HCA Florida North Florida Hospital’s freestanding emergency room. He said the four freestanding ERs provide the same care available at the main ERs.

“I think it provides another great access point for our community to provide high quality, efficient health care, and brings the care closer to where people live and makes it more convenient for people to access the care local to their where they live,” Gillette said in an interview.

The quality of HCA’s healthcare has faced scrutiny recently as issues with sterilization of surgical instruments have interrupted surgeries at the main North Florida hospital.

Lawson said he is “highly confident” that HCA is providing “world-class care” for its patients, with quality control checks “every step of the way.”

Gillette said the ER went through internal HCA reviews, as well as reviews by theJoint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO)and the Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA).

“We are always striving for the best quality care, and we spend every day making sure that we provide safe, high-quality care for our patients,” Lawson said.