Baycare, a non-profit Health care system, intends to build their new South Florida Baptist Hospital in Plant City and relocate there afterwards. The new South Florida Baptist Hospital is to be built off Exit 22 of Interstate 4, east of the intersection of E. Sam Allen Road and N. Park Road, and the project cost is estimated at $326 million.
Design plans for this project include up to 150 private patient rooms with room for 30 more incase of a future expansion. The office building will occupy 85,000 square feet and will be used by physicians working in close proximity to the hospital.
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Construction is being handled by the Orlando-based, Barton Malow general contractor and the timeline for the project completion is in 28 months. The hospital has been planning for the new hospital since January and does not intend to recruit additional staff; instead, their already existing employees will be relocated to the new hospital.
According to a health system spokeswoman, the groundbreaking ceremony which was scheduled for later in the month, had to be postponed due to a rise in Covid-19 cases.
Karen Kerr, president of South Florida Baptist Hospital spoke on the hospital’s commitment to providing extraordinary health care services to their patients. Kerr also said their team was excited about the development of the new hospital which would enable them to serve patients in Plant City and surrounding communities.
Kerr also pointed out that the hospital had run out of room to expand on its present site, after 67 years. She explained that reconstructing the hospital’s infrastructure to meet the growing technological advances in health care solutions would prove to be a more expensive and challenging option, and for this reason, she felt it was better to relocate and build a new hospital, in order to meet the growing needs of the community.
Over the past six decades, the South Florida Baptist has undergone 12 major additions, including a heart and vascular center which was added in 2017.
