Over the past 48 years, HCA Florida Orange Park Hospital says it has grown from a small-town community hospital to a large teaching hospital, offering high-acuity specialized services.
In response to Clay County’s rapid growth, the health system is adding services and facilities, including a 20-bed intensive care unit, adding to its 28 ICU beds.
The hospital is building two inpatient units that will add 48 private patient rooms.
This fall, Orange Park Hospital is expanding to the Middleburg area with a 24/7 free-standing emergency room.
The hospital said people from across the country are traveling to Orange Park for care that is offered only in a few locations in the nation, such as surgical treatment for cranial nerve disorders.
The conditions produce sudden, severe, shocklike feelings of pain in the face, ear or throat. Neurosurgeon Michael Horowitz has developed a national reputation for relieving pain, the hospital said.
Samantha Green, 16, of Northeast Florida had lived with a cranial nerve disorder since a young age. It left her unable to attend school, hold a job, or go outside when the wind was blowing.
Now, she is taking college visits and has her first job — all pain-free.
“When we found Dr. Horowitz it was the miracle we had been praying for for years. Even after her diagnosis last year, no one ever offered surgery,” said Samantha’s mother, Kelly Anderson.
“The surgery promptly took away all of her pain. We went from a future of fear and panic to looking forward to the future.”