Mayo Clinic announced today it will invest $100 million in construction projects at its Jacksonville campus, including a four-story medical building with the potential for 11 more floors.
“With our vision to be the destination medical center of the Southeast, we are making significant investments in people, facilities and technology to meet the needs of all of our patients, especially those who come to us for help with complex medical problems,” said Dr. Gianrico Farrugia, CEO of Mayo Clinic in Florida, in a news release.
Farrugia is expected to discuss the investment today at the JAXUSA Partnership first-quarter luncheon meeting at the Hyatt Regency Jacksonville Riverfront. He is scheduled as the keynote speaker. The partnership is the economic development division of JAX Chamber.
Mayo Clinic will add about 40 physicians and scientists and 250 allied health employees to support the 150,000-square-foot medical building and a new PET radiochemistry facility, according to the news release.
The health care organization has 5,351 employees in Jacksonville and said it contributes more than $1.6 billion to the Florida economy.
Mayo Clinic said it will begin construction this summer on the destination medical building that will provide integrated services needed for complex cancer care, as well as neurologic and neurosurgical care.
A news release said more than 126,000 patients are expected to visit the first year it opens. It is scheduled to open 18 months after construction starts by early fall, which puts the opening in spring 2018.
The building will include two floors devoted to hematology and oncology care; a chemotherapy area; a floor for neurology and neurosurgery; patient care enhancements; and education enhancements.
The space more than doubles the size of the Hematology and Oncology Department, with a 50 percent increase in staff.
The new building also doubles the space for the neurology and neurosurgical departments and supports hiring 12 new neurologists and neurosurgeons.
Mayo Clinic also will build a state-of-the-art positron emission tomography (PET) radiochemistry facility. It will house a radiochemistry laboratory and a cyclotron, which is a particle accelerator used in the production of radiopharmaceuticals.
The facility will produce Mayo-developed choline C-11 used in certain PET scans. The scans are advancements in imagery that “light up” prostate cancer when it is found and provide targets for therapy.
“Millions of dollars are spent each year in the U.S. on producing cancer therapies that don’t help — often because physicians and medical personnel can’t see where the cancer has spread,” Farrugia said in the release.
He said it will enhance Mayo’s clinical practice and play an important role in research.
Locating recurrent prostate cancer more quickly may enable Mayo physicians to target the cancer more quickly, before it spreads further allowing for more effective treatment, according to Mayo.
The Mayo Clinic opened in 1986 in Jacksonville at 4500 San Pablo Road S. and has expanded since. It started with 35 doctors and a support staff of 145 in one four-story building.
The campus is built on about 400 acres of land donated by the Davis family, founders of the Winn-Dixie Stores supermarket chain.
Mayo Clinic is based in Rochester, Minn., and has campuses in Arizona and Jacksonville.
The nonprofit was founded 150 years ago.
@MathisKb
(904) 356-2466