Baptist Medical Center and Wolfson Children’s Hospital ceremonially broke ground Sept. 17 on their emergency department expansion on the Downtown Southbank.
Michael Mayo, president and CEO of Baptist Health, expects the two emergency rooms – separate facilities for children and adult care – to be completed in 18 to 24 months.
The emergency department addition and renovation is on a 17-acre parcel on the Baptist campus at 800 Prudential Drive. The city approved a permit in August for the expansion at project cost of $187.38 million.
“This tower really does take the last of the available footprint of the campus and now we are going vertical,” he said.“But it’s the best use because it’s going to create that additional emergency care and level of care that we’ve needed to have for such a long, long time.”
The facility will be called McGehee Family Tower. Sutton and Debbie McGehee donated an undisclosed sum that is part of the $39 million raised for the facility through philanthropy.
Sutton McGehee is chairman and CEO at Mac Papers.
The couple being lifelong residents of Jacksonville, Sutton McGehee said it was a contributing factor to becoming involved in the project.
“It’s for the city of Jacksonville that we all love and are proud to live here,” he said. “We’ve been blown away by the incredible medical facilities in this city. For a city the size of Jacksonville, I can’t believe all that we have to offer. Medically speaking, if you have to get sick, it’s a good place to be.”
The McGehee family has a longtime affiliation with the hospitals. Sutton’s father, Frank McGehee , was Wolfson’s board chairman for two years and served a total of 21 years on the board. Ellen McGehee Cavert, his aunt, started the hospital’s Women’s Board, and Tom McGehee, his uncle, started Dreams Come True, which works with Wolfson.
The four-story, 123,908-square-foot emergency and patient care facility will be constructed in phases.
When complete it will have:
• Two distinctive emergency rooms, waiting areas and patient care rooms comprising a total of 100 emergency rooms, 63 for adults and 37 for children, including three pediatric trauma rooms on the first floor.
• Imaging, laboratory and ancillary resources to support efficient emergency and trauma services.
• A new endoscopy suite, plus expanded areas for pre- and post-operative heart care on the second floor.
• Plans to expand by 68 inpatient rooms on the third and fourth floors.
During construction, the Baptist and Wolfson ERs will remain open 24/7. New signage will direct patients to access ER services.
Baptist and Wolfson announced plans Jan. 27 to build the emergency tower addition.
Southern Baptist Hospital of Florida Inc. is the owner and developer. The contractor is Legacy Engineering Inc. Hoefer Welker is the architect and England-Thims & Miller Inc. the civil engineer.
The Downtown Development Review Board approved the design in February.