University officials are in the process of expanding UF Health in order to accommodate more patients.
A new specialty tower will be built for patients of the neuromedicine and cardiovascular hospitals.
UF Health is planning to add 18 operating rooms and intensive care units, according to a UF news release.
“We’re bursting at the seams in terms of demand from people for our services,” said UF Health CEO Tim Goldfarb. “We’ve decided to rebuild those services and expand those services to respond to the demand from the public.”
The tower will be located east of Archer Road near the visitor parking lot of the UF Health Shands Cancer Hospital. It will probably accommodate about 240 beds. Adult patients will receive care for neurologic, neurosurgical and cardiovascular conditions in the tower.
The UF Health Shands Children’s Hospital is also undergoing a $27 million renovation, he said.
“The goal is to match up contemporary space and technology with the outstanding specialty doctors and nurses we have here,” Goldfarb said.
The space on the 10th floor is currently being renovated and will have private spaces for pediatric patients and their families. The 10th floor renovations are scheduled to be complete in January or February of 2014, he said.
Exterior enhancements to the children’s hospital are expected to be completed in the Spring of 2014.
Dominic Iorio, a 25 year-old first-year UF medical student, said he is optimistic about the expansions.
“I think it’s a good move, especially for the med students, so that we’ll be prepared for the real world when we get out,” he said. “Students will be able to integrate into that new, technologically advanced type of medicine.”
Goldfarb said the tower will open up 500 to 1,000 new jobs in Gainesville.
“We can get very crowded during any particular day and sometimes we have to tell people, ‘There’s no room for you here,’ and we don’t want to do that,” he said. “In order to stay up with that demand, we have to build some more space.”
A version of this story ran on page 5 on 8/29/2013 under the headline "UF Health to expand operations"
