UF Health Jacksonville broke ground Monday on a new 92-bed hospital at the medical provider's north campus, on Max Leggett Parkway.
This is the second phase of construction for the campus, which will provide more jobs in northeast Florida and will bring the first hospital facility to Jacksonville Northside.
UF Health said it has seen high demand for care since opening it's north campus emergency room and an outpatient facility last year. Hospital officials said this inpatient facility can't come quickly enough.
"We know it was an underserved area," said Wayne Marshall, associate vice president of UF Health North. "Our volumes have progressively increased. We're seeing over 100 a day in the emergency room."
The five-story building will include dedicated units for maternity, intensive care, medical and surgical services.
"We're going to have the best equipment, but most importantly we're going to continue to have the best people working in this (area)," Marshall said. "We're going to deliver hospitality."
In addition to the hundreds of jobs the outpatient complex and construction project has created, the inpatient facility will add another 375 positions.
"(UF Health is a) huge enterprise, with almost 6,000 employees across the whole system. We're also the third largest training center in the state of Florida for graduate medical education residents and fellows," said Daniel Wilson, dean of UF College of Jacksonville.
Administrators say the employees for the new hospital will be hand-picked to make sure UF Health North lives up to its high standard of care and services.
"A quote from one of the patients who was seen, who'd had surgery here actually, said he was looking forward to a follow-up surgery, which is just unheard of," Wilson said.
UF Health's new inpatient facility on their north campus is expected to be completed by mid-2017.
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