First Unit in Baptist South's New Patient Care Tower Opens

Jacksonville, Florida, March 16, 2009 -- A month after celebrating its fourth anniversary, Baptist Medical Center South is celebrating a new milestone - the opening of the first patient care unit in its $85 million, eight-story expansion.

The new unit has 24 Medical Surgical beds on the fourth floor and will be the precursor to three additional floors that are expected to open in June 2009. The additional floors will initially add 76 total beds including a 14-bed level II newborn intensive care unit, 10 labor/delivery/recovery/postpartum (LDRP) suites, 48 acute care beds and four intensive care beds (opening in the fall) as well as a new in-patient pharmacy and cardiology area. Floors six, seven and eight are shelled space that will be available for additional patient care units and diagnostic and surgery services as patient need dictates.

"Due to the tremendous growth we are seeing in our community, we have been consistently operating at or above capacity for some time now. These additional rooms couldn't come at a better time," explained Ron Robinson, Administrator.

In its short history Baptist South is no stranger to growth. A 1,052-space parking garage for physicians and staff opened in September 2008, which created additional surface level parking spaces for patients and families. To accommodate increasing demands for on-campus physician offices, construction of a second medical office building began in November 2008. The new five-story, 100,000-square-foot medical office building is scheduled to be complete in summer 2009.