UCF Lake Nona Medical Center received final approval from the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) today. The University of Central Florida and HCA Healthcare’s North Florida Division will move forward with plans for the new 100-bed medical and surgical hospital – with construction set to begin within 18 months.
The UCF Lake Nona Medical Center hospital will be built adjacent to the UCF College of Medicine in Lake Nona Medical City. HCA North Florida Division will contribute $175 million to build and begin operating the hospital. UCF will provide the land and its strong academic brand. No state dollars will be used to build the facility.
“Together with our partners at HCA, we look forward to strengthening our community’s health, training more doctors and powering economic growth through research,” said UCF President John C. Hitt.
Hitt has described building the Lake Nona hospital as one of the university’s most important decisions of this decade. A hospital to advance teaching and clinical research programs has been a UCF priority since 2009 when the university opened its medical school in Lake Nona Medical City.
“This hospital and its research mission are part pf the economic impact we promised the community when the medical school was built,” said Dr. Deborah German, founding dean of the College of Medicine and vice president for medical affairs. “In the United States and around the world, the best health systems have an academic component at their heart and the best medical schools have teaching hospitals. UCF Lake Nona Medical Center will help Central Florida become a national, then global healthcare destination that will benefit all of our partners and our community.”
As a university-based institution, the new hospital will help fulfill UCF’s mission to build a healthier community, train more doctors locally and contribute to the important economic and research impacts coming out of Lake Nona. UCF Lake Nona Medical Center will be a welcome addition to the collaborative, innovative environment of Lake Nona Medical City.
Construction on UCF Lake Nona Medical Center is scheduled to begin within 18 months, and the hospital is expected to be open for patients in Lake Nona by the end of 2020.