PLANT CITY — For years, a team has been planning to build a new South Florida Baptist Hospital in Plant City.
Those plans are just about complete.
The new $326 million facility will be a significant upgrade from the current hospital, which was originally built in 1953.
“We’ve been in our current location for 70 years, became landlocked, and really needed an area where we could grow with the community,” said hospital president, Karen Kerr.
A recent study from Plan Hillsborough estimates Plant City’s population will nearly double by the year 2050.
As the largest employer in Plant City, this new hospital will help to better serve this growing community.
“It does position us to be able to keep up with the growth. We’ve built the facility so that as needed we can add on to the facility as well. So we do want to keep up with the growth we see happening all around us,” said Kerr.
The new facility is about double the size of the current one.
It will have space for 146 private patient rooms, 26 ICU beds, 32 emergency department and fast-track beds, and 8 operating rooms.
“We’ll be able to offer state-of-the-art rooms, state-of-the-art technology, and all our procedural areas to the citizens of Plant City,” said Kerr.
Preparations are underway to transfer operations from the 70-year-old hospital, and staff have been training in the new space to get ready for the official opening.
“It’s so exciting. Our team, team members, our physicians, are very excited about coming into the new facility,” said Kerr.
She told ABC Action News they hope to transfer patients to the new hospital by the end of May.
