JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – UF Health Jacksonville hosts a ribbon cutting ceremony Thursday morning for their brand new medical complex on the Northside
Beginning next week, the emergency room will be open at 15255 Max Leggett Pky., and in just a few weeks the entire six-story medical facility will be open and available to the pubic.
There will be an open house at the new facility from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday.
UF Health officials said the Northside community where the new facility was underserved and with the area being one of the fastest growing in Jacksonville, they picked the perfect spot.
The goals with the new design was to make it not feel like a hospital, and to make it a more comfortable atmosphere for patients and their families.
"The healing power of light and to make this not feel like a hospital this feels more like an upscale hotel type place," said Wayne Marshall, the Associate Vice President of the project.
An Intracoastal theme, with photos from local artists, fill the hallways. Natural light can be seen from just about anywhere in the building. And to help patients get some fresh air, courtyards were created on every floor, including the roof.
The new UF Health North will soon offer, a full service emergency department, outpatient surgery, radiology and cardiology, a birthing center, physician offices and more.
With about 210,000 square feet on 72 acres, the new facility is the first phase of what will be a 92-bed hospital, expected to be complete in Spring 2017.
"We're bringing this community a state-of-the-art building with state-of-the-art equipment with the best providers in the community, including the University of Florida and community docs and we're going to deliver hospitality up here along with fast and efficient care," said Marshall.
On top of sleek designs and quality service, the facility also hired nearly 200 full-time employees.
"It's around 20 percent that came from the downtown campus. The rest were newly created for up here, but that also means we're going to be hiring those positions back downtown, so just the first two floors we've created 170 full-time positions," said Marshall.
The Emergency Room will officially open at 7:30 a.m. Tuesday and the rest of the facility will open two weeks after that.