Here are a couple snapshots of the construction for the Baptist South expansion project.
(http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y74/asonj23/BaptistSouthConst001.jpg)
(http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y74/asonj23/BaptistSouthConst002.jpg)
This expansion looks like it will nearly double the hospital's current size.
This hospital seems to have its act together, and it is one of the prospects I would like to work for. I imagine it will be difficult to get an admin job there, considering its high growth and great reputation.
I don't think this expansion is actually adding "beds". I'll check next time I make my monthly call there. When I was working with some of the contractors and hospital facilities folks during construction we were joking around about how quick expansion would start after the initial phase. It didn't take long.
Charleston, I've called on the Baptist Hospitals and worked on a number of major projects with them here in Jax and Fernindina Beach. It's a very well run organization and I've seen very little turnover in admin and management. I believe Baptist South will grow as large as the downtown facility in the near future.
Hey native, that's great to know. I remember driving by the facility on I-95 thinking how nice and modern it was, and then I see it didn't take long at all before additional expansion. Whatever you Floridians do to get hospital construction done in your state must be very expedient, because up here in SC, it takes forever with the Certificate of Need (CON) process. Have you worked or talked very much with hospital admin? How do they handle planning...do they have a planning department? The current hospital I work for does not have one.
Little turnover is a great "problem" to have for a hospital. I say "problem", because that means it's a problem for me; availability of an admin job must be rare...so I guess I'd better submit my resume now for a potential job in 2010? ;D
That is amazing that the South facility will grow as large as the downtown campus.
Whatever happened to the plans to expand the downtown campus?
I think you want to build where the people are and southside is where the people are. Look at Mayo, they had the vision to build all the way out there years ago, and it took years for that area to grow and I think they hit a home run there and when they bought Memorial on JTB.
Quote from: gatorback on January 10, 2008, 09:26:52 PM
I think you want to build where the people are and southside is where the people are. Look at Mayo, they had the vision to build all the way out there years ago, and it took years for that area to grow and I think they hit a home run there and when they bought Memorial on JTB.
Nitpick - Mayo bought St. Luke's on JTB, and now that Mayo is building it's own hospital on it's San Pablo at JTB campus, has sold St. Luke's to St. Vincent's. And I think the Baptist South expansion does add beds?
^ I can't imagine a hospital investing money for a substantial expansion without adding beds. Additional beds help the hospital become more prepared to practice medicine in multiple fields, which is central to its mission as a major community health care provider.
Quote from: thelakelander on January 10, 2008, 08:26:01 PM
Whatever happened to the plans to expand the downtown campus?
Wasn't an expansion just completed a couple years ago? Or are you talking about another expansion?
I thought they had announced early last year that another expansion would be taking place. I'll search the archives and see if I can find the story or if my mind is just playing tricks on me.
This article is from 9/21/06
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(http://www.jacksonville.com/images/092106/145486_400.jpg)
An artist's rendering of the expansion of Wolfson Children's Hospital downtown. Baptist's $114 million project will add about 110 jobs. QuoteBy URVAKSH KARKARIA
The Times-Union
Baptist Health is plotting a $114 million expansion of Wolfson Children's Hospital - a project that will generate about 110 jobs.
The expansion of the region's only children's hospital is part of a $400 million, five-year capital budget approved by Baptist's board. That budget also includes a $65 million expansion of Baptist Medical Center South, and a $26 million upgrade and expansion of operating suites at Baptist Medical Center Downtown.
"We're facing growth in our community that has resulted in an increased need for medical services, and specifically inpatient hospital beds," Baptist Chief Executive Hugh Greene said.
Baptist will take on $100 million in debt early next year to help pay for the projects. The remainder will come from the health system's cash reserves.
"Florida is a growing state," said Rich Rasmussen, vice president for strategic communications with the Tallahassee-based Florida Hospital Association. Hospitals are "measuring the needs of their community and they are determining what investments they need to make ... to best meet the needs of their patients."
The Wolfson and Baptist South expansions, Greene said, will position the hospitals to meet expected growth in a population segment (children), and geographic areas (southern Duval and northern St. Johns counties).
Duval's population is projected to grow 7.3 percent over the next five years, while St. Johns' is expected to rocket 17.4 percent over that period, said David Malone, data manager with the Health Planning Council of Northeast Florida.
The Baptist South expansion calls for an 80-bed building that will offer inpatient and obstetric services.
When the hospital opened in February 2005, officials figured it was enough to meet demand for five to seven years. But less than two years later the hospital finds itself nearly maxed out.
Baptist South is seeing the patient demand today it had projected for 2010, Malone said.
The hospital's occupancy rate for June was 50 percent higher than what was projected for that month when Baptist Health filed plans to build the facility, Malone said.
The regulatory process requires hospitals plan facilities years before construction ever begins, Rasmussen said. Sometimes, the demographic projections on which the development was planned becomes outdated by the time the new hospital opens, he said.
Demand for Baptist South's services is expected to increase up to 15 percent annually over the next five to seven years, Greene said.
More than 40,000 new homes are expected to be built along the St. Johns-Duval border over the next decade, he said. Six major developments in northern St. Johns, containing more than 27,000 homes, have been approved to be built over the next 15 years.
"We are certainly positioned well to address the new growth that's going to occur," Greene said.
The population explosion in the area has already lured a competitor from the south. St. Augustine-based Flagler Hospital is mapping a $115 million campus in northern St. Johns County that will include a 300-bed hospital. The campus, which would be built in phases over a decade, will employ about 400.
"We are the key player in health care in St. Johns County," Flagler President Joe Gordy told the Times-Union earlier this month. "We want to position ourselves to continue to do that."
The Wolfson expansion, which will be completed over three years, is expected to meet a decade's worth of demand. The up to 150-bed facility will include nurses and pharmacy technicians. The new jobs will pay on average about $20 per hour.
"Of all the hospitals within our system, the one that is in greatest need for expansion is the children's hospital," Greene said, citing overall population growth and the hospital's growing regional clout.
"We are receiving heart cases from as far away as Pensacola," Greene said. "As we have added [complex] services, specifically cardiovascular and neurosurgery, we are finding patients coming from the broader region of Northeast Florida and Southeast Georgia."
David Vukich, chief medical officer at Shands Jacksonville, said the First Coast needs more pediatric hospital beds, but stopped short of speculating on a number.
"The city runs out of pediatric inpatient beds every winter, and we have for a few years now," Vukich said. "We need more beds. How many more, I couldn't speak to that."
Every winter, Shands is forced to send some if its pediatric patients to Gainesville and Orlando because of inadequate bed capacity locally, Vukich said. The Northside hospital has 18 pediatric inpatient beds, plus a 16-bed pediatric Intensive Care Unit.
As grand as Baptist's expansion plans might be, execution will be a challenge.
Fluctuating building costs could throw budgets out of whack, and finding the employees needed to staff the extra beds won't be easy in a tight labor market. Florida's vacancy rate among nurses was 8.5 percent in 2005, according to the Florida Hospital Association. The nurse vacancy rate for the First Coast is about 4 percent to 6 percent, estimated Diane Raines, chief nursing officer at Baptist Health.
"There is still a shortage of nurses and other health care professionals," in the region said Pamela Chally, dean of the Brooks College of Health at the University of North Florida. The school graduates about 450 health care professionals annually, including about 120 nurses.
"It's going to be a challenge for our college ... to be able to keep up with the demand," Chally said.
urvaksh.karkaria@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4367
This story can be found on Jacksonville.com at http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/092106/bus_5134440.shtml (http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/092106/bus_5134440.shtml).
Awesome article, lake. Thanks for posting that. That's good information to have when going for an admin interview for any hospital. You might have helped me out for a future interview! 8)
Now I remember. Thanks for digging that up.
I'm curious to see how that will fit on the site. Do you know which side of the main building it will attach to?
According to this article the Baptist South Expansion will add 62 beds...
http://community.e-baptisthealth.com/archives/2007/0212_south_anniversary.html
Thanks for that info, Jason.
Here is a driveby update of the expansion. Looks like the structure is topped out at 8 floors.
(http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y74/asonj23/Pics040.jpg)
(http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y74/asonj23/Pics041.jpg)
It looks like I will be working next door to Baptist South this summer, so this will give me something to look forward to on the long commute.
Sorry, but it was a cool thought that maybe they could build Baptist World out next to World Golf Village... Residential, retail, offices, Theme Park, and a negative amount for carrying the current office until Baptist World Opens. Think of the possibilities, First Baptist Church moves their whole campus to the Southside and relocates next to the hospital and "Baptist World". Now image the theme park, a giant version of Tellie Tubbies (Without Tinkie Winkie of course). Baptist World will only serve Kosher Iced Tea... Sea salt chips to go with the fish dinners, except on Friday, when they'll have sirloin just to tick off the Catholics. Baptist World will be an interesting Theme Park, certain adult features or smiles, for example you may ride the roller coaster if your male or female, provided your swim-wear styles date from 1925 or before. Otherwise we will not condone mixed bathing.
Sooner or later, the old Baptist home will fill up and they'll start to die off, the whole city will turn out in a ticker tape parade when Tinkie Winkie heads for the entry gate. Other headline news of that date, is Hell froze over, JTA gave up on Mass Transit and surrendered it to the new Jax Transit Authority, and a republican in Washington signed the new Amtrak budget request of 30 Billion dollars a month for rail development in the USA.
Downtown returns to shops, restaurants, parks, offices, concerts, games, Skyways, Streetcars, and happy homeless folks. Dream on...
Bob Mann
those Baptists just keep spreading
??? WTH? Yeah, we Baptists are the scourge of civilization... ::)
god bless 'em all
So Ock, what dou you really think about the hospital expansion? :)