Less than two months after opening its doors to the public, the new Florida Hospital Apopka will add 80 more beds to its 120-bed facility to accommodate more incoming patients.
The project to usher in the 80 additional beds will start around mid-summer and finish by the end of 2019, according to Florida Hospital Apopka administrator Tim Cook. The building’s shell is already in place for the extra beds, but the top two levels – the fifth and sixth floors – must be completed and readied.
“What happened is that we ramped up so fast and the community continues to grow that we see if we don’t start soon, we’ll actually be behind,” Cook said.
From the start, the new building – now at 2100 Ocoee-Apopka Road, which towers over the intersection of state roads 429, 414, and 451 – has had the capacity to accommodate 200 beds, and there have been intentions to incorporate that number into the building. The hospital underwent a Certificate of Need (CON) process from the state before incorporating the 120 beds as long as no more services were added.
Health care providers must go through the CON process when they want to expand their health care facilities so costly medical services are not duplicated, according to the Florida Hospital Association.
Health care providers must go through the CON process when they want to expand their health care facilities so costly medical services are not duplicated, according to the Florida Hospital Association.
“Another way to say it is (this): We’re going to start finishing out the building we already built,” Cook said.
The hospital could offer more services as the surrounding area grows. For example, by early 2019, Florida Hospital Apopka might provide percutaneous coronary intervention, a non-surgical procedure intended to open up the heart’s blood vessels that have been narrowed by plaque buildup. For now, the potential for expanded services is unrelated to the bed capacity, Cook said.
The full story appears on page 1A of the Friday, January 26, issue of The Apopka Chief.
