Site preparation is underway and construction should start within 60 days on the Baptist Health/Wolfson Children’s Hospital Emergency Center designed to open next summer near St. Johns Town Center.
The 17,030-square-foot project is under development on a 1.76-acre site at 11026 UNF Drive near Interstate 295 and Town Center Parkway. The building-permit application shows a project cost of $8.5 million
It will house two emergency centers under one roof and will be staffed around the clock by board-certified emergency medicine physicians. It will share a common entrance, but with two distinct sides.
One side will have a dedicated waiting area and eight adult emergency beds.
The other side will serve Wolfson Children’s Hospital patients and their families, with a separate waiting area and eight children’s emergency beds.
Baptist Health said the Children’s Emergency Center will be staffed with a Wolfson team trained to handle the emergency needs of children.
It said Wolfson Children’s Hospital-trained pediatric nurses, respiratory therapists, and radiology technicians will work with pediatric emergency medicine physicians, pediatric radiologists and more than 200 pediatric medical/surgical specialists on staff at Wolfson Children’s Hospital.
Baptist said both emergency centers will be supported by a full-service laboratory, CT scanner, and ultrasound imaging services on-site.
The contractor is Perry-McCall Construction Inc. and the architect is Gresham Smith and Partners.
Baptist Health, citing Health Planning Council statistics, said emergency room visits in general have increased more than 12 percent in Duval County from 2011 to 2014 and more than 14 percent in the region.
Darin Roark, administrator for the Baptist Clay Medical Campus and Emergency Services for Baptist Health, said in a news release that an extensive market review demonstrated a need for emergency care for residents in the St. Johns Town Center area.
He said the location also allows Baptist Health to serve the needs of University of North Florida students and staff.
The free-standing children’s and adult emergency center is the second for Baptist/Wolfson. The first opened in 2013 in Clay County. That center treated more than 22,000 adults and children in 2014.
Baptist Health also is moving ahead with plans for its North Jacksonville campus at northeast Dunn Avenue and I-295. The first phase includes an emergency and imaging center, medical office building and fitness establishment. Construction is expected to be completed by the end of 2016.
Baptist Health comprises Baptist Medical Center Jacksonville; Baptist Medical Center Beaches; Baptist Medical Center Nassau; Baptist Medical Center South; Baptist Clay Medical Campus; and Wolfson Children’s Hospital, which is the region’s only children’s hospital.
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