Eleven years ago in Lake Nona, we held Topping Out Ceremonies for our new College of Medicine medical education and Burnett Biomedical Sciences buildings. At those ceremonies, we dreamed of building an Academic Health Sciences Center that would bring together in Medical City all of UCF’s health-related programs in education, research and patient care. We knew that a teaching hospital would complete that dream.
On May 3, we placed the final and highest beam on that hospital – UCF Lake Nona Medical Center – and honored the men and women who have been working so hard to build it and get it open by late 2020.
When you think about it, this hospital site is a kind of sacred ground. It’s a place where we will heal, treat and cure, where we will care for each other. That is truly a noble calling. And because we are a teaching hospital, as we do that work, we’ll also be training young people to do the same – to care for others. At the same time, we’ll be inspiring scientific discovery – advancing medical research to find tomorrow’s treatments and cures.
Our hospital is a joint venture between UCF and HCA Healthcare that will provide care to the growing Lake Nona community while serving as a clinical research center and learning environment for medical students, residents, and fellows. Wendy Brandon, CEO of the new hospital, said the Topping Out Ceremony “marks a bright future for physicians, students, and Central Florida residents. What you see today are the bones of our new hospital – Central Florida’s first teaching hospital.”
Before the final beam went up, construction workers had placed the 20-foot structure in the College of Medicine atrium, so faculty, staff, and students could sign it and write on it their well-wishes. We covered the beam’s top and sides in just a matter of hours, so teams had to flip over the beam to make room for more signatures.
I was honored to meet many of the 150 Layton Construction workers who were at the site for the ceremony. They wore black and gold t-shirts proclaiming, “BIG Things Are Happening – UCF Lake Nona Medical Center.” It was thrilling that many signed the beam before it went up, so we have their good work and their good names as part of the spirit of our hospital forever.
The three-story hospital will open at 204,079 square feet with 64 beds and shelled space enabling expansion to 80 beds. It is authorized to grow to 500 beds without further state approval. At opening, the hospital will include a 20-bed emergency department open 24/7/365, four operating rooms, six delivery suites, cardiac catheterization lab, comprehensive imaging and laboratory services, a medical office building, and a destination café. The hospital is located on 25 acres of UCF land next door to the medical school and adjacent to our emerging UCF Lake Nona Cancer Center at the former Sanford Burnham Prebys research facility.
A teaching hospital is part of our dream to create a Medical City in Lake Nona that is a nationally known destination for education, research and patient care. And as dreams go, the hospital is also special for John Thomas, Layton’s senior project manager, who is leading the construction efforts. UCF Lake Nona Medical Center is the sixth hospital he’s built from the ground up in the last eight years. But this one is special. He raised the highest beam for a hospital he called “a place of healing and wellness” just days before he and his wife had their first child in Lake Nona.
Deborah German, M.D. is the Vice President for Health Affairs and Founding Dean of the UCF College of Medicine.
