“Our patients are invaluable to us, and with the addition of our Millhopper Freestanding Emergency Department, we will now have a full-service, dedicated team that is readily available to cater to the needs of the northern community.”
When you or a family member are faced with a medical emergency, you look for the best, most efficient care possible, and what’s better than a full-service emergency room that is faster and closer to home? The Millhopper area and surrounding communities in Alachua County can now rest assured that the team at North Florida Regional’s Freestanding Emergency Room Millhopper is fully prepared to provide them and their loved ones with some of the best possible emergency care.
In the past year, North Florida Regional Medical Center has achieved records that the hospital’s founders in 1973 could not have fathomed. With both an Agency For Healthcare Administration (AHCA) certification and a DNV accreditation as a Comprehensive Stroke Center, a position in Truven Health Analytics’ Top 100 Hospitals, record growth for inpatient surgery and 58 percent of the births in the community taking place at their Labor and Delivery department, it is clear that the hospital’s demand is ever increasing.
North Florida Regional Medical Center’s current main campus emergency room is seldom idle. Its under-15-minute average wait time has become the staple for which the hospital is highly recognized, and with a desire to keep providing the Gainesville community with quality healthcare, the hospital has expanded access to emergency care with the opening of a 24/7 full-service, freestanding emergency department in Western Gainesville.
The nurse’s station is strategically placed in the center of the ER, surrounded by patient rooms.
“We are excited to be able to provide the same North Florida Regional quality care in different areas of town,” said Vickie Sullivan, director of emergency services at North Florida. “The opening of a third Emergency Department will allow us to deliver the care that the people of those areas deserve.”
The facility is set to open mid-December 2017, at 4388 NW 53rd Ave. The 10.5 million dollar project includes an 11,200-square-foot, one-story facility. The freestanding ER expects to serve over 12,000 patients a year, featuring 11 emergency rooms, and employing approximately 35 full-time healthcare professionals.
The freestanding ER’s opening is but a continuing trend for North Florida. Since its opening in 1973, with nothing but a four level facility and a plethora of possibilities lying in the connecting cow pasture, the hospital has since seen immense growth with NFRMC’s main campus Emergency Room seeing 70,000 visits in 2016 alone.
The facility features 11 private exam rooms and a resuscitation room, equipped to service level-three trauma patients.
“At North Florida Regional Medical Center, we are committed to delivering quality care, not only to the people of our community, but that of its surrounding areas as well,” said Brian Cook, CEO of North Florida Regional Medical Center. “Our patients are invaluable to us, and with the addition of our Millhopper Freestanding Emergency Department, we will now have a full-service, dedicated team that is readily available to cater to the needs of the northern community.”
While the benefits behind the newly built Freestanding ER facility are many, providing people with immediate care when it is most needed by establishing a more convenient location is the main purpose. The ER will not only service Gainesville area, but its surrounding areas, saving those communities the commute to North Florida’s current location at 6500 W. Newberry Road.
The addition will be equipped to handle a full range of capabilities – from pediatric to adult care. Features include a full-service lab, a 64-Slice low dose CT Scanner, a trauma room and ultrasound and digital radiographic X-Ray technology among others.
Although the priority when designing the facility was to continue to provide extraordinary emergency care and patient experience, the investment also serves as a recruiting tool to attract highly-qualified emergency medicine physicians, whom are crucial not only to the patients themselves but to the hospital’s future as well.
For more information visit www.nfrmc.com.
ANYA MAYR is North Florida Regional Medical Center’s Marketing Coordinator, and a University of South Florida St. Petersburg graduate specializing in Marketing. She is currently pursuing her graduate in Public Relations. Originally from Honduras, a big fan of mac and cheese, has a strong avid traveler, she has a strong desire to discover the world one coffee shop at a time.