Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Sacred Heart To Build New Hospital in Port St. Joe

Sacred Heart Health System broke ground June 21 on a 25-bed community hospital and medical office building in Port St. Joe that will serve Gulf and Franklin counties.

Sacred Heart staff was joined by area political leaders and about 200 local residents at a groundbreaking ceremony on the 27-acre site off Highway 98. The groundbreaking was followed by a community reception at which Sacred Heart displayed renderings of the planned hospital building and campus design.

The site development and subsequent construction will take more than a year, with the hospital tentatively scheduled to open in January 2009. Sacred Heart estimates its cost for designing, building and equipping the hospital will be approximately $30 million.

“We are pleased to break ground on a hospital that will meet critical health care needs of residents in Port St. Joe and the surrounding communities of Gulf County and Franklin County,” said Patrick J. Madden, president and CEO of Sacred Heart Health System in Pensacola. “Gulf County has no hospital and we know the community is eager to have better access to emergency services, imaging services and surgical services.”

The project includes:

• A community hospital with 25 private rooms, an emergency department, and two operating rooms.

• An urgent care clinic to treat minor injuries and illnesses

• Laboratory services

• Diagnostic imaging services such as CT scans, x-ray, ultrasound and mammography

• A Medical Office Building to provide offices for 10 physicians

• A helipad to be used by Sacred Heart’s AirHeart helicopter, providing rapid transport for trauma patients and other critically ill patients to a Trauma Center.

In addition to new health care services, the hospital and medical office building will mean an economic boost for the area by providing jobs for an estimated 150 people.

For Sacred Heart Health System, the start of work on the hospital in Port St. Joe is a continuation of a regional expansion that includes the opening of a new hospital in Walton County in 2003. The hospital in Walton County also was supported by a land donation from The St. Joe Company.

Sacred Heart has expanded its air ambulance service into rural areas of Northwest Florida over the past six years. The AirHeart helicopter service provides emergency transport services from bases in Walton County and Marianna. Sacred Heart also opened a radiology clinic in Port St. Joe earlier this year and provides physician services in Panama City Beach.

For more information about making donations to the hospital and donor recognition opportunities, please contact Dr. Henry Roberts at the Sacred Heart Foundation, 850-416-4105.

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