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South Lake Hospital ER to serve Four Corners

South Lake Hospital ER to serve Four Corners

by DeVore Design, June 26, 2017

The area where Lake, Orange, Osceola and Polk meet has a booming population, myriad subdivisions and apartment complexes, along with commercial developments, including shopping centers and restaurants.

But the nearest emergency rooms are a time-consuming 10- to 15-mile ride north or south for residents on heavily traveled U.S. Highway 27.

Come next year though, that will change.

South Lake Hospital earlier this month broke ground on a new $13 million freestanding emergency department at 550 U.S. Highway 27, just north of U.S. Highway 192, where the four counties rub shoulders.

“There’s been lots of residential and commercial development, but no real movement in health care in the Four Corners area,” hospital president John Moore said. “It’ll mean residents will no longer have to drive across [U.S.] 192, or to South Lake [Hospital] 15 miles away or to Heart of Florida [Hospital] 16 miles south to get medical care.”

Construction on the facility should be complete by August 2018, giving residents quicker access to health care, especially emergency services, when minutes or even seconds can mean the difference between survival and death for patients.

“Time is critical when someone is injured or needs our help,” Moore said. “This will be a hospital-level emergency department with board-certified physicians.”

The two-story, 40,000-square-foot facility will be staffed by board-certified physicians from South Lake Hospital — part of the Orlando Health system — and will be named the Joe H. and Loretta Scott Health Pavilion.

The Scotts, founders of Exploria Resorts, donated the property on which the pavilion will be built and still own acreage adjacent to it. Exploria plans to develop its remaining land into a professional office village, hotel and a handful of restaurants.

The facility will have outpatient imaging services, including X-rays, CT scans and ultrasound, as well as an on-site laboratory. Outpatient rehabilitation services also will be offered, allowing residents to schedule physical therapy appointments closer to home, Moore said.

There will be space available for physicians to open practices too and a medical office park will be located across the street, he said.

“The property could become a hospital site in the future,” Moore said. “The architect is designing it with that in mind.”

The construction is part of an ambitious $50 million expansion project the hospital embarked on earlier this year, he said.

In February, construction started on a freestanding emergency facility near the boundary of its northernmost service area at U.S. Highway 27 and the Florida Turnpike’s north entrance, roughly 13 miles from its main Clermont campus, and in March began an expansion project of its 170-bed hospital’s emergency room, which will double its size.

Moore said many residents in 55-plus communities south of Leesburg have long wanted access to emergency medical care closer to them, which prompted the construction of the northern emergency facility.

“Over the years, we’ve heard from many residents in those communities in our northern service area who want health-care services in the district that closest to them.” he said.

Construction on that facility should be completed in January, and unlike the Four Corners development, the hospital is leasing the site instead of building it.

Elsewhere in Lake, the 308-bed Leesburg Regional Medical Center is also expanding its Dixie Avenue campus, with a $27 million project that will enlarge the emergency room and add 24 permanent and 24 temporary beds.