With Central Florida’s increasing population and growing physician shortage, AdventHealth is developing a new tower on its main campus to address those needs.
The Central Florida Healthcare provider has a plan to address the upcoming healthcare demands and challenges that come with a growing population and physician shortage: by building a new 14-story patient and surgical tower on its main campus in Orlando.
The building’s construction is planned with smart technology in mind, said Rob Deininger, president and CEO of AdventHealth Orlando and the Central Market. The tower will be fitted with tech that allows patients to look up their medical information in real time and even communicate with family at home, and the hospital is exploring the use of AI-based, incisionless technology in the operating room.
“It will feel like a smart hospital, in many ways, the ability for our providers to interact with it, and then our patients to really sort of be in control of their healthcare and know more about what's going on in real time. It is going to be a real win,” Deininger said.
Keeping up with a growing population
The main goal of the tower, said Deiniger, is to keep up with the growing population of Orlando. According to a forecast by the University of Florida, Orange County has about 1.5 million residents and is on track to grow by 400,000 more residents by 2050.
Earlier this month, AdventHealth announced its plans to get ahead of the growth. The tower is scheduled to open in phases, with the first phase completed by 2030. The tower will initially open with 120 beds and 10 operating rooms, Deininger said. AdventHealth will continue to build the tower out for the next five to 10 years, yielding a total of 440 beds and 24 operating rooms by the end of construction.
The project is also expected to add between 800 and 1,000 jobs. Currently, AdventHealth has about 9,500 positions at its main campus, Deininger said.
“As we bring this new tower online, we expect to see the number of physicians whom we are training continue to grow,” he said. “There are about 400 residents and fellows who work on this campus. Five years ago, that number was about half that, and so I think as we continue to look towards the future, we expect to see that number continue to grow north of 600 over the next five years.”
Addressing the physician shortage
Deininger believes the project will help put a “dent” in the state physician shortage, which one estimate by the HCA Healthcare Journal of Medicine puts the state on track to a shortage of 22,000 primary care physicians in Florida by 2030.
“On the physician side, we need to do our part. We're a very large healthcare presence in the state of Florida, and our ability to bring more, train, and keep more doctors in the state of Florida benefits Florida,” Deininger said.
AdventHealth announced the tower project is part of a $1 billion investment into the community, which would also include incentives to create additional residency and fellowship programs to train and attract more physicians to the region, a new simulation center at AdventHealth University, and continuing to deploy life-saving programs like robot-assisted kidney transplants, its Genomics Risk Assessment for Cancer and Early Detection program, and the Little Miracles Unit, which provides more intensive care for infants born as early as 22 weeks.
AdventHealth is also opening new hospitals – one in Mineola later this year and another next year in Lake Nona, Deininger said.
“I hope the tower just continues to reinforce the commitment that AdventHealth has in the community,” he said. “And you know, I hope by 2030 more and more people feel like they don't even have to wake up thinking whether or not they need to go somewhere else for Healthcare.”
AdventHealth is a sponsor of Central Florida Public Media but does not have any editorial control over our stories.
