SMH expands plans for full-service North Port hospital

Even before land clearing operations have begun for Sarasota Memorial Health Care System’s first full-service hospital in North Port, it has already begun planning for a future expansion of the south county campus.

With a groundbreaking planned for November, the Sarasota County Public Hospital Board has approved a $57 million expenditure to add three floors of shell space to the 100-bed hospital, and one floor of shell space to an attached medical office building. 

Originally budgeted at $450 million, the expanded facility will bring the total cost of the project to $507 million.

A groundbreaking for the new hospital is planned for November. When completed, Sarasota Memorial Hospital-North Port will be nine stories tall and the adjacent medical office building will be three stories. Adding shell space now rather than waiting five years or more will allow SMH to quickly double the inpatient capacity, when needed, from 100 to 208 beds and increase the medical office space from 60,000 to 90,000 square feet.

Scheduled to open in fall of 2028, the 100-bed hospital on Sumter Boulevard near I-75 will offer a range of emergency, medical, surgical and specialty care; a full complement of diagnostic and outpatient services; plus primary and specialty physician practices in the adjacent medical office building.

“Given the rapid growth in the south county region and the escalation of cost and impact of future construction, we felt it made sense, financially and operationally, to design the first tower so that it can be expanded quickly with less impact on patients, staff and hospital operations,” said Sarasota Memorial Health Care System CEO David Verinder in a news release.

The first floor of the new hospital will include emergency, radiology/imaging, administrative and support services in addition to a cafeteria and coffee bar. The second floor will house surgical and procedural areas, and floors four through six will be dedicated patient care units with 100 private rooms for admitted patients. 

The third floor is reserved for mechanical space. Floors seven through nine will be built as open shells and finished in a future phase. Long-range master plans for SMH-North Port include a flexible campus design that can expand to more than 400 beds.

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On Aug. 4, Jeff Wesner, who previously served as chief operating officer of SMH-Venice, was named president of SMH-North Port. Along with Sharon Roush, president of SMH-Venice and SMH’s south county market, Wesner played a key role in the successful opening of the Venice campus in November of 2021.

Last year helped guide an expansion that doubled hospital capacity with the opening of a new bed tower and enlargement of the hospital's Emergency Care Center/OR. 

“SMH-North Port has been part of our growth plans for many years, and we are eager to break ground in November,” Wesner said in the news release. “With medical facilities that now stretch from east Manatee County to our comprehensive health care center and ER in North Port, SMH has the medical infrastructure in place to support a full-service hospital in North Port."

For future updates about SMH-North Port, visit SMH.com/NorthPortUpdates