New hospital tower is the talk of Lakewood Ranch

Philip Reber, the interim CEO of the Lakewood Ranch Medical Center, was leading a tour of the still uninhabited tower expansion. The area was eerily quiet, except for one repetitive sound.

Beep. Beep. Beep. Beeeeeep.

"What is that?" Reber was asked.

"This is a hospital," he answered. "Everything beeps."

On March 24, the ribbon was cut on the hospital's $120 million, five-story tower, assuring an expanding community will have another 60 hospital beds, greater technology, and a whole lot more beeping.

A small crowd of about 75 hospital administrators and area VIPs came to witness what was described as a significant moment for Lakewood Ranch.

"No. 1, it is a continued commitment to patient care and accommodations, which is what this community needs," Reber said. "It's about leveling up ... to a higher level of care."

Universal Health Services President Marc Miller flew to the area from his office in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, to celebrate the opening. UHS is the hospital's parent company.

Photo by Jay Heater

"I was selling this project (to build a hospital in Lakewood Ranch in 1998) on the fact they were going to build this big town center, and then we would build the hospital," Miller said. "Unfortunately, it got turned around. We built the hospital in 2004, and there was no town center (yet), so there were no people.

"Rex Jensen and his team ... I remember the vision, or hallucination is a good word ... I was a bit confused that there would be that many people attracted to this community. But he and his team were right. Luckily, we piggybacked on that."

The Lakewood Ranch area has grown to a population near 80,000 with another 10,000 homes on the way. 

"The community should be very proud of this facility," said Jensen, who is the president and CEO of Schroeder-Manatee Ranch, Lakewood Ranch's developer. "The part of the story that is more important is what this facility will do for this community and the families that live here.

Photo by Jay Heater

"We are flabbergasted that (UHS) has navigated such a tricky healthcare system in a way to continue to provide new and better services all the time in this community."

Reber said patients will begin to fill the rooms in the new tower in the coming weeks.

"We provide support for the 1,500 caregivers who work at this hospital," Miller said. "It's incredible that we've been able to have a 120-bed hospital and grow it. We're going to add 60 beds immediately, and we have the shelf space for another 60 beds."

The second and third floors of the 170,000-square-foot tower, which connects directly to the existing hospital, host 30 beds on each floor. The fourth and fifth floors are just shells at the moment, but eventually will host another 30 beds on each floor.

"(Hospital) buildings don't look like this," Miller said. "This is a tremendous project."

Reber said adding the beds and more overall space will have a greater impact that just allowing the hospital to admit more patients. For example, he said that when all the beds have been filled in the past, the hospital wasn't able to move emergency room patients into regular hospital rooms. That would mean the emergency room was congested and would back up care to those arriving.

"If you are sitting in the emergency room, you won't have to wait for a bed," Reber said. "If you are that patient, you know that can feel like an eternity."

He said all the new hospital rooms in the tower are complete with the technology used in the existing building's intensive care area. That is a twofold improvement in that each room — all rooms in the tower are single patient rooms — has state-of-the-art technology to improve patient monitoring capabilities.

Photo by Jay Heater

It also provides the hospital with options, such as shifting intensive care rooms to the new tower, and reassigning those former intensive care rooms to other purposes.

Reber stressed that all the rooms in the new tower will provide for a higher level of care for at-risk patients who are suffering from difficulties such as cardiac or Neurological maladies.

The first floor of the tower includes a large waiting room for families or friends of a patient undergoing surgery or evaluation. There is a pharmacy lab that includes all new analyzers to examine test samples, such as blood. Reber said that pharmacy will be stocked within the next week.

Photo by Jay Heater

Eventually, the original cafeteria will be expanded and will spread to the first floor of the new tower.

Lakewood Ranch Medical Center has hired approximately 40 new employees who will serve a variety of roles in the new tower. Reber stressed that 60% of the workforce at the hospital is made up of non-nursing personnel.

He noted that more employees will be hired as the tower becomes fully functional.

Those who have driven into Lakewood Ranch Medical Center's parking lot since the tower groundbreaking on June 11, 2024, will be glad to know most of the construction barriers and equipment has been removed. Megan Batty, the director of marketing for the hospital, said 90% of the barriers have been removed. She said all areas of the parking lot will be open starting in April.

In April, Phase 2 of the expansion project will include new signage in the hospital parking to help drivers identifying the best entrance point for their particular needs.