UF Health approved a proposal for a new medical office building at the UF Health Shands Springhill site that would consolidate several medical facilities March 16.
The College of Medicine’s Practice Plan and the Florida Clinical Practice Association proposed the new building be constructed at Springhill on land owned by UF Health Shands.
According to the UF Board of Trustees March 16 meeting minutes and building proposal, the current 108,000 square-foot building was constructed in 2012 and is home to multiple Shands and University of Florida Physicians practices and services, including UF Health adult psychiatry, dermatology, cardiology, surgical specialists, and a Women's Center.
The current building is at capacity, so an additional building would provide space for the expansion of health services and offerings.
UF Health Shands Vice President of Facilities Brad Pollitt says the project has a total budget of $36 million that includes design construction, site development and equipment. The additional facility with provide 72,000 square feet in addition to the current building.
“The services that will be offered in the new building include the primary care specialties of internal medicine and family medicine, along with pain management and mental health services, specifically, child psychiatry and child psychology,” UF Health Physicians CEO Dr. Marvin A. Dewar said. “Both an outpatient pharmacy and a clinical laboratory in the new building will service both buildings.”
The College of Medicine's Internal and Family Medicine practice and Child Psychiatry practice would be the largest occupants in the new building. Additional practices anticipated to be in the new building include COM's Anesthesia and Pain Management practice.
The 2010 UF Health Strategic Plan called for consolidation of COM faculty practices that were in leased space throughout Gainesville, according to the proposal. The space in the new building would allow FCPA to eliminate two leases totaling about $650,000 per year for those practices.
The UF Health Shands Pharmacy and Laboratory will lease space in the new building for nearly $100,000 per year in lease payments.
“We learned from the first Springhill medical building that our community very much appreciates being able to see UF Health faculty physicians in modern, easily accessible and comfortable office settings,” Dewar said.
Information regarding when construction will begin has not yet been released but the new facility will open for patient care in August 2018.