Stretching the Life Line

Sarasota Memorial Hospital, the second-largest public hospital in Florida, received approval from the Florida Legislature last spring to expand into other counties for the first time, giving this regional healthcare system the potential to cross over county lines to the north, south and east.

While growth outside the county isn't happening at the moment, the health care system is expanding into south Sarasota. A new out-patient facility will go up on a 65-acre site on Laurel Road to offer the growing population there a full-service lab and radiology department, walk-in and urgent care, specialty clinics, physician offices and possibly a surgery center. Planning for the facility is expected to be completed by the end of this year, with groundbreaking in the spring.

"What we're trying to do is build on our existing ambulatory care focus and to become more accessible," says Gwen MacKenzie, who has been president and CEO of Sarasota Memorial since May, having relocated from Detroit. "People don't always want to travel to a big traditional hospital for routine care. As the population moves further out in the region, especially into the southern portion of the county, we hope to be ahead of the curve and set up health care facilities close to where people will be living.

"The hospital's Laurel Road campus will be coordinated with existing services at Sarasota Memorial Health Care Center at Blackburn Point, just north of the Laurel site on South Tamiami Trail, and with planned services at Thomas Ranch in North Port.

Later this year, the hospital also hopes to break ground near Clark Road and I-75 for a new 82,400-square-foot Institute of Advanced Medicine, a facility that will house the comprehensive outpatient neurological and rehabilitation, a pain management program, a medically-oriented fitness club and physician specialists. The new institute will complement the existing Sarasota Memorial Care Center East Regional Campus that is already there.

And in January, yet another Sarasota Memorial health care facility will open - the new Sarasota Memorial Walk-In Medical Center on University Parkway. The center will offer urgent care and non-life-threatening emergency treatment for sprains, lacerations, fractures and more. In total, the health care system has more than 16 sites in Sarasota, including the main hospital near downtown.

For the second year in a row, U.S. News & World Report named Sarasota Memorial among the best hospitals in the country in cardiac care (19th); cancer (41st); digestive disorders (34th); orthopedics (36th); ear, nose and throat (43rd); urology (38th); and geriatrics (37th).