Last Updated: 6:33 p.m.
AdventHealth today announced it will build a $100 million, 100-bed hospital with an emergency room on Palm Coast Parkway, just west of the Market Street assisted living facility, bringing hundreds of jobs, remaking the complexion of the west side of Palm Coast Parkway and reasserting itself as the dominant force in health care in Palm Coast and Flagler as challengers appear on the horizon.
The four-story hospital is scheduled to open in late 2022, according to a company release, “and will join AdventHealth Palm Coast to provide additional convenience and comprehensive care, including world-class orthopedics services, to Flagler residents.”
There will still not be a trauma center in Flagler, nor a maternity ward.
AdventHealth has long dominated the hospital care market in Palm Coast and Flagler. But over the past year and a half, FlaglerHealth Plus, formerly Flagler Hospital in St. Augustine, has been making small inroads, with speculation that it might be building a hospital at the west end of Palm Coast Parkway. In December the Palm Coast City Council approved the development of an 89-acre medical campus there, potentially anchored by a hospital. By design or not, AdventHealth’s announcement today appears to be a strategic move to protect the network’s turf, and to do so with what would amount to a decisive message within blocks of the 89-acre campus.
It’s also a reflection of the intense competition in the health care industry, and of Flagler-Palm Coast’s rapidly emerging market as fertile ground for health care: the county continues not only to add residents (the population is expected to grow 7 percent in the next five years), but to do so with a disproportionately older set: 31 percent of the population is now 65 and over, up from 26 percent a decade ago.
The new hospital also fits in with the city’s new relationships with the University of North Florida and Jacksonville University, both of which plan campuses in Town Center, both of whose expansions are driven primarily by health care education and what they see as the rise of Palm Coast as a health care hub.
The current hospital is the largest private-sector employer in the county, though its property, assessed at $50 million, is tax exempt. The sale of the properties on Palm Coast Parkway will remove that acreage from the property-tax rolls. In the cost-benefit calculus of operation’s effects on the local economy, its job engine and associated tax revenue makes up for the taxes it does not pay directly. By the time the second hospital is built and staffed, AdventHealth’s employment rolls in the county will be approaching those of the largest employer–the Flagler County School Board, which has about 1,700 employees.
“It’s incredible, isn’t it? It is absolutely incredible news, not only for our community, but in so many ways, creates greater opportunity for more access to health care and more job opportunities in our community,” Palm Coast Mayor Milissa Holland said. “We really set a course to create this medical hub it starts with education, advancement in health care and career opportunities. We’re seeing all the hard work pay off.”
Holland had conversations with AdventHealth’s David Ottati and Wally De Aquino over a year ago, when she learned that the hospital was looking for sites and seeking her input. (Ottati is president and CEO of AdventHealth Central Florida Division-North, and was formerly the CEO at AdventHealth Palm Coast, when it was known as Florida Hospital Flagler. De Aquino is the chief operating officer at AdventHealth Palm Coast.) AdventHealth in August paid $5 million to acquire four parcels on Palm Coast Parkway, three from Bridgehaven Group, one from Green Coast LLC, though both concerns are registered to the same F-Section Palm Coast resident: Vladislav Krayter.
Holland was sworn to secrecy by a hospital administration increasingly adept at controlling its message. She could now reveal that sites other than the acreage on Palm Coast Parkway had been in consideration. The sites were not selected when city staff deemed them a poor fit. But the location of a 100-bed hospital in the heart of Palm Coast is almost certain to pose a challenge to planners and to future traffic patterns.
The new hospital will be called AdventHealth Palm Coast Parkway and will include an emergency department with full-service imaging, five operating suites, endoscopy services, an outpatient laboratory, heart catherization labs, 20 critical care or ICU patient rooms and 80 for general medical or surgical care. Plans also call for a 30,000-square-foot medical office building also to be constructed on the 10-acre site in the future. (In comparison, AdventHealth Palm Coast sits on 94 acres off of State Road 100.)
The hospital has not submitted its site-plan application yet. It must get site-plan approval from the city. But that’s not expected to be an issue. The acreage is zoned commercial, Palm Coast Parkway has capacity. “It’ll go through the regular review process, planning staff will be involved all the way from the beginning to the end,” Jason DeLorenzo, the city’s development director, said this evening. He said the city and AdventHealth so far have held “informal technical meetings.” The hospital will be required to do a traffic study. “There’s plenty of capacity on Palm Coast Parkway westbound. They’ll likely have to add turning lanes, which will also add capacity,” he said.
Ottati said that for Palm Coast, it is “the largest investment of this kind since we built the hospital.”
“We look forward to bringing our world-class services closer to home for more people in this growing region,” Ottati was quoted as saying in the release. “Covid-19 has shown us the importance of strong health care infrastructure and, while these plans were in motion before the onset of the pandemic, our recent experience underscores the need for fast access to quality health care.”
AdventHealth Palm Coast had also planned a stand-alone emergency room in the Matanzas Parkway area. Planned in 2018, that is no longer in the works. “With the competition making its way into our community, with different health care systems, it’s my understanding caused Advent to regroup and come back with a strategy that would make sense with what their goals and objectives are,” Holland said. “We know for a while now the current hospital is almost always at capacity with beds filled, and so they wanted to be very specific in adding those additional beds.”
Ron Jimenez, the hospital’s current CEO, spoke to that effect in a video statement posted by the company. “In the past we have been at capacity,” he said of the facility off State Road 100, which opened in 2001, after its former incarnation, Memorial Hospital in Bunnell, had closed. The hospital was stretched at every level, from the ER to its ICU. “So this actually allows us to increase capacity for those services and actually get closer to patients where they live.” (Flagler County government bought the shell of the Memorial Hospital, renovated it and turned it into the Flagler County Sheriff’s Operations Center for a few years before that structure turned into a nightmare of mold and controversy. The Sheriff’s Office evacuated and the county sold the building at a huge loss.)
Ottati said the north end of Flagler is seeing a lot of new construction, making the new hospital ideally positioned to address that need.
“People do better when they’re taken care of close to their home,” Dr. Paul Mucciolo, AdventHealth Palm Coast’s chief of staff, said. “Their family does better, they have their support system intact, and they do better just knowing they don’t have to go far” to a facility.
FlaglerHealth Plus still intends to build within sight of AdventHealth’s new hospital. “It is my understanding that Flagler Hospital is moving forward” on that campus, Holland said. There are no current proposals specific to the plan before city planners.
Beans says
About damn time !!!!
Joe Stolfi says
IF YOU BUILD IT, THEY WILL COME …
Sadly I like the population just where it is
This will only encourage more building & turn this area
into a scene like we see in South Florida .. .. ..
R. S. says
Jesus never charged a co-pay or made money enough to build a chain of hospitals; yet these people spend millions on advertisement and they charge rip-off fees; yet they post prayers and Jesus pics all over their places. And I suspect that not all their wealth comes from donations. Somehow they strike me as far too hypocritical to be admired or supported. To increase credibility, they should at least have a wing catering to poor people.
Jimbo99 says
From the rendering, it’s apparent someone likes Fiat 500’s in the parking lot. Good idea with the facility & Covid thing I guess.
Rich Harnage says
Great news!
Advent Health has always provided the best care for our family.
Welcome aboard.
Judith Ward says
Regarding Advent Health new hospital.
What is the reason for not having a maternity unit. Neto care. We have a lot of young people that have moved into Palm Coast.
Also a trauma unit as well.
You stated in your article about our new hospital, however there is no reason explained about why.
Jw says
No trama or maternity ward… this isn’t acceptable. There are horrific accidents on I-95, US1, and Hwy 100 weekly. This proposal shouldn’t have been approved without those amenities. Of course they gave in for the additional “opportunities”. What are you going to give all the new future residents that this hospital is going to bring and employ? Sorry middle class nurse or doctor, you will have to drive an hour away to have your child. If you get in a bad accident we will fly you to Daytona. The new hospital is better then status quo for the community but the leadership should have negotiated more. The city needs and deserves more. You will devalue the city’s worth by negotiating poor deals. Learn to negotiate and show the value of the city.
starryid says
Advent Hospital on SR100 opened in July 2oo1 – not 2003. My dad was admitted on the day it opened.
Not a Unicorn says
Why isn’t AdventHealth Hospital offering the citizens of this community a Covid vaccine? Desantis keeps saying they have thousands of doses. The COO of Advent needs to speak to this. Say something. We’re in a public health crisis and you’re planning a new hospital owned by some guy in the “F” section? What?
Priorities, just like common sense has flown out the window.
Tony Mack says
With all the growth on US 1 and the continued development in the Matanzas Woods area, specifically the “L” section, maybe someday the powers that be will finally recognize that citizens of Palm Coast live up here in the “North Forty.” Oh wait, we did get a Dollar Store so that’s good…
David Schaefer says
Waste of money. No Trama, Peds or maternity care.
FlaglerLive says
Thank you for the correction.
PeachesMcGee says
For the naysayers that are complaining of not getting pediatric, maternity, or trauma care — research #1) the state/federal criteria involved in starting those units and #2) the additional cost.
The size, equipment, staffing, and cost would almost double.
Jane Gentile-Youd says
Another loss of property taxes as this phony ‘religious’ mega giant Medicare milking machine expands their money making arms into our community. No cardiac surgical center, in addition to no trauma nor maternity. Doctors on contracts and some imported from everywhere outside of Flagler County. Except for their ER and dedicated overworked , underpaid 12 hour shift nursing staff and ‘comfort’ staff this corporate giant is huge medical disgrace. Last year they made $73,000 on me-with the exception of ER they did nothing other than stick me with needles, wake me up every 2 hours and make phony reports to justify their thieving charges to Medicare. Sent me home with no surgery instructions or follow up care – on my own I found a doctor who did the minor surgery I needed in Orlando ( their only fully equipped hospital in Central Florida) a month after recuperating from my 9 days of hell in both Palm Coast and Daytona.
Their bed frames are so bad I had an MRI done on my back because I was in such pain, and the towels are just about guaranteed to remove the outer layer of even a lizards skin.
This corporate ‘mafia’ have cheated our Flagler County property tax base of well over a million dollars so far and each time they build we pay their share of taxes, our insurance rates go up because of their rip-offs ( my opinion) and they even have the chutzpah to bill us ‘copays’ which are more expensive per day than a balcony stateroom on any cruise line. I got better care from the Flagler County Fire Rescue crews and their ER than the 9 days of hell in both hospitals waiting for surgery they never intended to perform in the first place.
“I told you so” I fear I will be saying two years from now.
Thank you with all my (now repaired) heart Flagler Live for letting me vent and complain about my beyond miserable experience Feb 5 – Feb 14, 2020 at Advent Health PC and Daytona.
can'tfoolme says
So, trauma victims will still have to hope that the helicopter, which only seems to be available during certain hours and out of service for the majority of time, is available when someone needs to be airlifted to a trauma center. How about using all the money Advent saved by not providing a trauma unit to fund a full-time copter or two. Between two hospitals in one town, all services should have been diversified and covered by one or the other.
Steve says
AH took care of both my Parents back in the day when Terminal so only good things to say about that.
Crowded says
Why are you adding more traffic to Palm Coast parkway?There is plenty of land on US 1.The traffic is terrible now.
TR says
I believe I read a little while back that the city of PC also approved to extend Palm Coast Pkwy W across US-1 and have a medical area built there which also included a hospital. If this is true there will be two hospitals within a 5 miles of each other. I guess with all the older people that are here and more moving here from up north they need them.
Priorities with the higher powers are not in the correct order.
(S W Kleinfelder) Pine Lakes 79 says
There are only 9 Trauma I hospitals in Florida and you think Palm Coast should have one??? Halifax is a Level II and it serves us well.
Help my Heart says
Would someone in the Hospital off Rt 100 please tell a nurse or office staff to ANSWER THEIR DAMN MESSAGES. I have left 13 messages over a 3 week time frame to the HEART CENTER. I NEED MY HEART MEDS RE_FILLED or I’m going to have another heart attack. Seems this is the only way I can get their attention……. For CHRIST SAKE answer your phone messages.
PS:
Don’t even bother leaving a message on their answering service either. That is one MEAN PERSON !!!!
Dealk says
What ever happened to the plans to build one at Matanzas Pkwy. and I 95?
FlaglerLive says
That is no longer in the works, according to the mayor.
David Schaefer says
We go to Baptist in Jacksonville for everything the Hell with this place.
Just saying says
If you are talking about the office of Dr Gonzalez, forGet leaving a message. When you call, dial 0 and speak to Lori, she will help you.
palmcoaster says
Hey Peaches: Maternity and pediatrics too expensive for Flagler Advent to offer but have no problem to fund a 100 million plus in a new hospital? Sounds to me greedy…in spite that as a religious entity they contribute zero to our tax base if I am correct?