Created: 3/17/2009 3:02:31 PM 
JACKSONVILLE, FL -- The first beds in a new expansion unit at Baptist Medical Center South are now open for patients. This comes four months after the celebration of Baptist Medical Center South's fourth anniversary. The hospital will eventually have an $85 million, eight-story expansion. The new unit has 24 medical surgical beds on the fourth floor and will be the precursor to three additional floors that are expected to open in June 2009. The additional floors will initially add 76 total beds including a 14-bed level II newborn intensive care unit, 10 labor/delivery/recovery/postpartum (LDRP) suites, 48 acute care beds and four intensive care beds (opening in the fall) as well as a new in-patient pharmacy and cardiology area. Floors six, seven and eight are shelled space that will be available for additional patient care units and diagnostic and surgery services as patient need dictates. Baptist South has seen much growth. A 1,052-space parking garage for physicians and staff opened in September 2008, which created additional surface level parking spaces for patients and families. To accommodate increasing demands for on-campus physician offices, construction of a second medical office building began in November 2008. The new five-story, 100,000-square-foot medical office building is scheduled to finished by this summer.
