Orlando Health Lakeland Highlands Hospital will be built on 80 acres south of the Polk Parkway at Lakeland Highlands Road and the Winter Lake Extension Road. Pre-construction work is underway, and construction will begin in 2022 with an expected opening in 2024, he said. The first phase of the multi-story hospital will contain 136 inpatient beds and 24 Emergency Department beds. Future phases could have it expanding to 360 beds.
The Veterans Administration is also building in the area, along Lakeland Highlands Road. It will open a new $112 million veteran’s clinic in 2024 to serve the county’s nearly 65,000 veterans.
And now County Road 540-A and Harrell’s Nursery Road could be bulldozed to make way for a hospital. Nashville-based HCA Healthcare Inc. to build a 541-bed hospital on 29 acres at 6015 Harrell’s Nursery Road.
Lakeland Regional Health Medical Center has 864 beds currently.
All four hospitals are within seven miles of each other. Polk County is already experiencing a lack of Nurses, Doctors, and other support staff, but three new hospitals by 2026.