Lakeland City Commissioners voted unanimously to approve a major modification to a Planned Unit Development to allow an 11,570-square-foot emergency room to be built at 1075 Carpenters Way.
The site, located at the northeast corner of Carpenters Way and U.S. 98 North, was previously a bank building.
“We are in essence a self-sufficient ER that’s placed in the community rather than you coming to a primary hospital,” said Gary Ball, HCA’s emergency manager at Brandon Regional Hospital, at a prior public presentation. “The benefit of this being more in your community reduces EMS transport time to our facility, getting you to care faster.”
The new free-standing emergency building is proposed to be roughly 11,570 square feet and one story. There will also be a covered patient drop-off area along the west side of the building, facing U.S. 98 North.
The emergency room will be open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and offer the same level of care as a traditional emergency room. It will have the capacity to provide acute care including taking CT scans and X-rays, blood work, and administering life-saving medications for heart attacks, strokes, and sepsis. The facility will be staffed by an ER physician with a combination of paramedics and nurses.
Ball said approximately 95% of patients arriving via ambulance to HCA’s South Lakeland site were non-emergencies. He said the South Lakeland site averages 50 to 60 patients a day and has not received any ambulances operating in emergency mode with lights and sirens in the past year.