{"id":70972,"date":"2026-06-16T14:53:24","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T18:53:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=70972"},"modified":"2026-06-16T14:53:34","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T18:53:34","slug":"orlando-health-lakeland-to-bring-more-than-1000-jobs-to-polk-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2026\/06\/16\/orlando-health-lakeland-to-bring-more-than-1000-jobs-to-polk-county\/","title":{"rendered":"Orlando Health Lakeland to bring more than 1,000 jobs to Polk County"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The massive economic injection from the Orlando Health Watson Clinic Lakeland Highlands Hospital<\/strong> is an absolute game-changer for Polk County’s job market.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

As the seven-story, 550,000-square-foot medical campus prepares for its highly anticipated July 2026 grand opening<\/strong>, the hiring surge is officially in overdrive. The project is actually outperforming initial economic projections\u2014Orlando Health now estimates the campus will bring more than 1,500 new jobs<\/strong> to the Lakeland area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because a massive healthcare hub requires a small village to operate, the open positions span a vast range of skills and backgrounds, split into a few major areas:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Clinical & Medical Professionals<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The backbone of the hospital will require a massive influx of healthcare talent, especially given the facility’s dedicated focus on specialized care like neuroscience, advanced stroke care, and a massive Center for Women and Babies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  • Nursing:<\/strong> Staff RNs, Critical Care specialists (ICU\/ICC), Labor & Delivery nurses, and clinical educators.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Physicians & Specialists:<\/strong> OB\/GYNs, Maternal-Fetal Medicine specialists, hospitalists, and interventional cardiologists.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Allied Health:<\/strong> Respiratory therapists, phlebotomists, certified medical assistants, and monitor techs.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    2. Operational & Administrative Support<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    Running a 300-plus bed facility takes significant backend coordination to keep patient data and daily schedules moving smoothly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \n
    • Practice managers and clinical department supervisors.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Front office assistants, scheduling coordinators, and regulatory consultants.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Supply chain inventory technicians to manage complex medical logistics.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

      3. Essential Service & Facility Roles<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

      Often the unsung heroes of patient care, these roles ensure a clean, safe, and efficient environment for recovering patients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        \n
      • Security officers for around-the-clock campus safety.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
      • Patient transporters and logistics leads.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
      • Food service representatives, prep cooks, and dietary attendants.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
        \n

        The Broader Footprint:<\/strong> The hiring wave won’t stop in July. Orlando Health is also on track to open a freestanding, 20,800-square-foot emergency room in North Lakeland (at Lakeland Park Center) in Fall 2026<\/strong>, which will tack on even more 24\/7 medical and support staff positions to the county’s total.<\/sup><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

        For anyone looking to get in on the ground floor, recruitment is actively live. Applications are being processed jointly through both the Orlando Health Careers<\/strong> portal and Watson Clinic\u2019s<\/strong> employment channels as they build out the core “opening team” over the next few weeks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        The massive economic injection from the Orlando Health Watson Clinic Lakeland Highlands Hospital is an absolute game-changer for Polk County’s job market. As the seven-story, 550,000-square-foot medical campus prepares for… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70973,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNlwvMDZcL2ltYWdlcy0xMi53ZWJwP2ZpdD0yODMlMkMxNzgmc3NsPTEiLCJ0eHQiOiJPcmxhbmRvIEhlYWx0aCBMYWtlbGFuZCB0byBicmluZyBtb3JlIHRoYW4gMSwwMDAgam9icyB0byBQb2xrIENvdW50eSIsInRlbXBsYXRlIjoiZG9pcyIsImZvbnQiOiIiLCJibG9nX2lkIjoxNjMwNDA2NjF9.oe3xVACdCNfOObfx_aXBCkLEOYg0qLTTosx-dzcez_kMQ"},"version":2,"media_source":"sig","attached_media":[{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/jetpack.com\/redirect\/?source=sigenerate&query=t%3DeyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvbGFrZWxhbmRnYXpldHRlLmluZm9cL25ld3NcL3dwLWNvbnRlbnRcL3VwbG9hZHNcLzIwMjZcLzA2XC9pbWFnZXMtMTIud2VicCIsInR4dCI6Ik9ybGFuZG8gSGVhbHRoIExha2VsYW5kIHRvIGJyaW5nIG1vcmUgdGhhbiAxLDAwMCBqb2JzIHRvIFBvbGsgQ291bnR5IiwidGVtcGxhdGUiOiJkb2lzIiwiZm9udCI6IiIsImJsb2dfaWQiOjE2MzA0MDY2MX0.lPgXafszQ_dZlvsc5aFDWeLYGGS3H6DcgnsITLjJKnkMQ","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[6481],"tags":[14882,14881],"class_list":["post-70972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","tag-000-jobs-to-polk-county","tag-orlando-health-lakeland-to-bring-more-than-1"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70972"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70972\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70974,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70972\/revisions\/70974"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}