Baptist Medical Center Clay is part of a growing healthcare campus on Fleming Island, at 1771 Baptist Clay Drive.
England-Thims & Miller Inc. worked on strategic planning, design, permitting and contract administration for the original hospital, which the firm described as a response to rapid growth in Clay County, according to England-Thims & Miller.
From Outpatient Campus to Full-Service Hospital
The push for more space follows a long buildout on Fleming Island. Baptist Health first announced in 2020 that it would build a full-service hospital on its existing Baptist Clay Medical Campus, which had opened in May 2013 with an adult ER, a Wolfson Children's Hospital ER, an ambulatory surgery center, specialty services and imaging, according to Baptist Health. Baptist initially said the new hospital would cost $200 million and open with 100 beds, though the health system later described the finished facility as a 104-bed building, according to HuntonBrady Architects, the project's designer.
Timelines shifted during planning, too. Baptist's original announcement anticipated groundbreaking in spring 2020 with an opening in early 2022, per the Daily Record's 2020 report, while a separate Baptist Health release at the time pointed to groundbreaking that same spring but an opening planned for late 2022.
A $234 Million Campus With Room to Grow
Baptist Medical Center Clay cost $234 million to build, according to the Daily Record's reporting, though Baptist Health had previously cited a $215 million investment figure in describing the project reaching a construction milestone. HuntonBrady Architects describes the six-story, 280,000-square-foot hospital as a 104-bed building. Baptist had earlier said the building would open with a 20-room Labor & Delivery Center and a Level II Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.
The hospital's public concourse connects its bed tower to the campus's existing emergency department, imaging and surgery services, according to HuntonBrady Architects. Perry-McCall Construction has also been awarded separate contracts on the Clay campus for a one-story, freestanding emergency department and a three-story medical office building, the latter slated to house a Wolfson Children's Hospital specialty center on its first floor with the remaining floors reserved for specialty adult-care physicians' offices, per Perry-McCall Construction.
Cancer Care on the Campus
Baptist MD Anderson Cancer Center offers cancer care as part of the Clay campus's broader medical services.
The Fleming Island expansion mirrors growth elsewhere in the region. UF Health opened its Durbin Park medical campus in northern St. Johns County on 42.5 acres, with a first phase that includes a 99-bed, 220,000-square-foot hospital offering outpatient surgery, a 24-hour emergency department and specialty services, alongside a 72,000-square-foot medical office building offering multidisciplinary outpatient and specialty care, according to UF Health.
Baptist Health operates a healthcare system in Northeast Florida.
