Baptist Health is expanding advanced cardiovascular services at Baptist Medical Center South, building a dedicated heart unit inside the hospital for complex cardiac surgeries and procedures. Construction is already underway, carved out of unoccupied space at the South Jacksonville campus, with the 21,000-square-foot unit expected to welcome its first patients in fall 2027.
The project, first detailed by the Florida Hospital News and Healthcare Report, will give the hospital four operating rooms dedicated to heart care: two for general cardiovascular procedures, one for structural heart work, and one for electrophysiology. Planners have also set aside space for a possible fifth operating room down the line, along with seven post-operative recovery rooms, surgical support areas, and dedicated clinical staff spaces, according to the same report.
Baptist South already runs a slate of outpatient heart services, including general cardiology, preventive care, coronary artery disease management, heart failure management, arrhythmia evaluation, and cardiovascular diagnostic testing, per the hospital. It also offers diagnostic and interventional cardiac catheterization and peripheral vascular diagnostic and interventional procedures. The new unit extends that work to specialized heart surgery and minimally invasive electrophysiology and structural heart procedures, aimed at serving residents of southern Duval and northern St. Johns counties without requiring a trip further north.
One Program, Two Campuses
Rather than building a standalone operation, Baptist Health says the new unit will fold into the system's existing cardiovascular infrastructure. Teams at Baptist Jacksonville and Baptist South will work in close partnership as one integrated program, sharing standards, expertise, and resources, the hospital system says. Baptist Health describes itself as building on cardiovascular care already established at Baptist Medical Center Jacksonville and Baptist Heart Hospital, which it calls the area's only freestanding hospital for heart and vascular care.
Nicole B. Thomas, president of Baptist Jacksonville, said the expansion extends the cardiovascular program's expertise, teamwork, and clinical excellence. Matthew A. Zuino, president and CEO of Baptist Health, said the system acts when it identifies unmet community needs. Kyle W. Dorsey, president of Baptist South, pointed to the area's trajectory as the driver: “As one of the fastest-growing areas in Northeast Florida, demand for specialty care continues to increase.”
A Hospital That Has Grown Before
Baptist South has grown alongside the communities of southern Duval and northern St. Johns counties for nearly two decades, according to Dorsey. The hospital opened in 2005 with just 92 beds, according to a Baptist Health news release. A later expansion added a patient tower planned to open in mid-2018 with 138 beds, bringing the hospital's total to 407 beds, and that project, including the tower, was reported to cost $131 million. The same expansion included a five-story parking garage with 1,300 complimentary spaces, scheduled to open in August 2017.
Baptist Health frames the cardiovascular program as the region's largest and most comprehensive, and says its network includes more than 50 heart doctors, more than 40 advanced practitioners, 14 locations, and 12 cardiac testing centers, along with the one heart hospital, according to the system's own figures. Baptist Heart Hospital specialists have expertise spanning advanced heart surgery, electrophysiology, structural heart procedures, interventional cardiology, and vascular care, and the system says its cardiovascular program has earned national recognition for quality care and outcomes.
Part of a Larger Health System
Baptist Health, based in Jacksonville, describes itself as a community-based, locally governed, faith-based, not-for-profit health system with six acute care hospitals and more than 200 ambulatory locations. The system says it provides the area's largest network of primary care, urgent care, and behavioral health care, and that it cares for more patients in Northeast Florida than any other provider. Its destination centers of excellence include Baptist MD Anderson Cancer Center, Baptist Heart Hospital, Baptist Neurological Institute, and Wolfson Children's Hospital, which it describes as the only full-service children's hospital serving the region.
Baptist Health says it has been ranked most preferred for more than 30 years, and it was named one of America's Greatest Workplaces in Health Care by Newsweek. For now, the South Jacksonville campus is a construction site in progress, with the new cardiac unit targeted to open its doors to patients in fall 2027.
