Nemours Meets AHCA Milestone for Certificates of Need
Orlando, Florida
Tuesday, September 15, 2009 @ 04:14 PM EDT
ORLANDO, FL - Nemours, one of the nation’s premier pediatric health systems, today announced that Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) officially determined that the organization successfully met its statutory obligation to demonstrate continuous construction of Nemours Children's Hospital within 18 months of receiving its Certificates of Need (CON). The CONs issued in February 2008 gave Nemours an 18-month window to begin continuous construction on the facility with a deadline of August 18, 2009. The AHCA notification allows Nemours to continue construction as the organization works toward opening the $380 million top-tier pediatric health campus in 2012.
Nemours began construction on the project in June with the foundation work beginning in early August. The 630,000-square-foot children’s hospital will include 95 beds and serve as the core of a 60-acre pediatric health campus featuring a children’s clinic, emergency department, diagnostic and ambulatory programs along with education and research centers.
The new top-tier pediatric health care system will focus on the unique and varied needs of medically complex children – and bring a comprehensive depth of specialized health care that isn’t offered today in Central Florida. Nemours’ campus will provide access to a full-line of specialty services and will also improve pediatric care to the region through coordinated patient-centered medical services, biomedical research, medical and allied health training, educational programs as well as pediatric prevention services and child advocacy programs.
“We have been working diligently to ensure compliance with our Certificates of Need,” said Jeffrey E. Green, Nemours vice president and chief administrative officer – Florida. “We have comfortably met this important milestone and will continue to work toward making this children’s hospital a truly visionary destination for pediatric care in the community and beyond.”
The Nemours Children’s Hospital and pediatric health campus is strategically situated in the heart of Lake Nona’s medical city, and is within close proximity to other major medical entities including the UCF College of Medicine, Burnham Institute for Medical Research, Orlando Veterans Affairs Medical Center, M.D. Anderson Cancer Research Institute and University of Florida research facility. The location will encourage partnerships and allow Nemours to capitalize on synergies between the various organizations at the emerging medical destination.
In addition to being patient and family-friendly, the Nemours Children’s Hospital will incorporate high performance, environmentally friendly and sustainable design concepts into the hospital so that the facility can achieve the US Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED®) certification.
Nemours continues to be actively involved in the planning and design of the campus. The organization formed a team last year to design the hospital and guide the process that would create Nemours’ vision for the future of pediatric health care. The design team consists of more than 150 internal and external health care business experts, clinicians, architects and individuals collaborating to provide critical insight into pediatric care delivery for the new health system. In keeping with Nemours’ commitment to excellence, the organization has engaged well-renowned and highly respected consultants with a depth of experience in health care design including Stanley Beaman & Sears, Perkins+Will and IDEO.
Nemours has also included the public in the design process by developing family and teen advisory panels comprised of family members that have and or are facing complex medical issues. These individuals were selected to provide input and feedback on the appearance and functionality of the hospital based on their personal experiences within the pediatric health care system. Nemours has gained perspective directly from these parents and teens in order to create a facility that meets the actual needs and preferences of patients, families and the wider community.
Skanska USA Building Inc. serves as the construction manager that is overseeing the construction process of the project. This firm has tremendous international and national experience building truly innovative structures, and the Central Florida team brings strong health care facility experience to the project. Nemours and Skanska intend to have an outreach program to identify local MWBE firms and will work to tailor the procurement strategy to maximize the number of opportunities for the MWBE subs.
modified: Tuesday, September 15, 2009 @ 04:15 PM EDT
created: Tuesday, September 15, 2009 @ 04:15 PM EDT
About Nemours
Nemours, one of the nation’s largest pediatric health systems, is dedicated to achieving higher standards in children’s health. Nemours offers an integrated spectrum of clinical treatment coupled with research, advocacy, and educational health and prevention services extending to all families in the communities it serves. Starting with Alfred I. duPont’s bequest over seventy years ago, Nemours has grown into a multi-dimensional organization offering personalized clinical and preventive care focused on children.
Nemours owns and operates the Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington, Delaware and major children’s specialty clinics in Delaware (Wilmington), Florida (Jacksonville, Orlando and Pensacola), Pennsylvania (Philadelphia and Bryn Mawr) and New Jersey (Atlantic City and Voorhees). Having recently received preliminary approval from the State of Florida, Nemours will establish a new full-service children’s hospital as part of an integrated pediatric health campus in Orlando. KidsHealth.org, the world’s most visited pediatric health care Web site for parents, kids and teens, is a project of Nemours.
Nemours employs over 4,400 individuals, including 430 pediatric physicians, specialists and surgeons who cared for approximately a quarter of a million children in 2007. The organization’s goal is to align with parents, physicians, community leaders, children’s advocates and elected officials to ensure optimal wellness for every child. Additional information about Nemours can be found at www.nemours.org.
