In April 2016, UF Health officials cut the ribbon on their latest construction project to upgrade pediatric facilities, an $11 million, 17,500 square-foot outpatient children’s surgical center.
The red brick building is the latest addition to a UF Health complex along Hull Road west of Southwest 34th Street. The children’s center is connected to the existing UF Health Florida Surgical Center, an outpatient surgical center for adults, but has a separate entrance and its own floor space.
That investment has included at least $135 million projects at UF Health Shands Children’s Hospital to renovate of the pediatric emergency room, cancer unit, intensive care unit and the congenital heart center as well as a new brightly colored facade, a separate entrance from the rest of the hospital and a new lobby area. More recently, the hospital launched a $20.7 million renovation and expansion of its neonatal intensive care unit.
Talking about how the children’s surgery center fits into the larger plan of improving pediatric facilites, Jimenez said “it makes sense that all of our children’s services advance accordingly.”